I have had a long association with both Jawa and CZ motorcycles and only a slightly shorter one with the Jawa-CZ Owners Club.
I bought my first motorcyle in 1953. This was a 1950 125cc CZ. I was looking at BSA Bantams, but they were a little too expensive for me, earning about 1 shilling ( 5p ) an hour as an apprentice electrician plus an extra 10 shillings helping a friend of my fathers on his overall stall in East Street market on a Sunday morning. The CZ was cheap, because of it's rarity, and although I did not know it at the time, it shared a common ancestor with the Bantam. This was the pre-war German DKW. However, when the Bantam and the CZ were compared it was obvious that the Bantam engine was a pale copy of the DKW, the CZ engine was much improved.
I rode many happy miles on the CZ, apart from the fact that it a strange habit of stopping every so often, and for no apparent reason. I tried everything, and so did a local motorcycle dealer, but could not cure it. It was at this time in 1954 that I saw an advert in the club pages of the 'Green 'Un' and the 'Blue 'Un' (Motor Cycling and The Motor Cycle), that it was intended to start an club for the owners of Jawa and CZ motorcycles with the aim of technical support and social events. This was the answer I needed and I joined. A week or so later, one of the founders, Sid Willis, turned up to sort out my machine. All to no avail, and a few months later I sold the CZ and purchased a secondhand 250cc BSA C11G. I still remained in the club and eventually, in 1956, I part exchanged the BSA for an 'as new' 1954 plunger framed Jawa 250, with only 19 mile on the clock.
The 250 gave sterling service, and I have always maintained that this was a far superior engine although the 350 was like a sewing machine. On this machine I went to the ISDT at Garmisch Partenkirchen in Bavaria, for the Intenational Six Days Trial, with fellow club member Jock Wade, to me then, an old man of 50, This was an event that the Czechs won with monotonous regularity in the 50's and 60's. In 1957, I went Czecho with Bob Rixen and another club member.
In 1958 Bob Rixen and I decided we would both buy new machines. For Bob it was another 350 and for me it was an upgrade. Naively I thought, more speed and faster journeys. The top speed difference was only about 7 or 8 mph, although it got there a hell of a lot quicker. Average speed however was the same or lower as any sustained high speed resulted in piston seizure. It was about this time I met my future wife, Diana. Whether it was the regular two-up journeys, but this machine was big trouble. The crankshaft seal moved and short circuited the rotor windings. Main bearings failed (not so common in those days) and finally, when braking, the end of the swinging arm bent at the brake anchor block. After several letters to Industria and Jawa, they exchanged it for a new machine late in 1959. This was 44MPH the machine I am at present re-furbishing.
My motorcycling days continued with a number of trips to Czecho, one of them via Berlin, until in 1962 my daughter Kim was born. We then bought a Skoda S440, although I kept the Jawa. It was not long before we got tired of the car, so we sold it and bought a Velocette Venom and sidecar. Boy, was that trouble, and we went back to a car.
In 1965 our son Sean was born, and we left London to live in Huntingdon. Over the years, my ties to the club, which was then almost totally London based, got more and more tenuous, and eventually my membership lapsed although I still kept in touch with people like Bob Rixen, Frank Clapson, and of course Ian.
Anyway, now I am back on the path of true righteousness, and a member once more. When 44MPH is back on the road, I'll be active in the club once again.
Links
Jawa-CZ Owners Club of GB
