Funny thing is...I have heard of Jawas...never seen one. Seen pics of them. Thats about it.
Not surprising, they were around in some areas and possibly NOT in others. Some folks have heard of CZs, but not Jawas and there are lots of folks who never heard of ESOs. They ALL came from the same company (group, or what ever). Ther have been several times I have seen a seller have a awa or street model CZ and they didn't know where the Kick Start was. Now, to me, that was funny
Cause I KNEW where it was. You see, for those who don't know, the gearshift lever is slightly larger and doubles as the kick starter. you simply take the shaft that the gearshift lever is mounted on, push it in with you hand or side of your foot, raise the lever up and to the rear. You have just repositioned the gearshift lever back into the kick start position. Then, after you have started the engine, release the lever and it will return to the gearshift position. One lever, one shaft and you can do two different things with it.
They've had this feature since somewhere around the mid 50's. I like to say that the Jawas and the street CZs are kinda like the VW's. They were solid, cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, slow, and didn't change much over the years.
That's what made the 250 Jawa that my Dad built, so impressive. I mean it was eating up the Bigger bikes, like the Triunmph 500cc twins, for example. Even the Triumph Dealer was having a problem keeping that old 250 Jawa from passing him up.
