Harleys in Cuba

[kell]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world ... ley&st=cse

[steve_wood]

I heard that it used to be dead easy to travel to Cuba, buy an old bike and ship it back to the states. But Castro got wise to this and banned the export of Harleys and/or their parts. The story goes on to tell of a ship that was stopped from leaving Havana harbor. The customs inspectors went on board and discovered that the entire shipload was harleys and parts. The cargo was confiscated by the government and retained in Cuba. Probably given to one of Castro's cronies. Imagine how the US buyer of that shipment felt....

Not sure if it's true, but it sounds believable.

[neilw]

I have not heard of the total ban on od bikes from Cuba ,When I was there about 12 years ago You had to pay Castro a pile of money ,and not the owner ,It was not worth the money to get an old bike .They are cheaper here.(and Cuban bikes have loads of homade parts on them
).. The old cars there are beautfull to look at ,but they aren't anywhere original under the paint.Having no parts from the US they swap out 235 cid chev engs for lada 4cly engs and machine everything the need to make it fit. I was asking some of the car owners how they keep them running ,and they have learned from trial and error what you do to make some other part fit what ever you are driving. Sort of like knowing what harley parts fit other harleys ,but Cubans go much farther its lada to ford and so on .. I'm in Canada so I can go there with no problems ..Most Americans there were first flying to Cancun and grabing a flight out of there to Cuba .They do NOT stamp your pasport in Cuba ,You just bring us dollars and enjoy your holiday.

[VintageTwin]

We're making some contacts with Sergio Morales to see exactly what parts he needs to keep the machines running. There's an organization named "Passage for Peace" that travels the U.S. collecting computers and necessities for Cuba, picking up contributions from designated collection spots.
In theory, Leslie Balog from San Francisco, said that people could send the needed Flathead, Knuckle and Pan parts to one or more locations within the U.S. and the parts would go to the addressee in Cuba, (via ship from Tampico, Mexico) who would be Sergio Morales himself.
Her task now is to contact Sergio and get a laundry list of what he needs. Once we have that, we can post the list on several sites and try and collect the quoted shipping fee (from Mexico to Cuba) from some of our parts manufacturers here and abroad. All suggestions are welcome. We're new at this.

We'll include copies Vol. 1 & 2 in our shipment which will contain gaskets, pushrods, clutch pushrods, '41-54 Big Twin & Servi-Car parts book, a set of Flathead Power-Sweden Knuckle rocker covers and FHP Knuckle tappet blocks; new Rowe® valves; primary and rear chains, etc., and whatever I have two or three of that I don't need. All tightly packed in an export-quality cardboard box (S&S® shipping boxes are superb) with his name and address on it. She said labeled as such, the boxes wouldn't be left on a park bench or street corner somewhere in Havana.