Everyone who knows me knows that my favorite kind of vacations have been Motorcycle Road Trips, at least for the last 10 years they have been.  Smokey Mountains, three times, Nova Scotia, two times, Sturgis once, Georgia, Florida and I’ve ridden in every state in the North East and Mid-Atlantic States.  Twice when I went to California to visit my daughter, I rented a bike for a day ….Pacific Coast Highway; of course you have to do it on a bike.

Of course when I went to Italy with some co-workers in 2004, I didn’t have the opportunity.   In 2001 and 2003 when I went to Spain to visit my family, I looked into renting, but there were no companies who rented in Northern Spain.  I was dying, the mountains, the curves, the country roads, little to no traffic and I couldn’t explore them on a Motorcycle. 

Last week I went with my two sisters and daughter to Spain for a short visit...this time it was different.  There was a small Harley Davidson dealer that I had discovered in 2001, it had moved to a new location so I had to go check it out and at least get a tee shirt.  

The old shop only had room for one used bike; it had two styles of tee shirts and not much of anything else.   The new shop, Cantabria Harley Davidson, was what I am normally used to.  There were bikes lined up outside, guys gawking at them, the inside had new bikes, jackets, shirts, helmets, chrome….the typical Harley shop.   They even had Buells and a HOG Chapter.  

Could they have rentals?????

NO… they are in the process of setting up rentals, but at this time they didn’t rent.  It seems that they have to deal with Harley of Spain, who deals with Harley International, who deals with Corporate Harley, so the red tape is time consuming and then there is the matter of Insurance another nightmare.  

But…what they did have is FREE TEST RIDES of the new bikes.  Silvia, the salesgirl who is in love with Texas and Tennessee (went there for Harley Dealer conventions), told Pita and I to come back on Saturday between 10 and 2 and we can go out on an escorted test ride.  She knew that we were there only on vacation, so it wasn’t like we were going to buy one.

So Pita and I went, I rode the Fatboy and she on the Dyna Wide Glide followed the Sales guy on the Sportster for a 45 minute ride through some nice roads…not exactly the ones that I would have chosen, but Pita, not used to a Harley, didn’t want to go on the mountain roads…..and I mean MOUNTAIN, curves, switchbacks….my kind of riding. Halfway they stop and you can

switch bikes, Pita didn’t want to ride the Fatboy, so she switched with the Sportster….that guy was very happy not having to ride the small bike.

Silvia was so nice, she gave us some free gifts from the dealership, I did buy my tee shirt, and I told her that I would email her from time to time to see how the rental plans are going.   I assured her that once they get the rentals, I and maybe some of my friends would be back to ride the great roads in Northern Spain.  Lets just hope the US Dollar / Euro improves.