Court order frees Harleys impounded by Civil Guard

A Cuenca court on Tuesday lifted a ban preventing imported second-hand Harley Davidsons from being driven on Spanish roads. In March, the Civil Guard's Traffic and Accidents Investigation Group (GIAT) impounded hundreds of used machines after observing "an unusual increase in inspections, prior to the registration in Spain of vehicles imported from the United States."

Specifically, the Civil Guard suspected that a garage in Cuenca was issuing false ITV certificates of roadworthiness to imported machines, which have slightly different technical characteristics to those sold through Harley Davidson España. But importers argue that American and European machines are identical except for a difference in the HD countersign: American models carry the IHD and European bikes the 5HD, which the owners' association claims is simply a marketing matter and that the machines are identical.

In the court ruling, it was stated that the Cuenca garage does not have "public authority" and so could not have carried out "ideological falsification," and therefore the "infraction is administrative and not unlawful."

The owners' association stated that the order "clears up the situation of the bikes, which had been impounded indiscriminately by GIAT."