From our Old Bike Archives – Issue 82 – first published in 2019.
Story and photos: Jim Scaysbrook with input from Tony Morisset and Arthur Fleming.
It was the collapse in 1929 of the German Winklhofer & Jaenicke company, who marketed their products under the Wanderer brand, that inadvertently brought JAWA into being. Wanderer had designed and built an all-new 498cc overhead valve single with a three-speed gearbox and shaft final drive in 1928, but the German motor industry was in severe decline and few of the new model were made before the factory shut its doors. Initially, Wanderer’s assets were taken over by the rival NSU concern, but were very soon on-sold to Frantisek Janeček, who operated a munitions supply company in Prague.
Janeček himself, born in East Bohemia in 1978, was highly educated and a gifted engineer, having worked and studied in Netherlands, Germany and UK. In 1908 he financed the opening of his own mechanical engineering laboratory and workshop in Prague by selling two of his own patents, for arc lamps, which were snapped up by German companies. Janeček went on to develop and patent many designs for military use, but by the close of the 1920s demand had dwindled and he began to look elsewhere for business. One such field was motorcycles, but rather than undertake the costly process of starting from scratch, he concluded a deal with NSU to take over the design and tooling of the 500 Wanderer. By combining the first two letters of his surname with that of Wanderer, JAWA was born.
Production of the 500 single did indeed commence in Prague, but it wasn’t long before Janeček realised he needed another string in his bow – a lightweight model that was more affordable for the everyday rider. Once again, he looked outside Czechoslovakia for inspiration, and lured George Patchett, a former Brooklands rider and noted designer, to head the division. Patchett brought with him a British 175cc Villiers engine and around it created a lightweight motorcycle, that looked like a miniature version of the 500 with its pressed steel frame. It really hit the spot with the buying public too and within two years the Jawa 175 was the top selling bike in Czechoslovakia. Demand was so high that Jawa discontinued production of the four stroke 500 to concentrate resources on new 250cc and 350cc two stroke designs.
In 1934 a new Patchett-designed 350cc side valve Jawa model, the 350 SV was exhibited at the Prague Show and put into limited production, but it was expensive and discontinued after about 2,500 were made. Janeček’s thoughts were also turning to car production, and a factory was subsequently established at Solnice in East Boemia. A new 350 OHV motorcycle appeared in 1935 and soon replaced the side valve model. Patchett resumed his sporting career aboard several experimental Jawas, including a supercharged 500 twin on which he set up new national speed records. By 1939, Patchett was becoming nervous with the worsening political situation in Europe and headed for home, but not before purloining one of Janeček’s anti-tank devices! Back in Britain, Patchett designed a sub-machine gun which eventually replaced the Sten gun.
With the Nazis occupying Czechoslovakia, the Jawa factory was compulsorily put into weapons production, but Janeček never lost his passion for motorcycles right until his death from lung cancer in 1941. His son stepped into his father’s shoes and continued the development work, which had to be done in secret under the occupation. When peace returned, so did Jawa motorcycle production with a brand new model, the Perak, exhibited at the Paris Show of 1946. Actually the model had been developed in secret during the war and hidden in a well in the mountains until the coast was clear. Although some traditional elements remained, such as the use of square section steel pressings welded together for the frame, the Perak was substantially new, with telescopic front forks and plunger rear suspension. The 249cc single cylinder engine was robust in the extreme, with a unit-construction gearbox and wet clutch design that would remain in production for decades. The model gained an immediate reputation for reliability if not outright performance. For a two stroke, it had immense torque thanks to the use of heavy flywheels which kept revs low. The model was an instant success, not just as everyday transport, but in competition such as the ISDT and other major reliability trials.
However there was more strife ahead for Czechoslovakia, with the Communist regime taking over from 1948, which put the brakes on what had become a thriving export market to Western Europe and USA. The Jawa factory was nationalised and merged with CZ to become Jawa-CZ, which had a side benefit of expanding the combined range to include a new 500cc four stroke OHC twin with overhead camshafts. Jawa-CZ also actively chased competition success in motocross and major trials such as the ISDT, and were very successful. Shortage of materials kept the road racing effort at low key compared to the western rivals, but the factory was never short of innovative designs. In 1953 Jawa introduced what was quickly nicknamed the Swinger – a 250 (Model 353) and 350 (Model 354) with swinging arm rear suspension. These remained in production for twenty years.
