Jawa 350 Style

[moilami]

Gosh, I hope that you'll not bring together these B&W photos and PJ Harvey's music, because some suicidal tendencies may appear. Some of your photos evoke some strange feelings.

Thank you, much appreciated, that is the biggest thing one can say to a photographer, at least to me. I intentíonally left out what I call kitch travelling photography :) I am no profit individual at the moment :)

Very good music that PJ Harvey made, fit indeed moodwise to the photographs I took :) If I could, I would listen it tomorrow when riding back to Lempäälä :)

Now lets wear helmets and check the way wisely, or else there can be nothing much to laugh about

[moilami]

The engagement trip with Miroslava, part 4

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The sun begun to set, so I had to find a place for a tent. I drank the last cup of tea watching this sunset. Even a small trip can be special.

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Luckily I found almost immediatly a place for tent. According to my Jolla phone there would had been commercial camping services close by. I had no interest to go do hassling in those since I just wanted to find a place for my tent where I could drink some beer and sleep.

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The beer was cold. Temperature was maybe below 10 degrees, and the beer was not just cold but perfect! It was nectar, the second best beer I have drunk, the best being in Norway near Nordcap. After a day of travelling beer can be good also in avoiding dehydration.

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When I crawled out of my tent the sun greeted me right away directly in my eyes. Good morning!

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To be continued...

[moilami]

The engagement trip with Miroslava, Part 5

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Halfway through the trip one of the goals of the engagement trip has been met as I met the maiden outside of this Café Siiri. We came along fantastically right away, spending the day closely together. I humbly thank you Fortuna for letting me meet the truly unique and extraordinary sweet maiden.

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So very good sweets and food to eat. But I was not hungry. Half of a Korvapuusti bun was enough for me with a cup of coffee. Well, I was modest too since we had a deal that she would offer me food.

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I only chatted with one motorist during the trip, which must have been a new record for me. He was very fond of his American export 800 cm³ Honda. Travel safe!

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The trip back to home was cold. The temperature surely was below 10 Celsius. I did not meet Simpanen during the engagement trip because each time I were near Iittala the clock was outside of proper visit time.

The Jawa worked very well during the trip despite fouling one spark plug right in the beginning. It is a joy to ride, I definitely don't need a "better" bike. Also semi automatic clutch is a luxury many bikes don't have. The saddle is great on it, I had no issues with it at all. Miroslava is my trusted (with some reservations), appreciated, and loved work horse. I look forward to many mini trips and commuting with Miroslava. Longer trips are just a matter of shinies in a pocket.

WIsh you all cold beers, safe travels, and no punctures. Thanks for being able to bear these pics. I am off to a new mini trip.

[moilami]

Crap Shoot, part 1

Time to make a small update here. I started a new minitrip to meet the maiden again. Everything was fine, the weather was great, I was roaring 100 km/h at 4000 RPM stable, felt sudden interruptions on engine, and BAM, rear tire locked. For a while I thought wow, not a good thing, can fall, then I realized the familiar feeling of letting the rear tire slide, and thought that for the heck of it I wont let the freaking Jawa fall if I have made similar slides for lols countless times with MZ. The bike slowed down considerably as cars passed me fast on the left. I wanted to get away from the right lane and instinctively pulled the clutch, and voilá, I got steering back. Now it was trivial to pull to the side of the road, knowing also that the freaking engine of the freaking little shit had seized.

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Of course the fault was mine because I did not pay attention when small signs of seizure were given in the form of slight interruptions on the engine and pulled the clutch. However, it was completely unacceptable that a bike seizes at 100 km/h 4000 RPM. I could drive MZ as hard as I wanted, and she only said to me aaaaaah, fuck me as hard as you want, I don't mind. And I can say I did. But this Jawa.......eeeeeeh, it was maybe cool in '50s or so, but not in the 2017.

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I was so very pissed at the bike I even forgot to be happy of the fact there was no 18 wheeler rearing me when the rear wheel locked. Or 18 wheeler avoiding me to left lane and crashing on someone else. I wondered what to do and chose to give bike a kick, a kick on the kickstart. Surprisingly enough the engine started, yet sounded bad. Made a decision to drive to nearest city and think there more about the next move.

