Jawa Born 23rd of January 1878, Frantisek Janecek was born in Klaster nad Dedinou, one of the smallest villages of East Bohemia in former Czechoslovakia. He studied mechanics at the technical school in Prague and continued with his studies at the college of Berlin. He returned to Prague, where he started work for Kolben in Vysocany (one of the biggest companies in Bohemia). At the age of 23, he was entrusted with the management of a new factory in Holland, where he met his future wife who nursed him after her father accidentally hit with his car while Frantisek was riding his bicycle on the way to his work. At the age of 31, he started to work independently and opened his own mechanical workshop in Prague. After a short active duty at the Italian front during World War I, he went back to the drawing board and soon he obtained about sixty patents. The most well known invention of that time was Janecek's hand grenade. After the decline of the armament industry in 1929, Janecek decided to start the production of motorcycles. There was no time to develop an engine of his own, so Janecek chose between the Austrian double piston two-stroke motor of Puch, the Berlin two-stroke of Schliha, and the new Wanderer 500 cc. Janecek chose the Wanderer. Because of the collapse of the German motor industry, Wanderer had already decided to stop the production as they did not think it would be profitable to directly compete with BMW. The 500cc motorcycle using a German single-cylinder Wanderer engine was produced using his own pressed steel frame. From this the Jawa name was derived "JAnecek WAnderer". The bike featured shaft drive and overhead valves, quite forward for it's time, but lack of reliability led to it being a failure. The fortunes of the company were turned around when the British engineer George-William Patchett, previously employed in the Brough Superior, introduced new designs in 1932. The 175cc model was a success, which was produced until the 1946, and was equipped with a English Villiers engine, there were also 350cc side valve and overhead valve road bikes. A 350cc was launched with single overhead-camshaft which at this time before the war was still a rare feature in motorcycles, proving that Czechoslovakia was a technologically advanced country in Eastern Europe. Another successful model in 1937 was the "Robot", which stands for "work", the engine comprised a Unit Construction design, years in advance of British manufacturers. After the war the Jawa concern was nationalised by the communist regime and introduced 250cc two-stroke singles and 350cc twin models which became the backbone of their production. The 250 "Pérak" a single-cylinder Unit construction was developed during the war, and the design was hidden by the engineers from the German Nazi occupiers. This was developed to become the "Kyvacka 250" in 1954, meaning "springer", referring to the new rear swinging arm suspension. In the 1952, Jawa launched a beautiful 500 twin four-stroke, with single over-head camshaft, driven by shaft and concentric gears, very modern and elegant for that period. Jawa enjoyed great success in six-day trials, rallying and speedway after the war.

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1948 Perak 248cc	1955 OHC Twin 500cc	1956 354/03 350cc
1957 Type 356 175cc