# HELP Importing Harley Davidson into Spain (Canary Ilses)



## Frustrated Harley Owner (Mar 26, 2014)

I have read many blogs on this but I cannot find one that ticks all the boxes, I really hope there is an answer to my problems.

I bought a Fatboy (1st Reg 01.01.2000) HD in UK from an Englishman who had imorted it from American, paid all the correct taxes etc etc and eventually registered it in UK. So it has English plates, MOT, VEL Ins the lots, totally legal in UK. What attracted me to bike was that it was totally original no mods at all just having the (now I know) dreaded 1HD mark.

I live in the Canary Isles. Drove it over and duly started to try and get it legal. Nightmare began. I fully understand the E stamps etc on lights etc but I can't get an engineer to even entertain doing a report as they say Madrid will not let it be registered.

Surely this cannot be correct. Are there no old HD's in Spain? 

Someone out there must have beaten the system and managed it. 

Please help.


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## jonmlb748 (Oct 30, 2011)

I would suggest get out there and try and find other Harley owners,ie owners club etc.there is no such thing as a standard Hd and I'm sure plenty of people out there have had dramas sorting out non standard parts ,they could probably help .(Ducati man myself)


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

You may find that obtaining a German TüV will simplify procedures here as that will give it a tech spec or _ficha tecnica_ as the Spanish system relies on a tech spec and is based on the TüV system.

There are further twists, contact me by PM if you want more info.


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## Frustrated Harley Owner (Mar 26, 2014)

Sorry new to this site, howe do I send you a PM.....all i can find is reply to this post.


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## whitenoiz (Sep 18, 2012)

Pretty sure you need a minimum of 5 posts before you can use the PM service...


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## BGD (May 2, 2012)

The core problem is that his bike was originally a USA registered vehicle....the VIN number shows that, rather than it being a European registered vehicle.
Thus, it isn't covered by European homologation.

There were thousands of grey imports into the UK of such bikes, as they could be bought in the USA really cheaply, shipped to the UK and then sold there for a substantial profit.
There was a load of fuss in the UK about such bikes a decade or so ago, as HD UK refused to have anything to do with them, as they hadn't been first registered by HD in the UK.

Without an original European homologation certificate, I'm afraid that so far as I'm aware, it's now utterly impossible under Spanish law to import it onto Spanish plates.


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## Frustrated Harley Owner (Mar 26, 2014)

thank you for replies.............not looking good then


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## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

I remember a couple of years ago there was a big investigation somewhere in the Costa Blanca because there had been an influx of US Harleys coming in illegally.

I believe an importer and an ITV station were implicated.....not sure how it turned out in the end though.....but criminal proceedings were started.

The reason I'm saying that is there's history here.....so it may well be the case that nobody wants to get involved in this.


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## Frustrated Harley Owner (Mar 26, 2014)

XTreme said:


> I remember a couple of years ago there was a big investigation somewhere in the Costa Blanca because there had been an influx of US Harleys coming in illegally.
> 
> I believe an importer and an ITV station were implicated.....not sure how it turned out in the end though.....but criminal proceedings were started.
> 
> The reason I'm saying that is there's history here.....so it may well be the case that nobody wants to get involved in this.



I have read about this.........just seems so unfair as it appears it is only Spain where there is a problem with 1HD!


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## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

Frustrated Harley Owner said:


> I have read about this.........just seems so unfair as it appears it is only Spain where there is a problem with 1HD!


There's always hassle bringing stuff in! I ended up shipping my UK bike back there to sell, then buying one on a Spanish plate. I didn't want the grief!

And that Harley case was quite high profile.....so you're not going to find many who are going to be willing to go up against the system. They don't like to make waves!

In your position I'd seriously think about doing what I did.....cos it could go on forever, and you're going to be stuck there unable to ride it legally.


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hi

Have a chat with your local ITV station. If you have something which you can not get a Ficha Technical, then for around 2,000€ either Madrid or Barcelona special ITV place may be able to do a "one off special". It´s what they have to do with imported caravans and other speciality cars 

Davexf


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## BGD (May 2, 2012)

1. It isn't just in Spain where there's a problem with "1HD....." VIN numbers ( which indicate the bike was first registered in/for the US market. Same problem at alamost any official HD dealer in any European country, as the parent Company tells their franchises not to touch them for servicing/repairs.

2. The problem with Harley's on the Costa Blanca was with a workshop/custom bike shop called Hot Shot Choppers which was a (not official) Harley servicing/repair/customising business. 
They sold a guy a custom "Harley" but he had some problems with it, and took it to an HD official dealers in Calpe, who were losing a lot of business to that independent workshop. 
The Dealers took legal action against Hot Shot for selling "Harley Dvidson" motorcycles with very few actual HD parts (as most custom aftermarket parts are made by other companies). HD argued that if it had less than "X" percent of genuine HD parts it couldn't be called/sold as a Harley Devidson bike.
Then when the place got raided by Police after the HD Dealership put pressure on, a couple of the frames in the workshop were allegedly originally from Germany and were from bikes stolen over there years before. No suggestion that Hot Shot had nicked them, they'd (I think) been bought as part of a big job lot of loads of scrap HD bikes/bits
But the flak and legal issues from official HD Dealership, backed up by HD corporate lawayers got the whole Hot Shot Choppers business shut down.


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