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I was thirsty, so I stopped in the nearest city, Hämeenlinna, close by to a shop to buy juice. The road was named Parolantie, which leads to Amoured Brigade, where Lagus's Arrows always point forward. Turning back was not an option anymore. I bought juice and hit the road, thinking this fucking piece of crap shit can have her last trip, but I will travel to Lempäälä with it.

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Along the route was Iiittala and Simpanen. I called him and said I had a bit problems with the engine, asking could he check it and tell what new parts would be needed. Simpanen guessed right away when I met him that a seizure has been happened. He said a new piston is needed, and we must know do we need left or right side piston. He took a screwdriver and used it as a stethoscope, listening the sounds from both cylinders. I found it extremely hilarious, but dared not laugh at it. Simpanen handed me the screwdriver and said now you try. I listened the engine too from both sides but was unable to say which piston is bad. I tried exhaust smokes by hand and suggested it must be right cylinded as the exhaust from right pipe is not paf-paf-paf but rather paf-...-...-paf. Simpanen removed exhaust pipes from cylinders and we observed from the holes that indeed right piston is damaged and left piston is all alright.

I bought one piston, three piston rings, and two sealings for 68 euro, and later I opted to buy a needle bearing for piston for 10 euro. Was happy to get the parts, even though I was still very disappointed at the bike and at myself for letting the seizure happen. It was time to wave goodbye to Simpanen and continue to Lempäälä.


To be continued...

[moilami]

Here is a vid of the sounds of Jawa at first start after seizure

[Zorge]

It sounds like "Singer" on acid.

I mean, "Singer" as sewing machine.

Seriously, I've heard that "Jawas" tend to seize one of the cylinders when you twist the throttle for a while, but, allegedly, after that you only need to left engine to cool down and continue your ride. Bad luck is what you had.

Did you checked this damn oil mixer? "Jawa" connoisseurs recomend net less than 4% oil mixture, and it is easy to believe for me that this mixer doesn't provide enough lubrication on high revs.

Next time when Czech narttu had some caprices, buy some juice from "Lapin Kulta" - you'll be much more relaxed.

[moilami]

Yeah. Will fix things. Should had believed Simpanen when he said that it can seize at hot days in high revs. Direct translation from merchant talk goes "it will seize on hot days at high revs"

There were four issues leading to this:

1. I made a noob mistake and decreased a tiny bit of oil master lubrication when it fouled spark plugs because of wrong jets.

2. Dirty cylinder air cooling rivets.

3. Miroslava was still in breaking in period. It is comparable to PMS. Care should really be taken!

4. Bad quality mineral two stroke oil.

Also should had put a bit oil into fuel tank as Simpanen recommended to do each time when refueling, and especially during hot days. Simpanen said that it is old school engine, which means very tight tolerances between cylinder and piston, which requires long and careful breaking in. When done well, it will be long lasting and strong. New school bikes are not done like that because people are not patient enough to break in them well.

Anyway, the bike is sort of fixed, I changed the piston and some piston rings. Some piston rings were not changed because I broke one when installing the cylinder, and fucked up another. So had to use two old piston rings. The heavy knocking went away, but it still have bad noise in a form of not so loud grasshopper style ringing when opening throttle, like piston rings would rattle a bit. Also it feels that right cylinder is taking more revs than left, which may be caused because of wrong alignment of cylinders. Jawa uses one carburator for two cylinders, and the cylinder alignment is important so that each cylinder gets a fair amount of fuel/air mixture. So I figure the right cylinder gets more, and hence revs more.

I am still pretty fond of Jawa, especially since I was able to change the piston without ever before opening an engine of any bike. It is a rugged and simple machine, which is what I like. It is interesting to see what breaks next in the engine :)

Edit: And you are right about Lapin Kulta too. The shops weere not allowed to sell beer during the trip, so I was left out without camping beer, a bad bad thing



I am though much more interested of Czech beer, I heard they make good beer, Jawa and Czech beer makes life good

[Zorge]

Yea.... Czech beers are good and the best brand for you would be a "Kozel"... because you are the one... A goat! Kozel means goat, male goat.

