Forever young

Going for a spin On their Jawa and Yezdi bikes

Superheroes share the world with mortals who don’t have the same powers. It is by outshining the rest that they look larger than life. Cult bikes are a lot like superheroes. Watching his friends and colleagues change bike after bike, Sabya Sachi can’t help thinking of his Jawa as a superhero who defies time.

“Amidst an overrun of bikes with a 10-year life span, the Jawa looks like an immortal machine. My Jawa is 38 years old and is as good as ever,” says Sachi, one of the five who founded Roaring Riders, a Chennai-based Jawa and Yezdi club, which is gearing up for a Jawa-CZ-Yezdi Day (July 12) celebration at Hogenakal.

V.S. Manian has a powerful evidence of the engineering excellence that has gone into the Jawa brand – a 1947 Ogar Jawa. The fact that more recent Jawas share features with Manian’s 62-year-old machine proves that the product was much complete, even during its nascent years.

Ideal Jawa, the Mysore-based company which made Jawas and Yezdis (Despite different styling and upgrades, 250cc Yezdi models are essentially similar to standard Jawas — thanks to many overlapping features with the Jawa, the 250cc Yezdi Type ‘B’ is often modified to resemble a Jawa), used an apt phrase in its promotional campaigns — “Forever Bike Forever Jawa”.

Longevity alone does not make the Jawa great. Can you imagine Superman without his ability to fly like a plane? Or, Spiderman without his webbing skills? Jawa has its own special powers.

The two-stroke machine is strikingly powerful. Its metallic beat is spell-binding. Its semi-automatic transmission assuages fears of being stranded with a cut clutch cable. Most of all, the bike is low maintenance, thanks to its simple design.

“Jawa can often be coaxed back to the road without a mechanic’s services. If it does not start, just close the butterfly valve, tickle the bike (with a tickler, a cold start device that goes with a carburettor), make it happy and start it,” says Venkatram, who owns one of the last Jawas to come out of the Ideal Jawa factory.

Easy maintenance is why Jawas are numerous in India. “Its mileage is held against Jawa. When you combine low repair costs with a mileage of 25 km to a litre, it does not look bad at all,” says Sachi.

Superheroes are fast on their feet; Jawas on their interchangeable front and rear wheels (latter-day Jawas came with this feature). In the 1960s, the big Jawas had a rich harvest at international racing circuits. At Irungattukottai, 250cc Jawas have demonstrated how tarmac-suited they are. “Jawa is a tough little bike that can be a comfortable street bike in the evening, after a whole day on the tracks,” says Venkatram.

Superheroes have their moments of weaknesses, when they appear to be a shadow of their great self. In a Jawa, the rear brake is operated by a cable and not a rod. “Reasonably thick, the cable can’t snap — but it makes for a greater braking distance,” says Sachi.

“It is common for people to switch to a rod-operated rear brake,” says Maniam.

“The previous owner of my Jawa had switched to rod; I went in for a cable,” says Sachi.

Most Jawa nuts prefer not to change the machine — even if that means living with problems such as gear slips. Because part of a superhero’s or a cult bike’s greatness lies in rising above inherent flaws.

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