Team-BHP - Tribute to the Jawa Yezdi

My Dad had a Yezdi Classic, for close to 15 years. He sold it just when I was getting ready to Ride. His excuse was that he did not want to allow me to ride a Heavy Motorcycle.
3-4 years later, he bought me a Suzuki Shogun (Class 10th). At that time, there was a Supersprint available for sale (Rs. 34000 if I recall correctly), in the Yezdi showroom across the road from the TVS Suzuki showroom.
I so wanted to buy this, but my dad again shot down the idea.

When I bought my first bike with my own money, I made it a TBTS, because I always wanted to ride a Heavy Bike. :D

But, can I get my hands on a Supersprint from somewhere?

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy_libran (Post 2839667)

At that time, there was a Supersprint available for sale (Rs. 34000 if I recall correctly), in the Yezdi showroom across the road from the TVS Suzuki showroom.
I so wanted to buy this, but my dad again shot down the idea.

But, can I get my hands on a Supersprint from somewhere?

Are you sure about this? IIRC, the Supersprint never made into production. I maybe wrong here...

The super-sprint was never launched or homogolated .There were a couple of them for display purposes only and all of them were unregistered and with TC plates only ..some pics from the factory during closure are on the links below .

Ideal Jawa factory -The last Chapter !! | Facebook

Ideal Jawa -The Glory Years !! | Facebook

Prashanth

For the last two days I've been trying to verify what the showroom had on display. It looked exactly like the Supersprint but in Silver and it was a Yezdi. The showroom belonged to a classmates family and I've been trying to trace him out.
What I do recall was that there was one piece that they had and that was being offered for sale.

My Dad had a Czech Jawa 250 (1966-7) MSS 6048.Does anybody out there have this bike? Dad sold it in 1981. Don't remember the exact model. But i do remember the times when he used to take me for rides. When i was small i was perched on the Tank. I loved those rides. To me my Dada was the Fastest and the Best rider ever! He still is. :)
I remember there was a Neutral light on the Round HeadLamp/board which intrigued me. After i grew taller i was demoted to riding pillion( I did not like that too much). My Dad Maintained that Jawa in Mint Condition. Every Sunday he'd go to his mechanic to potter around with it. Everything would gleam on that bike! It was a One kick Start bike. Dad would bring it out on the street, Grab the front brake, Press the Handle Bar and pump the fork a couple of times. Lift the Kick Start with the inside of heel after pushing it inwards. Pump it twice, Kick and the Beast would roar to Life. He would revel in the Idling for at least 30 seconds, blip the throttle a couple of times, Achilles Tendon it into First and roar down the street! Music! I miss that bike!

My dad owned a Jawa in the 70's. I have only seen pictures of that bike with him riding it.
During college, a senior had a leaky Yezdi and that was the first Jawa/Yezdi I ever rode.
My Father-in-law has an old Yezdi in pristine condition and I have been trying to get my hands on it for the past two years now but he says he will not part with it.
Thanks all of you for putting up these pictures.Really loved them.
-speedmunster

The Yezdi bike had no ignition key worth the name. A T shaped nail like metal piece with served to close the electricals for kick starting the bike. Incase you lost the 'key' you could start the bike with a suitable nail. There was no proper handle lock, just a two pieces of metal bolted to the head with a hole in it to pass a padlock. The engine cover had a gasket seal which invariably leaked. It was a bike which required a lot of looking after, but would run with a little TLC. The twin silencer pipes leaked oil as the fuel was petrol mixed with oil.

The bike was available in two colors in the 70s, black and a military green. The chrome on the wheel rim required frequent plating.

When the first 100 cc bikes hit the market, this bike could not sustain the market as it was grossly underpowered and had poor mileage.

Wonder what happened to the company as they had only this bike in production. The Royal Enfield which was the competitor to the Yezdi manages to survive today by making changes to the bike while retaining the charm of the old bike.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SajiNSalin (Post 2841714)

I think you are referring to the old ones… My RoadKing have a proper CDI ignition.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SajiNSalin

When the first 100 cc bikes hit the market, this bike could not sustain the market as it was grossly underpowered and had poor mileage.

