 Our
"Award
Winning" Webmaster (June
2008)
It was a complete surprise and great
honour for me to win the 2008 Rally Chairman's Award for
"outstanding achievement and services rendered to the club"
in respect of this Website. John
Blackburn (Chairman) presented me with the black marble trophy at the 2008
rally award ceremony.
It makes all the late nights sat in
front of the computer in "the cupboard under the stairs"
worth while! Thank you very much!  |
Chris Baddiley -
Our Webmaster
|
Website Update (June 2008)
Money raised from the Google adverts
appearing on every page has been invested back into this website and has
paid for another years web hosting with LCN.
With more pages and unique content being added on a regular basis, we
certainly appear to be pulling the visitors in and keeping them interested!
Chris Baddiley - Webmaster
Website Visitors - Year 1 (June 2007 to June 2008)
One year ago today (16th June 2007) the new JAWA CZ Owners Club website
went live. In it's first year 27,659 visitors came to the site and made
264,899 page views! The number of visitors increased month after month and
averaged 75 visitors per day over that 12 month period. You can download
the full visitor stats for Year 1 here  (146
KB)
Chris Baddiley - Webmaster
The end of JAWA?
(January 2008)
Recent news coming from America states
that JAWA is in trouble and essentially production has shut down. The Rotax
engine is no longer available and 650cc production has ceased. The only
motorbikes they were making were a few 350cc 2 strokes for Cuba. The
source felt that JAWA was virtually bankrupt. Meanwhile
another non-Jawa contact in the Czech Republic also says that things are not
that healthy.
The JAWA CZ Owners Club has received this
official communication direct from the JAWA factory:
| We
are very surprised that you have so bad and untrue information. Our
company JAWA is doing well and we are offering the wide range of
motorcycles:
JAWA 50cc Betka, 12V - moped
JAWA 50cc Pionyr,12V
JAWA 50cc Robby
JAWA 125cc Dandy, Sport, Dakar and Travel
All these models fulfill the standards
EURO III. During February 2008 we shall produce the first motorcycles
JAWA 250cc Travel. The motorcycle JAWA 350cc is still very popular and
we are selling big quantities to non-European countries.
Concerning the JAWA 650cc, we are
producing these motorcycles for the countries except European Union,
now are still models Classic and Style available.
The engine Rotax doesn't fulfill the
EURO III standards, therefore we have to change the engine. For your
information it will be the Italian engine MINARELI.
We suppose that the prototype of this
new motorcycle 650cc will be produced till the end of this year and
will be prepared for next season.
I hope that this information is
sufficient for you and you believe that JAWA is continuing in
motorcycle production.
I remain with best regards,
Ivana Veverkova - Sales Manager
JAWA Moto spol. s r.o. |
|
Christmas Greetings
(December 2007)
The following Christmas Greetings come to all
Jawa Owners from Jawa Moto
Spol sr.o
=============
Dear
JAWA friends,
We wish you a happy and prosperous year 2008.
Best regards,
Ivana Veverkova - Sales Manager
JAWA Moto spol. s r.o.
|
|
Scotland Representative
(December 2007)
George
Beer, a former JAWA CZ Dealer and Co-ordinator of the VJMC
Uttoxeter Show is willing to act as the Club Rep for Scotland and would
love to start a branch north of the Border.
George
lives near Stirling and he and his wife ride JAWA's.
Tel:
01324 410519 (this is the VJMC line and has an answer phone) or E-mail coordinator_vjmc@yahoo.co.uk
On 8th December he bought a JAWA 640 from
Warwick via eBay. He was told it had a holed piston. He fitted a new battery
and new spark plugs (none in it) and it runs a treat. Has to now sort the
electrics as the fuse is a copper wire!
We encourage
members in Scotland
to contact George. He will be at the Scottish
Motorcycle Show in February 2008 – meet him on the VJMC
stand.
Technical Torque
(December 2007)
A
new updated version of “Tips from Torque” has now been put
together called Technical Torque.
The technical information it contains relates to many areas to do
with Jawa and CZ road motorcycles, and hopefully will prove of interest and
worth. The document covers over 128 pages and is available on CD (in PDF
format) or as a printed ‘Hard Copy’. An
electronic version can also be sent, although the document size is 9.8Mb.