The export drive managed to recommence as the ‘fifties dawned, with the state-owned Motokov agency handling the business, and with Australasia emerging as a solid market for much of the decade. Elsewhere, many motorcycle factories were doing it tough in the face of cheap cars, with established brands disappearing regularly. Meanwhile Jawa soldiered on with various models under the brand, while CZ concentrated on small capacity two strokes and off-road models. By the mid 1960s, Jawa, like the rest of the motorcycling world, was facing a challenge from Japan, and responded as best it could with a series of models that owed their very existence to the seminal Perak.
Moving right along…
One such is the Californian, introduced in 1967 and itself a derivation of the 350 that first appeared as the Model 360 in 1964. As the name suggests, the California was aimed at capturing a greater slice of the US market. The model clearly has its roots in the earlier designs, but a major face lift did wonders for the image. Curiously, the Californian was marketed into two guises; as a single-cylinder 250 (Model 590) with twin exhaust ports and pipes, and as a 350cc twin. The makeover dispensed with not just the traditional maroon and chrome colour scheme and the jelly bean shaped fuel tank that had first graced the 1946 Perak, but also ditched the 16 inch wheels in favour of 19 inch (and later 18 inch) jobs, narrower mudguards and upswept silencers which made the whole bike look slimmer. And the bugbear of mixing oil with petrol was also done away with, replaced by what Jawa called Oilmaster. In motorcycling terms, Oilmaster is possibly not the best choice of model description; perhaps there is something lost in the translation from Czech to English. The oil injection system of course necessitated an oil tank, which resides under the extended flap on the left side of the seat (a matching cover on the right hand side hides the battery and air filter), with the oil pump on the left end of the crankshaft. The pump varies the oil to fuel ration from 120:1 at idle of 20:1 at full throttle, and a clever device prevents the throttle from opening should the cable operating the oil pump break.
One thing that was retained was Jawa’s combined kickstart lever and gear lever, which performs an additional function in that the clutch automatically disengages when the change lever is moved in either direction, meaning there is no real need to use the hand clutch lever other than for takeoff. Primary drive, including the clutch, is on the left of the gearbox mainshaft, while final drive is on the right. This means the clutch is much closer to the main gearbox bearing than usual, and thus more rigid, and it also means the rear chain is easier to remove and replace. Another familiar feature is the rectangular section frame, along with long travel forks which look somewhat prosaic but had been developed on the company’s off road bikes and work extremely well. Tinware like the mudguards also came in for a weight reduction program which is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional, although offset somewhat by the bulbous upswept mufflers on each side.
The featured model is a 1972 vintage 350 (actual model number 362) which differs only from the one released five years earlier by having 18 inch wheels. It’s still the same slow-revving workhorse that runs out of puff at 5,250 rpm, at which point it is developing 18 horsepower and loping along at 112km/h.
Priced in Australia at $539.00 in 1970, the 250cc Californian was the cheapest 250 on the local market but still had its work cut out against the Japanese competition. The 350 twin version, which did not arrive here until late 1971, sold for $639 and managed a top speed of 76mph 122km/h which is hardly riveting stuff, but with only 18 hp on tap, about right. Rev it beyond the recommended ceiling and there’s nothing more to be gained, and you risk losing your fillings. When it was released in 1967, the Californian looked a trifle ancient. By 1974, when production ceased, it looked positively antediluvian, but it sure was reliable. And if you count the Californian as part of the Swinger model range, no fewer than 1,418,840 of them rolled off the production line. Not a bad innings!
Specifications: 1972 Jawa 350 Californian Model 632.
Engine: Air-cooled parallel twin 2 stroke.
Bore x stroke: 58mm x 65mm
Capacity: 344cc
Compression ratio: 8.0:1
Gearbox: 4 speed
Ignition: Coil/points.
Power: 18 hp at 5,250 rpm
Carb: Jikov 26mm
Electrics: 6 volt
Frame: Rectangular section steel, single cradle.
Brakes: 160mm single leading shoe front and rear
Suspension: Front: Jawa forks with one-way damping 130mm travel
Rear: Twin shock absorbers with spring preload and internal adjustment.
