Jawa,

[crack]

A chappie just came into my office, and mentioned he saw a JAWA, 350 or 500cc, twin cylinder, overhead cam, motorcycle back in 1956??
Anyone on here that could elaborate, I have been on the web and Googled it but havn't had any luck.

:rockon: :scooter:

[eliot-ness]

This will be the one. 1955 500cc

[pritch]

A chappie just came into my office, and mentioned he saw a JAWA, 350 or 500cc, twin cylinder, overhead cam, motorcycle back in 1956??

Nearest thing that I can recall to this would be the factory GP bikes that were campaigned with some effect by Franta Stastny back in the early/mid sixties.
A 'Net search should show some details.

[Bonez]

This will be the one. 1955 500ccIt's good to see that one is out and about. Now doesn't the Kwaka W650 donk have a similar cam shaft bevel drive tunnel? Just tossed that in for those that think the W650s donk is a clone of a Meridian Triumph power plant ;). The :devil2: made me do it...........................

[crack]

Thanks Chaps,
There are indeed similarities between the K 650, and the triumph, the side cover on the R/H side reminds me of the BSA Bantom for some reason.

Grahame (The Chappie) is tickled pink to actually see a photo of the machine, so well done Bonez, and thanks.

I wonder if there where any bought into NZ?

Was it a 4 speed, or 3 speed, anyone know, what HP, was it ever raced?
In the meantime I will try to gather what info I can, and will post it, if you guys could continue to assist, it would be appreciated.

:love: :love: :rockon: :scooter: :whocares: :whocares:

[Bonez]

Thanks Chaps,
There are indeed similarities between the K 650, and the triumph, the side cover on the R/H side reminds me of the BSA Bantom for some reason.

Grahame (The Chappie) is tickled pink to actually see a photo of the machine, so well done Bonez, and thanks.eliot-ness provided the pic.

[eliot-ness]

Was it a 4 speed, or 3 speed, anyone know, what HP, was it ever raced?
In the meantime I will try to gather what info I can, and will post it, if you guys could continue to assist, it would be appreciated.

:love: :love: :rockon: :scooter: :whocares: :whocares:

That particular model seems to be a one off. Post war production was mainly 250cc single and 350cc twin two strokes. Jawa did produce twin overhead camshaft race bikes in the fifties but that wasn't one of them. I can't find any other info on them but if you google the Jawa owners club UK you may find out more.

[Paul in NZ]

There were a few road tests / features in the Classic Bike magazines a while back - pretty sure I have copies. They thought highly of it I seem to remember.

It was a very advanced design but being produced in a Communist Bloc Country? Sigh! Unlikely to ever find one here... Now if it was a CZ - different story, they were assembled in Wellington for a while. Regardless - it would have been a very expensive bike to make in the 50's when people needed cheap transport so I doubt it was ever a high volume machine.

Most striking feature to me was the nacelle which was very triumph like..

[Ixion]

Some more pictures.They were produced through the 50s based on racing engines., There were also quite competative DOHC racing versions.

Jawa were a very capable compnay, we only ever saw their "cooking" two strokes.

And a couple of piccies of an even rarer Jawa. Betcha didn't know about that one.

[Bonez]

That particular model seems to be a one off. The 500 twins where produced for a few years I think.

[Motu]

That's just gorgeous.That narcelle is sure very much like a Triumph,but there are bits of styling influence over the whole bike - who stole from who? If it wasn't for the brilliance of East European motorcycle engineers we would all be riding the lastest F head Harleys.

[Paul in NZ]

That particular model seems to be a one off. Post war production was mainly 250cc single and 350cc twin two strokes. Jawa did produce twin overhead camshaft race bikes in the fifties but that wasn't one of them. I can't find any other info on them but if you google the Jawa owners club UK you may find out more.

Nope it was a production model and SOHC but yes, the racers were DOHC and completely different.

[Ixion]

Do you notice that it has upside down forks, too? so the Japs stole that from Jawa. Except I guess Jawa stole them first from the BSA Bantam.

