Mysuru, (The Hindu): Hundreds of owners of Jawa motorcycles, which ruled the roads back in the 70s and the 80s, made a brand statement of the bikes in Mysuru by taking out a rally to mark International Jawa Day on Sunday.

The owners of different variants of Jawa motorcycles like Road King and Yezdi lined up outside the house of the late F.K. Irani, who was managing director of the erstwhile Ideal Jawa factory near the Nazarbad police station. The rally passed through various thoroughfares of the city before arriving at the site of the now-closed Jawa factory in Yadavagiri.

“Around 350 or 400 Jawa motorcycle owners participated in the rally. Most of the participants were from Mysuru, but we had representation from surrounding districts such as Hassan, Chickmagalur, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Mangaluru also,” said Krishna, a member of Jawa Friends Club, Mysuru.

While most of the participants were men, a few women also participated as pillion riders with relatives. The participants included not only owners, but also former employees of Ideal Jawa factory and mechanics.

Vintage models

The motorcycles paraded included vintage bikes such as a 1948-model Jawa motorcycle imported from what was then Czechoslovakia. The motorcycle is now owned by Raghu, a resident of Mysuru, who purchased it from its previous owner eight years ago. “The bike is still used regularly on city roads,” Mr. Krishna said.

International Jawa Day is observed on the second Sunday of July every year to mark the start of production of these motorcycles in the 1960s. Not only vehicles manufactured at the facility in Mysuru till 1996, when the factory was closed, even motorcycles imported from Czechoslovakia are paraded at the rally every year.