![]() ![]() ![]() The high-brow Californain model was developed especially for the export market. The 350 version came in several further sports versions, featuring increased performance and an original clutch solution. The decade also saw the next generation of the 250 and 350 models - the Automatic. In the 1960s Jawa saw its centre of production move from modern facilities in Prague’s Pankrác and Libeň to factories in Prague’s Strašnice and the original production facility in Týnec nad Sázavou. The company’s exports reached a peak in the 1950s, with the most important export destination being the Soviet Union. ![]() The Pérák, Kývačka and Panelka models were the most popular of the Jawa bikes. Jawa factory in Týnec nad Sázavou, photo: ŠJů, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 The economic fallout of the great depression soon called for the production of a cheaper model. It was considered to be a reliable machine, but was expensive and did not garner much success. Production started in 1927 and the first Jawa motorcycle to come out of Janeček’s factory was the Wanderer model, with a four-cycle engine that packed 18 hp. It is from the combination of the words Janeček and Wanderer that the Jawa got its name. He drew on his knowledge of engineering and his experience with mass production techniques in factories, basing his new motorcycle designs around an existing 498cc engine made by a German company called Wanderer. It was in 1927 that Janeček saw the opportunity to turn an old dynamite factory into a motorcycle production facility. His inventions ranged from the “pneumograph” – an early form of a multiple ad screen – to hand grenades. Over the following 10 years, the engineer would develop several unique designs, securing over 60 patents. ![]() Janeček decided to end his collaboration with Kolben in 1909 and chose to start his own company in Prague. The later was so impressed with Janeček’s work that he appointed the 23-year-old as manager of a new factory in the Netherlands. There he worked under one of the great Bohemian industrialists of the nineteenth century, Emil Kolben. Frantiček Janeček, photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public DomainĪfter finishing his studies, Janeček returned to Prague. ![]()
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