THE SPECIALIST
With 2024 marking the Jawa-CZ Owners’ Club’s 70th anniversary, it claims to be one of the oldest UK owners’ clubs. At a very reasonable £15pa, club membership offers all the regular benefits including access to Jawa’s dealer-only technical literature. Thanks to club officials Pete Edwards, Bob Clark and Arthur Fleming for their essential help with this guide.
■ Jawa-CZ Owners’ Club: www.jawaczownersclub.co.uk (for the non-connected, this also gives details of a limited access phone number)
MODEL HISTORY
The company was founded by the Czech engineer and entrepreneur František Janeček, who bought the design of the German four-stroke ‘Wanderer’ motorcycle in 1928 and started to build ‘Janacek’s Wanderer’ – Jawa. The first models did not sell well and in 1934 Janeček recruited English engineer George Patchett, from Villiers, to develop a new range of small, light and relatively cheap two-strokes.
After pre-Second World War success with 175cc and 250cc two-stroke singles, Jawa announced its 350cc twin soon after the war ended. It was the start of a company catalogue tradition that continues yet. In the early 1950s, under communism, Jawa was grouped with its
