The Jawa, Jawa 42 or the Jawa Perak? Which of these revolutionary bike models have you heard about? Or are you even familiar with the name Jawa? Or do you confuse it with the Royal Enfield? Too many questions at once? This blog will answer it all for you!!
JAWA GLOBAL
The founder of JAWA Motorcycles; František Janeček was born on 23rd January, 1878 in Klaster, a small village in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic). He was the founding father of this giant motorcycle empire that it is today. Over the course of serving in World War One, he designed and patented over 60 inventions that included many ammunitions like the improved hand grenades for the CzechRepublican Army. As the European nations were turning their manufacturing expertise towards the evolving motorcycle industry, František Janeček too saw an opportunity here.
“JAWA was not built from scratch”
Instead, František Janeček purchased the motorcycle business Wanderer from German manufacturer Winklhofer & Jaenicke, along with the design and tooling used for the manufacturing process. How did JAWA got its name you may question?
“Combining the first two letters from “Janiček” and “Wanderer”, the first Jawa motorcycle was conceived – the Jawa 500 OHV.”
Trying to manufacture low weight, practical, efficient and faster motorcycles for the larger mass, JAWA stepped into the category with the JAWA 175 and discontinued their first ever JAWA 500 OHV. Furthermore, JAWA introduced a majority of its motorcycle models with 250cc to 300cc engines that majorly focused on speed, endurance and durability. After 1939, JAWA motorcycles were heavily seen in the domestic race tracks of Czechoslovakia. Even though World War Two, had made their company to forcefully manufacture weapons as per the Nazi orders, Janeček secretly went onto designing and manufacturing the now very famous; JAWA Perak.
“The 60’s and 70’s was when JAWA actually took over the Motocross and Enduro World.”
This was the time when the JAWA’s durability claims had made it so loved that it was being exported to almost 120 countries world wide. JAWA was now everywhere. JAWA INDIA In the 1960’s, JAWA made its entrance into the Asian pie of the globe. It entered into India under the licensed partnership with Ideal JAWA. Initially they imported the JAWA motorcycles into the country. The JAWA 250 series was very popular among the urban Indian youths dues to how simple, rugged and strong the motorcycle was as well as due to the very many races that it won. JAWA became so popular in India, a complete manufacturing plant was established in Mysore, Karnataka, that manufactured the JAWA 250 types. The Ideal JAWA company then manufactured a completely different motorcycle under the technical surveillance of JAWA namely; the Yezdi. This 1970’s launch was not well digested by the Indian as well as some Asian nations. This model was actually the first step of JAWA’s downfall. Major motorcycle companies like Honda, Yamaha had already entered the market by then manufacturing more fuel efficient and energy saving two-wheelers that were way better and cheaper than the JAWA motorcycles. And a major competitor, Royal Enfield took over the market share of JAWA.
In the year 2018, JAWA motorcycles was taken over by the Mahindra group in India. They launched the JAWA and JAWA 42 during this re-launch of the brand. It was a fresh start for JAWA under new leadership and a vast market to explore and cover.
JAWA NEPAL
As JAWA took its first re-launch steps in India in 2018, Agni Motonic under the Agni Group of companies took the role as the sole official distributor of JAWA motorcycles for Nepal. In the mid of october, 2020, Agni Motonic officially announced their JAWA launch for Nepal. Jawa Nepal, pretty similar to JAWA India launched with the motorcycle models JAWA and the JAWA Forty Two. The JAWA Classic, as the original patent motorcycle from JAWA is priced at Rs. 7,05,000 (for the single channel ABS) and Rs. 7,36,000 (for the dual channel ABS). The newly launched fresher variant of the JAWA 42 2.1 is priced at Rs. 7,71,000. The Forty Two variant and the classic have very similar features with some distinctions that justify the price differences.
The JAWA Perak is the hot topic of the town. The Perak is well known for its looks and the signature single seater seating arrangement that makes it differ from any other similar looking cruiser motorcycles. The jet black JAWA Perak can be seen cruising around the valley these days. This beauty is the most expensive JAWA bike available in Nepal, priced at Rs. 8,20,000. Directly competing with the Royal Enfield and Bullet 350, JAWA is a fairly new player in the cruiser motorcycle market in Nepal. We can see the slow growing popularity of the motorcycle due to its simplicity, ruggedness and durability. I hope JAWA Nepal has planned to get more of the amazing model os JAWA motorcycles for the urban youths to make it a “KOMMUNITI”.