Good old Jawa memories

Guest Post
Author: Richard Route

My first memories of a Jawa was when I was around 12, I used to hang around a friend's garage who used to specialize in repairing Jawas mainly. I was fortunate to own my first Jawa bike when I was 15. It was a restoration job, picked it in a junk condition for a few hundred rupees and brought it back to life.

 

Back in the day, there were only Indian bikes. Jawa, Yezdi, Bullet and Rajdoot where the prominent ones and getting the maximum power out of them was a preoccupation of all bikers. From fine tuning, changing the front chain sprocket to increasing compression, modifications to the mufflers to get the best beats, modifications to make it look different, we have tried it all.

Richard Route with his modified Yezdi

We also used to do a lot of cross country riding and never had any problem with the bikes. The Jawa is built strong and never gives up. We did stunts, jumps, wheelies and skidding. The Jawa was an all rounder. I remember extended the swing arm and fitting an 18 inch wheel on the rear and lifted the rear end just to give the bike a racy look.

I now live in Perth, Australia and own a Kawasaki ZZR 1200 which is awesome but the excitement of riding my Jawa / Yezdi is more memorable to me.

Richard's Kawasaki ZZR 1200 in Australia

I keenly follow the BJYMC Facebook page and feel nostalgic. Can imagine the sound and feel of the bikes when you all gather for the Jawa Day celebrations. What an awesome feeling that must be. I look forward to being a part of this year's International Jawa Day celebrations (9th of July 2017) thru all your photos and videos.

All the best guys, keep riding and stay safe.

A Jawa Fan,

Richard Route

richardroute@gmail.com