A PAIR FROM PRAGUE

Wanderer had designed and built an all-new 498cc overhead valve single with a three-speed gearbox and shaft final drive in 1928, but the German motor industry was in severe decline and few of the new model were made before the factory shut its doors. Initially, Wanderer’s assets were taken over by the rival NSU concern, but were very soon on-sold to Frantisek Janecek, who operated a munitions supply company in Prague.

Janecek himself, born in East Bohemia in 1978, was highly educated and a gifted engineer, having worked and studied in Netherlands, Germany and UK. In 1908 he financed the opening of his own mechanical engineering laboratory and workshop in Prague by selling two of his own patents, for arc lamps, which were snapped up by German companies. Janecek went on to develop and patent many designs for military use, but by the close of the 1920s demand had dwindled and he began to look elsewhere for business. One such field was motorcycles, but rather than undertake the costly process of starting from scratch, he concluded a deal with NSU to take over the design and tooling of the 500 Wanderer. By combining the first two letters of his surname with that of Wanderer, JAWA was born.

Production of the 500 single did indeed commence in Prague, but it wasn’t long before Janecek realised he needed another string in his bow – a lightweight