in that article you can read: Josep Graņķ of Harley-Davidson Espaņa maintains that imported secondhand bikes and those sold by his company's dealers "are different," since they have different engines. "For this reason, we can't repair them, as we would need another sort of tools,"

another sort of tools? hahahahahahahah lol what kind of diferent tools you need? maybe you need a tea spoon in inches for hd1 models.

my bike is a 5hd bought in an oficial dealer and I use the same american tools you use, btw my engine is the same 96. I was in york plant 3 weeks ago and there are no diferences except lights and exhaust and from 2010 to nowdays the only diference between a 1 hd and a 5 had are lights.

you can check this out if you have access to parts manager program

anyway, it is what it is. hope honda lexus infinity bmw or mercedes benz dont follow this little crazy hs spain president ideas.

I hope he ends in jail soon for what he is doing to all riders in Spain.

 

Hmmm...that's too bad.

 

You expect the president of HD Spain to know how to wrench? There is a difference (tune, lights, small crap) regulatory hoops do mean more red tape, which means more time to get the product to market, which means it costs more money. Maybe not at the markup you say, but still more money.

I can't imagine the amount of regulatory hoops HD Spain has to jump through to meet government requirements. The EPA in the US is bad enough.

If you're that unhappy, then do something about it. Write or call your government, HD reps, or simply sell your bike(s) and don't buy HD anymore. That's how capitalism works.

As for help from the US brethren, I believe you will achieve far more pull from Spanish or other European riders. To me, the big picture still appears to be the Spanish government being overbearing.

 

You'll have to do like we did in Spain in the 70's & 80's before there were dealers there. Get someone from the states to get you the parts and do the work yourself. Good luck!
Jeff

 

If HD was manufactured in another EU country they could not get away with this under the EU trade guidelines.

 

the first that put ilegal bikes in the street is hd spain. there is a law in spain that says that the bike stand must have a spring so it can hide just touching it. spanish hd dont have that spring, when you go to a gov vehicle inspection (every 2 years) you allways have problems with that, why? becasuse harley didnt want to pay to legalice that. and now they want the police to arrest people with 1hd vin because they have diferent bulbs and muflers? hahaha as far as I know, everybodu here change mufflers for the ilegal ones and put led lights, hd spain sell those pipes and those lights but they fight agains people who have them in their usa1hd imported bikes just because people didnt buy the bike in an oficial dealer? that funny isnt it? I think this is not about politics and capitalism is just about money, lies, smash import dealers, fired people and so... I wish it was about common sense, ethic, truth and rights.

live to ride ride to leave? as far as you dont have a 1hd bike in europe. oh yes they also said something about freedom can remember in the last harleys days in Barcelona... something about rights and freedom, yes it was the same great hd president that now want all riders that dont buy bikes from him in jail and the same one who wants all life mechanics to close their busines not selling them parts.

huh... yeah... great

btw I will keep on buying hd because a crazy man is not goin to change 107 years of heritage.

 

that is what I used to do until hd usa forbid usa dealers to sell outside usa...

 

this is from spanish hd forums, it is in spanish but you can check it if you speak spanish or if you want yo use google translator. justo to show you what spanish riders think about hd spain and whats going on

http://www.portalmotos.com/www/foros...&TopicId=74775

and this is the oficial facebook webpage for bikers against the president of hd spain

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harle...071945?sk=info

 

If you want to buy your parts in the USA and have them shipped to Spain, it still can be done. Since dealers in the States have stopped accepting foriegn credit cards for on-line and phone orders, you need to apply for a credit card from a US bank. Rent a PO box from the UPS Store and use this as your billing address and shipping address. When the parts arrive at your PO box, you can have UPS forward them to a customs broker and they will ship them to you.

 

Other than government involvement it sound a lot like the gray market tractors that make their way to the US. Official dealers don't like them because they didn't make any money selling them. the corporate US office, same thing.
Order your parts from a Spanish dealer (same as you would for a Spanish bike), do the wrenching yourself.