page_title: František Janeček
section_title: Motorcycle development
hierarchical_section_title: František Janeček / Motorcycle development
caption_attribution_description: English: Jawa (250?) motorcycle
context_page_description: František Janeček was the founder of Jawa motorcycles and an important figure in the development of the Czech motorcycle industry. He died on 4 June 1941.
context_section_description: Janeček saw an opportunity in 1927 to turn a former armament factory into a motorcycle manufacturing company. He drew on his knowledge of engineering and his experience with factory mass production techniques and based his new motorcycle designs around an existing 498cc engine made by a German company called Wanderer. The new company was named JAWA in 1929, a compound of the first two letters of Janeček and Wanderer.
  Janeček first began producing Wanderer motorcycles under license in 1927 in order to diversify the interests of his arms factory. His first motorcycle has a number of advanced features, including shift-drive and a steel frame. He was able to recruit an experienced British motorcycle designer George William Patchett, and together they developed a range of competition motorcycles to promote the new Jawa brand. In the 1930s Janeček expanded the range to include lightweight economy models based around British Villiers two-stroke engines, as well as middleweight 350cc side valve and overhead valve motorcycles under the Jawa brand (e.g. Jawa 350).
caption: Early Jawa 350 motorcycle
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