Wonder what happened to the company as they had only this bike in production. The Royal Enfield which was the competitor to the Yezdi manages to survive today by making changes to the bike while retaining the charm of the old bike.

Poor mileage yes, but underpowered? At the time it went off production, it was still very powerful compared to the 100cc motorbikes. IIRC, during those the 14bhp Suzuki Shogun was the most powerful among the small bikes. I guess the company couldn’t keep pace with the stricter emission norms and the whole motorbike scene was shifting to 4-stroke technology. I used to get a mileage of 25kmpl which was really poor by motorbike standards.

^^^ Totally agree. Yezdi may have been Fuel In-Efficient, but not Under-Powered. Compared to most of the bikes of the day, the Yezdi had brilliant acceleration, and then the wonderful sound to go with it.
The reliability, IMO, was not poor. It needed a bit of looking after (a lot less than the Enfields of the day), and then it ran beautifully.
The reliability benchmark for bikes, in those days (pre-Japs) was the Rajdoot.

Wow Saji. Starting with the keys, a lot of bikes including your Enfields and Rajdoots of that era had common keys for their brands and the same thing goes for the steering locks. Yes, the Rajdoots had them but even the Jawas until 1964 had the built-in steering locks. Guess, people were more trustworthy during that period.

About the chrome, I think it was one of the best. I have seen quite a few bike including mine which is still on its original chrome and paint. My bike is 40 years old and the chrome is still reasonably good and I have seen original paint and chrome bikes from 1962 and 1967.

Mileage and power has already been explained by others.

Yezdi's closed down because of worker union problem and not because of anything else. Yes, it would have been difficult to survive in the current market but look even Ambassadors are still around.

As for the leaking pipes, the collor nuts and the rubber boot costed you very little to change. People just didn;t bother.

As for reliability, I rate them high up there. They can take the beating and still keep moving. My 50 year old bike still runs as good as new and Im sure I can still do a cross country on it.

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by vb-san (Post 2841874)

I think you are referring to the old ones… My RoadKing have a proper CDI ignition.

Poor mileage yes, but underpowered?

He was not referring to the ignition system AFAIK, but to the ignition slot found on the older bikes. I myself had a 82' Classic with the 'nail' type key leading to comments ranging from, "Do you start a pre-historic vehicle with that?" to "Every one with a piece of twig can start the bike".
The key was very versatile as you could turn off the engine by just pulling out the key half-way, and had half turns for headlight and battery.

Regarding the mileage part, no one would differ to the point of view. The bike could still be termed as underpowered when you look at it wrt to the displacement and the power offered. Still based on the archaic design from the early 50's and 60's, the power output was poor when you consider that the 'tiny' 100cc of a Suzuki Shogun could churn out close to 14bhp.
Relatively speaking, a Yezdi is underpowered but then no rider including me would term the power inadequate.

Thats's my two pennies right there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mahesh.kolary (Post 2843444)

Well, that’s what I mentioned as well – maybe he was referring to those old models. My bike (1995 Road King) does not have the mechanism as explained by him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mahesh.kolary

Regarding the mileage part, no one would differ to the point of view. The bike could still be termed as underpowered when you look at it wrt to the displacement and the power offered. Still based on the archaic design from the early 50's and 60's, the power output was poor when you consider that the 'tiny' 100cc of a Suzuki Shogun could churn out close to 14bhp.
Relatively speaking, a Yezdi is underpowered but then no rider including me would term the power inadequate.

I still don’t understand the underpowered bit. The 250cc 16bhp Road King could do 0-60 in less than 5 seconds, which was excellent by the standards then.

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A bit of trivia I remember about the Yezdi - The real name was Jezdi, but since our folks pronounced Jawa as Jaa-Vaa, and not Yaa-Waa, they decided they spell it as Yezdi, so that the correct pronunciation is retained.