Royal Enfield Vs Jawa

[vikyjoshi]

They say "there were boys and then there were Men". This can be aptly said for the motorcycles as well where Royal Enfield and now, the Jawa have come back to be amongst the men.

There are two rather retro yet modern bikes I would like to compare.

Below is the technical comparison I have done for the Bikes from RE stable, and the Jawa bikes (Jawa and Jawa42)

 

[ankathil.arjun]

Thank you for compiling this. Never thought this segment would ever get so crowded in just 2 days.
Though not launched yet, I think it would be great if you can add the Jawa Perak/Bobber also in the list. The Perak has a bigger engine, with more power and torque, monoshocks and also has rear discs with dual channel ABS. Also any reasons to leave the Thunderbird 500 from this comparison?

 

[vikyjoshi]

Thank you for compiling this. Never thought this segment would ever get so crowded in just 2 days.
Though not launched yet, I think it would be great if you can add the Jawa Perak/Bobber also in the list. The Perak has a bigger engine, with more power and torque, monoshocks and also has rear discs with dual channel ABS. Also any reasons to leave the Thunderbird 500 from this comparison?

Will add Perak as well, but couldn't get the details specifics for the same. Will do some browsing and add Perak as well.

 

[generalmax]

I don't know how many of you had actually driven the original Jawa. I am not talking about the ideal -Jawa offspring , the Yezdis. The real chrome -red Jawa. I had only seen Yezdis, as by the time I was fit for a Bike, Jawa had evaporated. More of Yezdi, Roadkings were there. Now, the beauty of Yezdi, was it's acceleration compared to the bullet of those times, which was a four stroke bike. Yezdi was a two stroke, cheaper than Bullet and no nonsense bike (other than the kick start). Coming to the present, the same stature continues, but, bullets are highly efficient and reliable. If you look at the Jawa line up, it is too cute to disregard. But, Classic and TBs, have their own strong following. Add the 650 twins, it is not an easy job for Jawa to catch the market.

 

[J.Ravi]

Below is the technical comparison I have done for the Bikes from RE stable, and the Jawa bikes (Jawa and Jawa42)

Nice compilation. However, Thunderbird 350/500 are absent in the table.

no nonsense bike (other than the kick start)

Somehow, I - as a school student - always had problems in starting those Bullets and Jawas of 1960s. In case of Bullet, I used to make many unsuccessful attempts by pressing the decompressing lever, watching the amp meter, while kicking. In case of my uncle's Jawa, I remember, only one lever acted both as kick-starter and gear-shifter! First, bring it to the neutral using the gear-shifter and then, pressing and rotating it counter-clockwise to kick-start the bike! However, after the difficult start, I used to enjoy the ride in both these bikes! In contrast, leave alone the electric start, give a gentle kick, my Blue Bird - aka Thunderbird 500 - starts chirping in the very first kick even after a couple of months of hibernation!

 

[P3T3R]

While the bikes may be nice both the launch events were pathetic with Jawa outdoing Enfield in pathetic-ness

 

[vikyjoshi]

yes, somewhat I agree, the launch of the Jawa bikes was bit Tardy, we got to know how it all started but then it felt as if we were over hearing some discussion between few friends. There was lot of scope of improvement in the Jawa launch. It was informative yet boring.