History of Jawa Bikes at Praha National Technical Museum.
Jawa is a motorcycle and moped manufacturer founded in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1929 by František Janeček, who bought the motorcycle division of Wanderer. The name JAWA was established by concatenating the first letters of Janeček and Wanderer.
The National Technical Museum (Czech: Národní technické muzeum) (NTM) in Prague is the largest institution dedicated to preserving information and artifacts related to the history of technology in the Czech Republic.
JAWA was one of the top motorcycle manufacturers and exported its 350 into over 120 countries. Another famous model in the 1970s was the 350 Californian. After 1990, there was a significant loss of production. A successor company was formed in 1997 in Týnec nad Sázavou, continuing the name as JAWA Moto.
History of Jawa Motorcycles
1931
The first model under this Jawa name was the 500 OHV, nicknamed as Rattler. This motorcycle was not very successful. It was expensive and robust.
1933
Janecek Company was on the verge of bankruptcy after the first product failed. The Englishman G. W. Patchett brought with him to Jawa the design of the new JAWA 175 which was built from parts from firms specialized on producing components. A lighlty constructed motorcycle was created, with decent performance and which at a very low selling price, also provided excellent value for money.
1938
Jawa 175 rapidly became the best selling motorcycle in this country. In 1938 Jawa developed a new prototype with ans electric starter, which never went into production. ie the Jawa 350 SV
1939
Janecek Arms Factory always placed great emphasis on motorcycle sport. It took part as almost the only one of Czechoslovak firms in a number of international motorcycle competitins road ans speedway races. Jawa developed the JAWA 350 DOHC road racing special motor cycle just before the World War II.
1942
World War II started.
German military vehicles had to be repaired in Jawa during the war. This was exploited to perfection. In order for prototypes of new Jawas not to arouse attention unnecessarily in secret road tests, they were camouflaged as German militiary machines and fitted with SS number plates. JAWA 250 DIN is one of the machine tested in this way.
1945
Employees of the Janecek Arms Factory developed new motorcycles and cars alongside the production of military materials for the post war years. In a secret development workshop, new racing motorcycles of the Jawa make were created. The speedway special Jawa 500 DT and Jawa 500 DTC was one of the motorcycles develped during this period.
1951
The risk connected with secret wartime development reaped rich rewards for JAWA. At a time when competitors were just beginning to assess their war losses, Jawa had a motorcycle ready which has no equal in its category. The new JAWA 250 11 Perak was successfully exported to almost all countries. This machine became the basis for the exceptional successes of the Czechoslovak motorcycle industry.
1954
In 1954 Jawa merged with CZ under the name “Jawa-CZ” and began to produce new motorcycles jointly. The first one to produce was Jawa-CZ 150 - 352, popularly nicknamed as “Swinger”. The Swinger and its slightly modified successors were the most commercially successful motorcycles produced in Jawa.
1958
Jawa started developing smallest motorcycles, the Jawa 50 type 500 Pioneer. It was designed by Jawa in Prague, but produced in Slovakia. Over time several hundred thousand of these small motorcycles were made. The Pioneer was for several generations of our motorcyclist the first machine they encountered. its a small motor cycle with many merits.
1967
Jawa developed a four cylinder motorcycle on 1967. The 673 racing Jawa was the fastest machine in the 1969 world championship.
1973
Since 1964, only speedway machines have been produced in Jawa division. This specialization has paid off handsomely, and speedway Jawas are the worlds best even today. A sport only for the brave is races on the ice speedway, where motorcycles without brakes but with dozens of sharp spikes on the wheels race round an ice rink. Soviet Union dominated in this game for years. In 1974, a Czech, Milan Spinka, beat them and become world champion using the Jawa 500 - 891 motorcycle
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