Bikers gear up for Jawa Day today

Bikers of the region are all set to celebrate the made-in-Mysuru marvel on the 16th International Jawa Day on Sunday.

International Jawa Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of July across the nation, including in Mysuru, where the legendary bike was made for the first time in India, in the early 1960s. Bikers of the region have come together under the Mysuru Jawa Club and are taking out a rally of Jawa and Yezdi mobikes from V K Function Hall, in Nazarbad, around 9 am. It will pass via Hardinge Circle (Jayachamaraja Wadiyar Circle), Chamaraja Double Road, New Kantharaja Urs Road, Kuvempu Nagar Vishwamanava Double Road, University Road, Hunsur Road, VV Mohalla, Temple Road, Paramahamsa Road and will conclude at Joy Factory.

In 2016, Mahindra & Mahindra announced its intention of reviving Jawa, the iconic brand in motorcycling, in India. Now, the bikes are under production at Mahindra’s Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh and is expected to be launched around Deepavali. Chairman of Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra too is enthusiastic about the roll-out and is also celebrating Jawa Day.

A couple of years ago, Mahindra acquired a 60% stake in Classic Legends Private Limited which held the trademark for British brand BSA and had an exclusive brand license agreement with the Prague-based Jawa Moto. Jawa mobikes enjoyed a cult status in India between the 1960s up to the 90s. In India, Jawa and its later version Yezdi came to a halt in 1996.

In Czech

A motorcycle production company, established by František Janeček in Prague, in Czechoslovakia, has been known as Jawa since 1929. Before World War II, Janeček, who had many patents and inventions registered in his name, developed motorcycles. In 1929, Janeček bought the motorcycle division of Wanderer. Jawa was established by concatenating the first letters of Janeček and Wanderer. In 1945, the company was nationalised. The motorcycle developed during World War II was a powerful 2-stroke one ‘JAWA 250 cc’. In the 1950s, further development allowed production of both 250 and 350 cc motorcycles. JAWA was exporting them to over 120 countries.

Jawa Moto spol s.r.o. was established in 1997 as a successor to the original Jawa company, using the trademark JAWA. The majority owner is a joint stock company Jihostroj Velešín, a producer of hydraulic components and regulations systems for the automotive and aircraft industry.

Mysuru connection

When Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, then Maharaja of Mysuru, heard that mobikes were being imported from Czechoslovakia, he insisted that they begin an engineering industry in Mysuru, and not in Pune as was planned. Founder of the company Farrokh K Irani was close to Wadiyar, who helped Irani with the project. Irani’s brother Rustom Irani was the country agent of Jawa in Mumbai. Thus the commercial production of the mobikes began in 1961, at the factory on a 25 acre plot in Yadavagiri Industrial Area, in the city, with technical collaboration with Jawa of Czechoslovakia.

The factory had an initial investment of Rs 50 lakh and Wadiyar was one of the stakeholders. The company got a licence to manufacture 42,000 mobikes per annum and most of the materials were imported.

The company had 2,200 workers and rolled out 130 mobikes per day.

The collaboration between Jawa and Irani ended around 1974, giving birth to the Yezdi model of motorcycles. Thus an era in Indian motorcycling, dominated by Yezdi bikes, began.

When Japanese motorcycle manufacturers like Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki entered the market, Yezdi was not able to withstand the competition and winded up by 1996.

Jawa was very close to the heart of Wadiyar, so much so that there was a version that Jawa was the acronym for his name.

Clubs

Hardcore loyalists of Jawa and Yezdi have come together since then, under various clubs and celebrate the glory of the bikes, which they claim as evergreen.

S Krishna, convenor of Mysuru Jawa Club, an IT professional, said, 50% of the members have procured old mobikes for their sheer love for the brand.

“Around 30% have inherited from their parents and grandparents and the remaining have owned them throughout. Seventy-five-year-old Netaji, a resident of Ramanuja Road, still has his 1973 Classic B Type mobike and he will be part of the rally on Sunday. I myself own five Jawa and Yezdi bikes, which range from 1946 to 1996 models. The 1946 is an imported one from Czechoslovakia,” he said.

“Our members are bikers from almost all South Karnataka districts, including Bengaluru, parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This year we have a participant from Hyderabad. Our members are proud that the bikes were manufactured in Mysuru earlier. Most of them flaunt ‘Made in Mysuru’ stickers on their bikes,” he said.