I hope that you will understand these words not as insult, but as my disappointment or frustration.

Man, how you manage to combine almost a half of dozen factors that can do damage to the engine? One or two at the time - that I can understand, but the whole list?!

What will be next? You'll tell us that you have spoiled spark plug threads on cylinder heads because you increased oil/fuel ratio, and you have been forced to screw/unscrew spark plugs often and clean the sooth from the electrodes when engine was hot? It can happen easily, so be careful about that and God knows how many details. True, "Jawa" is obsol.... pardon, "old school", but it is not a "Super Cub" (or this bike "aus Zschopau", who I will not name ), to cope with anything you throw at her.

Now seriously, enough with my attempts to be funny. I would not be satisfied with that mix of old and new piston rings and that knocking sound. Solve this before tiny problem grow big. Almost 80 euros for a single 2T piston with rings and needle bearing is... well, for that money you can buy four piston set for FIAT "Punto" or "Škoda Fabia".

I mean, if this trifle cost so much, how much would you be forced to spend for... I dont know... cylinder or crankshaft? It appears that days when mingling with "Jawa" was cheap hobby, are over long time ago.

And cylinder on "Jawa" CANNOT "take more revs" than the other one, because they are connected with common crankshaft. For God's sake, you don't have some exotic engine such are Ukrainian HKBD's 3TD, 5TD, 6TD!

Fact that she has single carb, make things simpler for you - no carb synchronization. Plus, IMO, "cylinder alignment" you mentioned and this carb positioning, is not crucial. Why?

"Jawa" engine, after carb, sucks in air/fuel mixture through single "lobby" which afterwards splits into two "corridors" with a quite the same geometry, but even that is not so important. One cylinder/crankcase can get less of that mixture only if... how to say... air-tightness differs from the another cylinder/crankcase. The reason for this difference can be... worn piston rings or oil seal on the crankcase, leaky gaskets... It's first that came to mind.

[moilami]

Haha, my ex always said I am a goat (she was from countryside and her mother had goats, among other animals, so I guess she knew what she was talking ), so now you are a second person to say so, I take it as a honour since goats are awesome animals They sell that Kozel by the way in Finland, will have to buy in on next trip :)

Yeah, the price for the piston was ridiculous, when I saw the piston I though that 60 euro for that, man, can't be serious, fucking ridiculous. I think I saw in Polish shop two pistons and rings for them for $30

I am good at messing things, so on that list how everything what can increase the risk of failure was checked :)

Thank you very much of the technical details, and good point on that crankshaft, at times I need to knock myself on head and ask is there an engineer inside :) Or am I all goat :D

Will now have to fix then only the piston rings to see if the slight ringing when opening the throttle goes away.

[moilami]

Crap Shoot, part 2

So, the engine of Jawa seized, but I was able to make it to Lempäälä, and there to Mäyriä, a free as in free beer camping site owned by several nearby municipalities.

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When I lived in countryside at Hirvensalmi I met a couple who spent all their summers in a rowing boat in Lake Puula. They were amazing campers, had even a portable Sauna in their boat. I fancied a lot what they were doing, but rowing and sitting on a boat was not my cup of tea, even though Lake Puula is nothing short of spectacular. However, I always thought I want to do the same, but with a motorcycle.

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Henceforth a plan has begun to form up in my mind: to spend in summer as much as reasonably possible on the road with a motorcycle. A start for it could be by finding a good base of operations camp, which Mäyriä appears to be. It would be interesting to make a camp at Mäyriä and do short one day trips to the surrounding area, exploring all points of interest.

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In Mäyriä there is oven, cooking stuff, warm water, cold water good to drink, good toilets, a lake, sauna, sand beach, and electricity for recharging batteries. There is simply everything I need, and more.

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I am happy to travel in Finland. The more old I become, the more I appreciate Finland and the people in Finland. It is good to be at home.

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