Last year, the big news was that Mahindra & Mahindra had acquired the legendary Jawa brand of motorcycles and was planning to bring it back to India. Now while that is still a couple of years away, the Czech bike maker has launched its first couple of bikes after its acquisition by the Indian auto giant. Although Jawa is known for its two-stroke machines, the bikes – 350 OHC and 660 Vintage – are powered by four-stroke motors.
Now, the 660 Vintage isn’t really a new motorcycle. Back in 2011, Jawa had introduced the 660 Sportard powered by a 660cc, parallel-twin, four-stroke, liquid-cooled motor sourced from Italian company Minarelli. This new Vintage model is a more classically styled model that is a throwback to the iconic Type 634. Mechanically, nothing has really changed and the bike makes 49hp of peak power with 57.5Nm of torque on tap. There are, of course, a few changes to the ergonomics as the Sportard was designed to be a dual-sport bike, while the Vintage has a more street-oriented stance.
The actual new model that has been introduced is the 350 OHC, again styled to be a tribute to the iconic 350 Type 634 two-stroke from the 1970s. This bike gets a parallel-twin air-cooled engine from Chinese manufacturer Shinray, with a fuel injection system from Delphi. The 397cc mill produces 27.7hp at 6,500rpm and a maximum torque figure of 30.6Nm coming in at 5,000rpm. But more importantly, this engine meets Euro-IV emission norms, which will make the bike feasible to be sold in European markets.
It’s got a classic British roadster look going for it, thanks to a 19-inch front wheel and an 18-inch one in the rear, both with wire spokes. It gets a 12-litre fuel tank and the bike tips the scales at 160kg of dry weight. Jawa hasn’t revealed too many other specs about the 350 OHC, but it does sport ABS for the front disc brake. It is priced at CZK 99,930 in the Czech Republic, which roughly translates to Rs 2.6 lakh.
Now it’s unknown at this point whether Mahindra will bring the 350 OHC or the 660 Vintage to India. The company plans to manufacture Jawa bikes in its Pithampur plant and distribute them through separate Jawa dealerships by 2018, if the schedule discussed last year holds true. If it does manufacture the 350 OHC in India, it is likely to cost similar to what it does in the Czech Republic.