Why did I buy a '76 Jawa 350? Well. I'd just passed my test and wanted the maximum cubes for my money and a relatively new bike. I'd ridden a friend's 350 which if noisy and lacking sophistication appeared to have a torquey engine. I had looked at some GT500s but the Jawa appeared in the small ads of our local paper before I could complete a deal on one of those and all it cost was my ‘78 Honda 125J and £10.
For the first few months I was quite impressed. Well, it had a high quality paint finish and looked pretty solid. I'd added thicker oil to the forks it handled quite well, not all that difficult, I suppose, given the paucity of the performance. A common modification to improve the handling is to fit the springs normally employed when lugging a sidecar. and this helped me to embarrass several Jap 250s through the curves. Once I got ahead of them,the Jawa produced such a smoke screen that they tended to stay well back: if that didn't work. a baffle often fell out of the silencer into the path of the unfortunate 250.
When I bought the bike it had only 11000 miles on the clock and was still on the non-stick Barum tyres. After a couple of interesting slides these were quickly replaced with Roadrunners. Another initial problem was the amount of heft needed to put the thing on its centre-stand - maybe the commies are a lot tougher than the sedentary West. The idiot lights couldn't be seen from the normal riding position, which didn’t matter a jot as they didn't work. The indicators were standard Prince Of Darkness fare, similar to those fitted to Bonnies - in both appearance and action - they rotated and fell off frequently.
Starting, with the amazing Jawa combined kickstart/gearchange/autoclutch on the left-hand side, was usually easy enough as long as the minute Jikov carb was tickled (no choke), but only when the engine was cold... when warm the merest glance in the direction of the carb would gas up the engine. There was also the, amazing Jawa spike ignition key. When I lost this key I replaced it with a six inch nail - still, who'd want to steal a Jawa?
Over the year I owned it the bike only refused to go three times, which included two breakdowns (the bike not me). The first time I was on the way to Northampton when a slight misfire started. I stopped; had a fag and couldn‘t find any obvious fault with it. I carried on and when overtaking a car there was an enormous bang. Hastily pulling into the side of the road, much to the amusement of the jerk in the car, I had another look. The spark plug had vibrated out - the bang had been the result of the mixture igniting (the plug was still on the lead). I replaced it and carried on without incident.
The next breakdown is the reason I never trust dealers to work on my bikes - the UMG‘s cynicism seems well placed. I was down in Somerset visiting a friend and had been thrashing the bike up a steep hill. There was a very nasty rumbling which I could hear even above the usual cacophony the Jawa produced. A top end strip revealed nothing wrong until I checked the up and down movement of one of the conrods - oh dear. The price of a crank rebuild was a reasonable £28. but I couldn't split the crankcases so sent the whole bottom end off with a letter attached explaining what I wanted done. A week later the invoice turned up. I expected to be charged around £50 for the job but they wanted £130, claiming that they hadn‘t received the letter and thought that I wanted the whole bottom end rebuilt, including the gearbox - they claimed that I couldn't change gear with the box in the condition as I sent it. I went to the pub to find a phone and all three people I‘d spoken to before were on holiday or not available.
About a month of solicitors letters and nasty letters followed. All they would offer was to rebuild it with the old parts, but I didn’t like this idea so gave up and paid up. These days I would have told them to shove it and fitted another engine from a breakers.
Eventually the engine was returned and I fitted it all together. Much to my surprise, it started first kick. although the gearbox appeared to function exactly as it had previously. I rather lost enthusiasm for the bike after all that hassle. A few months later the bores, pistons and rings were clapped. I was told by another dealer that the barrels were already bored out to their maximum oversize. At that point I gave up on the Scarlet Pig completely, selling it to a vague acquaintance and his girlfriend, together with a sidecar from an A10 I had lying about. With the proceeds and a loan from my long suffering brother I bought a Z400 Kawa, but that's another story.
Overall I’m still undecided about whether I liked the machine or not. I managed 8000 miles with only one expensive breakdown. It could be screwed up to 85mph, although the way the speedo leapt about was no real indication of true speed. The fuel consumption was quite reasonable at 65 to 70mpg. although it had quite a heavy appetite for two stroke oil (it was one of the older models with a separate tank and fuel pump). Practical touches were a fully enclosed chain and a set of drum brakes that required only adjustment of their cables, although this wasn't all that surprising as they were not exactly startling stoppers, but they were progressive and safe in the wet.
The handling was better than many Jap commuters but that’s not much of a compliment. It was almost as fast as some of the 250s and could lose them in the curves on a good day, but there are no really memorable rides that I can recall. If it's just used as a slow commuter it's probably viable. but then a Honda C50 is more reliable and economical.
The thing with Jawas and the like is to decide whether to spend the money on a relatively new Eastern European hack or go for an older Jap. For the cost of a new Jawa there are lots of older Jap 400/450 four strokes that have much better performance and are more reliable despite their greater age, and in retrospect I probably wouldn't have bought one if I knew what I knew today. Come to think of it, no, I didn‘t like the bike. but at least it put me off two strokes and dealers. It was better than a CZ250 or Cossack 350, but that‘s not saying very much. If I had to go for a commie hack then it'd have to be an MZ250, even if the are no faster and less economical, at least they have the kind of qualities that inspire loyalty.
Bruce Enzer