EDIT: Found some specs for the OHC 500

65 x73.6 mm
488 cc
26 Hp
4 speeds
Framework simple cradle
Brakes AV/AR Drums
168 kg
135 km/h

[Bonez]

Nope it was a production model and SOHC but yes, the racers were DOHC and completely different.This page looks interesting

http://www.autosoviet.altervista.org/ENGLISH-automotorusse9-P(Jawa).htm

Honda actually licenced ideas of Jawa that are still in production scooters to this very day.

[eliot-ness]

Nope it was a production model and SOHC but yes, the racers were DOHC and completely different.

Yep, what I meant was as a production model it was a one off, nothing even remotely similar to that engine before or after. It was produced for a few years but no more development was done.

[Paul in NZ]

This page looks interesting

http://www.autosoviet.altervista.org/ENGLISH-automotorusse9-P(Jawa).htm

That jogged a few memory cells... 26bhp... egad. I suppose we have to take that into context of the sort of petrol that was around after WW2 of course.

The other thing we always forget about Jawa is that for years they made the best speedway solo engines which was something.

Cheers

[Paul in NZ]

That's just gorgeous.That narcelle is sure very much like a Triumph,but there are bits of styling influence over the whole bike - who stole from who? If it wasn't for the brilliance of East European motorcycle engineers we would all be riding the lastest F head Harleys.

Well hard to say really. But it's funny how they kept on with the nacelle a lot longer than Triumph and remember the 'odd' look of Jawas with the overlong forks etc.

I love old bikes..

[Motu]

I like to be able to ''see'' the designer in his bike,the ''quirks'' he carries through to each design.Val Page,Edward Turner,Isognosis,all those Eyetalians I dare not try to spell with so many people watching.Like a musician,you can pick someone out just by the way they play.

And I think that is why certain bikes from a certain country are accused'' of ''lack of character''.They have no designers of character,and so the bikes lack character.'''Personality''....

`cause you got personality
Walk, personality
Talk, Personality
Smile, Personality
Charm, personality
Love, personality
And of Cause you've got
A great big heart
So over and over
Oh, I'll be a fool to you
Now over and over
What more can I do

[crack]

Shit, sorry: I ment to type Eliot-ness, blond moment, except I don't have much hair anymore.

I found a site www.autogallery.org.ru/mjawa.htm

They certainly made some interesting machines, I could only remember the two stroke twins, and their distinctive sort of deep ding ding sound when the power came off, and their 500 speedway singles.

Man that V4 must have been way ahead of its time.

I remember reading somewhere, back in the 70's, I cannot recall the publication for the life of me, that the Japanese had recruited Europeans to spy on the manufacture & production of JAWA - AUGUSTA- LAVERDA, at the time I thought it too much like B/S, but now from reading some of the info you have all posted, I reckon it may have had something in it.

My old T-20 and I had a ripper of a race with a chap on a 350 twin in New Plymouth in the 70's, I was amazed then at the performance of something that then even compared with the rather pregnant looks of the T-20, was to me somewhat antiquated.

As said, it makes you wonder what the performance of their V4 would be like with modern metals?

:love: :love: :rockon: :whocares: :done: :scooter:

[nudemetalz]

Interesting to note that the "boxer" model was an OHC with 2 or 4 valves per cylinder & the clutch rotated in the opposite direction (ala CX500).

[Bonez]

I remember reading somewhere, back in the 70's, I cannot recall the publication for the life of me, that the Japanese had recruited Europeans to spy on the manufacture & production of JAWA - AUGUSTA- LAVERDA, at the time I thought it too much like B/S, but now from reading some of the info you have all posted, I reckon it may have had something in it. Some of the technologies were actually, and still are, licensed for use by various Nippon manufactures, so this is quite possible. Crafty lil buggers ah? Actualy paying for the ideas they use.

Edit- one lot of pressies dopped off and 320ks to go before Santa can have a nap................................