CARISTAS

      NOT EVERY Harley-Davidson rumbling around Cuba dates to the pre-revolution era. Several machines at the Harlistas rally were from more recent decades. How did they get to the island? Oh, probably by boat. Front disc brake is one clue that this Heritage Softail Classic is a modern model. Introduced in the mid-1980s, the Heritage Softail remains in production today.   Foreground: '65 or later Electra Glide; background: Harley Sportster. Like the Heritage Softail, the Road King that arrived in 1994 pays homage to the big-twin Harleys of the 1940s and '50s. This one could be a 2008 Road King Classic.

The venerable Latino Americanos Motociclistas Association is well represented in Cuba.    The Harlistas are as convivial a group of bikers as you will ever encounter.   They offer you a beer.   They're happy to answer questions about the age of their machines and the challenges of keeping them running.   They smile even as visitors hop on their bikes and pose for photos.   Doesn't get more mellow than that.       The Harlistas rally in Varadero, a resort area east of Havana, has become a spring tradition . All aboard: Spectators are welcome to touch the bikes and even climb on .

Raked flathead was the only full chopper at the rally. Want some road presence? Add a goat skull.  Components represent several decades.

I suspect it is as illegal in Cuba as it is elsewhere to have three people on a motorcycle (unless you have a sidecar), but you see it regularly. Fortunately, t his Harley-Davidson Duo-Glide is a family-sized bike. Older Flathead Harley-Davidson lacks the Duo-Glide's coil-over-shock rear suspension, but its rider-family appears comfortable.

Based on its tank badge, panhead Duo-Glide is a 1960 model.    "AUTENTICA CUBA" is the theme of a brilliant advertising campaign by Cuba's Tourism Ministry.    You may have seen the billboards (unless, of course, you live in the United States). Hands sorting dominoes on a weathered table; children racing through a colonial plaza; ballet dancers stretching and reaching at rehearsal. The images convey the tones and textures of an island nation that offers far more than palm trees and beaches.    A photo of the annual Harlistas rally in Varadero would be a natural addition. What could be more authentic than this gathering of flatheads and knuckleheads and panheads, of 45 cubic-inchers and 74s, of springers and Hydra-Glides and Duo-Glides?    And where could such an assembly be drawn not from specialty shops and guarded collections, but from the streets where these honest old machines still serve their owners daily?    Nowhere but...

My best guess: 1941-46 Harley-Davidson flathead UL or police-military ULH.     DROPPED BY  a gathering of Cuba's famous Harlistas and took many – many! – photographs. Would you have expected anything different?    I'll be posting more over the next while. See also: The Legend of Cuba`s Lost Harley-Davidsons Doing the Harley Math Sacrifice and Ingenuity

Window sticker identifies fat-tired two-door from the 1970s as a Chevrolet Camaro.    Every car tells a story, and some of the richest stories, we know, are told in Cuba. Consider this green muscle car from an era rarely seen on an island that has not imported vehicles directly from the United States since 1959.    It is, says the owner, nodding to the decal in the rear window, a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro. It came to Cuba years ago from Canada, he tells me, the property of a contract worker who left it behind when he returned home.    Alas, the original big gasoline V-8 engine has been replaced by a more economical diesel, the owner admits. But with fat tires and raised tail, the car retains its muscular swagger.    Except it does not look like any 1979 Camaro I've ever seen.    I decide not to mention this to its proud custodian, thinking that perhaps it came not from Canada but South America, where the Camaro badge might have bee...