JAWA

František Janeček came from the armament industry and had no motorcycle experience when he bought the motorcycle division of Wanderer. The name JAWA joins the first letters of Janeček and Wanderer. The first model, a 500 cc four-stroke with 12 kW (18 hp), was introduced on 23 October 1929, and in 1932 the light 175, weighing 70 kg, sold more than 3,000 in its first year.

After the war production of the 250 and 350 restarted, and in the 1950s the compact two-stroke 250/350 was exported to more than 120 countries. In the early 1960s Jawa introduced the first automatic centrifugal clutch for motorcycles, and in 1964 it started production at a new plant in Týnec nad Sázavou and built its millionth motorcycle. After 1990 production fell sharply, and a successor company, JAWA Moto, was formed in 1997.