Bystanders get dazzled as they roar by, flashing elegant black paint and chrome coats in the engine, the hubs, headlights and honks. Their souped-up engines start revving up and make people turn their necks, looking for that majestic vrooming machine that’s about the conquer the roads.

Men in Cuba who put their fortunes on the line, spent time and eventually worked the kinks out of a might Harley Davidson to keep it rolling, pamper their hog bikes as trophies of what homemade technology can actually do.

Unique and Peerless Today, Harley Davidson bikes spruce up lots of sport activities likened to motor racing, whether it’s carting or motorcycles. They are also seen in carnival parades, fairs, tradeshows and other social functions, as Luis Enrique Gonzalez of Cuba’s Classic Bikes Club explains.

The arrival of the first Harley Davidson motorcycle to Cuba happened over a century ago, according to record books kept at the country’s Customs Office Headquarters. Today, these two-wheelers are labeled as old-vintage vehicles, especially for their roaring sound, bulky shape and one-and-only design line rather than for their comfort and elegance.

Mechanics admire the many hog bikes that still roam the streets and avenues of Cuba –over a hundred of them in Havana alone- and the advanced technological breakthroughs they came equipped with at the time.

The well-known motorcycle trademark (patented in 1903) was created by two brothers in a small garage in the U.S. city of Milwaukee. State-of-the-art technology, comfort, elegance and original design have simply made them unique and peerless.

Rescue of a Technological Gem Cuba’s Classic Bikes Club was founded nine years ago in an effort to rescue and preserve old-timed motorcycles from years of relentless impairment, and to keep this larger-than-life treasure of the history of world’s motorcycling up and running. “Hog bikes stand for what men managed to conquer some decades ago from a technological standpoint,” says Mr. Gonzalez as he also notes that similar classic clubs have opened in Villa Clara and Cardenas.

“In the country,” he adds, “there are Harleys from the 1920s to the 1960s still rolling. Harleys set up their own style from the very beginning, a design line that soon captured the minds and the hearts of thousands of people from around the world.”

The celebrated resourcefulness of the Cuban people as far as keeping classic cars running is concerned –regardless of scarcity or total absence of spare parts, motors and accessories- have prompted many experts to call Cuba a museum on wheels that still makes people from elsewhere get at their wits’ ends.

The fact that Harley Davidson bikes from the 1930s and 1940s are still roving up and down Cuba’s streets is owned to the talent and boldness of Cuban mechanics and drivers.

“Many times we’ve found ourselves with no parts at all, but we haven’t given up,” Mr. Gonzalez points out. “We’re bound to transform or make pistons from cars fit in the engines. We’ve been forced, for instance, to use spare parts from old cars and Russian-made trucks. Right now, however, we’ve got plenty of experience to make any part fit in the Harleys. This is the result of the patient and toilsome work of mechanics, engineers, physicians, lawyers, you name it. We always come up with fresh ideas, we exchange those ideas and creativeness is the name of the game here.”

Defying Time and Imagination A multitude of curious people swarm over the “All In One” Park in Varadero to snoop around. Organizers of a makeshift fair are presenting an exhibition of Harley Davidson motorcycles as some drivers starts making bold maneuvers on their hog bikes. Next to eye-popped tourists waiting for a chance to take a picture of the old machines, Cubans of yesterday and today pause to take a good long look.

This unique show comes around every third Sunday of each month in the surroundings of La Maison, Havana’s fashion house, organized by Cuba’s Classic Bikes Club.

Whenever an event like this takes place anywhere on the island nation, the Harleys are whisked in and out of the shows in trailers. Some riders in Cuba, though, drive up to 250 miles to proudly showcase their bikes, a token of true love on wheels by those who are willing to defy time and adversity altogether.