Brakes: 160mm single leading shoe front and rear.
Seat height: 800mm
Wet weight: 150kg
Fuel capacity: 13.5 litres
Fuel consumption: 4.3litres/100km
Variation of a theme
Both the featured motorcycles here are owned by South Australian collector Tony Morisset, both are 350 twins and both were sold new by state importer Fraser Motorcycles. The second bike is officially known as the Model 634.5 Oilmaster and for a time, was sold alongside the Californian. Not surprisingly, major engine specifications are identical, but the styling is slightly more prosaic than the California, with low level mufflers, different engine cases and heavier, squared-off finning for the head and barrel. Maximum speed was listed as 120 km/h and fuel consumption a frugal 4 litres per 100km. Instead of the Californian’s single cradle square-section steel tube frame, the Model 634.5 uses round section in a full duplex cradle, resulting in 5kg extra weight.
Tony explains his choice. “I bought the bike unseen on an online auction of a deceased estate. The bike was covered in dust and the engine was in the frame. Accompanying the bike were a number of boxes. Don Tonkin finished the assembly of the bike and it became apparent that an unknown restorer had almost completed the machine before he or she had passed away. The restoration was to a high standard and the bike had a new top end and many other new parts. It has now been run-in and has given no problems in over 4,000 kilometres.”
Jawa historian Arthur Fleming from the Jawa/CZ Owners Club in Britain, describes the 1974 Model 634.5 evolution. “In the early 1960s Jawa engineers were tasked with creating a new “unified range” of motorcycles. The idea was to create two basic versions and manufacture other variants on the same production line. As before, CZ would make the smaller 125cc and 175cc engines and Jawa would make the 250cc and 350cc engines with both factories using shared cycle parts. While only a small number of the resultant 350cc machines were made, designated “Bizon” or “Buffalo”, the engine design style was the basis for the new Model 634.
The design brief appears to have been for a robust machine which could be easily maintained by the home mechanic. While the Model 634 was an air-cooled two stroke producing only 22hp, functionality, ease of maintenance and the ability to tow a sidecar were seen as more important than performance in the Eastern Bloc market. Early models were in the traditional Jawa maroon finish but by 1974, many variants were being exported. This Model 634.5 features red paintwork, chrome guards and tank panels but the “Oilmaster” direct injection system does not feature on this model until later in the year. The Model 634 was clearly a utilitarian machine and while it eventually carried some features like the chrome mudguards, it was sold in the showroom next to the Californian – an infinitely more stylish machine with its rounded, polished motor and unswept pipes.
In 1981 the 500,000th Model 634 was manufactured, and the last in 1983 completing a model run of over ten years and hundreds of thousands of machines.
Despite its lacklustre appearance – particularly when compared to the popular RD350 of the same period – Jawas enjoyed a certain following in Australia and many were sold by the Adelaide distributor, Fraser Motorcycles. A surprising number of Jawas and CZs have survived and as restoration candidates they are generally low-priced and have plentiful spares supply both in Australia and overseas. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of Jawa ownership is that all consumables – cables, seals, points, globes – are available and are not expensive – indeed much less than comparable Japanese or British machines.
Riding the Model 634 is very different to the usual two stroke experience. With huge, heavy flywheels the motor develops considerable torque and once up to speed – which doesn’t happen quickly – very few gear changes are required. The machine feels much larger than its 350cc and the seat height sits well above Japanese middleweights of the same period. The frame is heavy and solid and contributes to handling which is very predictable if not at all sporting. The traditional Jawa/CZ left foot kick start/gear lever is disconcerting but once you become accustomed to it, and follow the starting procedure, there are few problems – except the occasional skinned shin! As with most Jawas there is an unexpectedly large range of movement between gears which initially leads to the discovery of a whole range of hidden neutrals. Once the knack of long, unambiguous lever movements is mastered the gearbox becomes a real delight. Braking is mediocre by modern standards but equivalent to other drum braked machines of the period. The Model 634 runs on premix and modern semi-synthetic oils mean that the two-stroke smoke haze is much reduced and oiled spark plugs are a thing of the past. Although there are now complete electronic ignition conversion kits available for most Jawas and CZs, timing, adjusting and cleaning the points are simple tasks.”