Costs
are:-
-
CD
version (including P&P)
£5.00
-
Printed
version (including P&P)
£6.00
-
E
Version (sent by E-mail)
£4.00
If
interested in either version (CD is preferred option) then send a Cheque
made payable to:- Jawa/CZ
Owners Club (Swindon Branch)
then post it to:-
Ian Bridge, 6 Deben Crescent, Haydon Wick, Swindon,
Wiltshire, SN25 3QB.
Website Changes (June 2007)
The JAWA CZ Owners Club website has been
hosted by Freeserve since 1999. Over the years, this site has grown in
popularity and size and has become the cornerstone of the club. With
content, photo's and articles being added on a monthly basis by myself, the
15MB of web space Freeserve provided us with was being used up at an
alarming rate! So back in December 2006, I took the decision to
redesign the site over the Christmas holidays and incorporate the Google ads
you see on every
page - my
intention being that the money raised from the ads should be invested back
into this website to secure it's future. We re-launched on 1st January 2007 with
a fresh new look. Since then, we have had more than 6000
visitors and I am pleased to announce that as a direct
result of the Google ads, we raised enough money to purchase 100MB of web hosting with LCN and
the domain name www.jawaczownersclub.co.uk
With more web space, an easy to remember domain
name, E-mail address and a faster connection, everybody should benefit from this
move. I am
confident the website will go from strength to strength. Please remember to
update your favourites / bookmarks with our new website address and also use
our new E-mail address: info@jawaczownersclub.co.uk
Chris Baddiley - Webmaster
Prize
winning Cezeta scooter stolen (March 2007)
After
many years of painstaking restoration, love and care, Mark Pautz
1961 Cezeta 502-00 scooter won the
'Best European Bike On Show' award at last year's 7th Classic
Bike Guide International Classic Motorcycle Show at Knebworth House.
|
|
Last
night (14th March 2007) 741
UXK
was stolen from Mark's secure underground parking at home…..and Mark
is devastated. This is the first vehicle theft he has had in his life.
|
Not
only did they steal it, but in the process they scraped the bike on a
concrete pillar as they manoeuvred it out of it's parking spot, and
also dented his classic car in the process.
The
scooter was securely locked and they must have damaged it quite badly when
they manhandled it out from the back of his garage as he found the
(difficult to remove) side-stand spring lying next to his car. They left the
PAV-41 trailer behind. When he put the scooter through it's MOT test last
week, it had only 323 km on the clock, so this is a real tragedy. He doesn't
know what the thieves are going to do with the motorcycle, as it is one of
only about half a dozen in the country, and fairly well known in classic
circles.
If anybody has information about this theft,
please contact St. Albans Police Station (Central Area), Victoria Street,
Hertfordshire, AL1 3JL or contact Mark directly on 020 7303 0492 or E-mail mapautz@deloitte.co.uk
The Off-Road Vehicles
Registration Bill = Potentially
the end of motorcycle racing in Britain
(March
2007)
I
apologise for sending this E-mail which, in happier times, you could have
enjoyed as an April Fool joke. Unfortunately, the subject is neither a joke
- nor is it funny. If you own a racing motorcycle, show or custom bike,
which is not capable of being registered for road use, then next year you
face the very real prospect of having it confiscated by the Police and
destroyed.
The
measures which will cause your motorcycle to be confiscated will apply
equally to old and modern bikes, to show and custom machines - and even to
precious museum exhibits. The proposed new law is extremely clear and
without exemptions. If any two wheeled motorised vehicle, of any type or
kind, does not carry a valid road registration plate at all times it will be
confiscated by the Police and subject to destruction order.
I need to
stress that there will be no exemptions to this proposed new law whether the
motorcycle concerned is a primitive Edwardian machine from before the First
World War, the classic racers used by Thundersprinters or the latest MotoGP
machine.
Equally, custom
and show bikes, unless they are completely road legal, will fall under the
same legislation. The situation really is this grim.
The
Thundersprint faces its most severe problem because of a Private Member’s
Bill being proposed by Graham Stringer,
MP for Manchester,
Blackley.
His Bill is
entitled: "The Off-Road Vehicles (Motorcycles) Registration Bill".
The implications of this Bill, were it to become law, are truly horrendous -
for the Thundersprint and every part of the British motorcycle racing,
museum and custom bike scene.
The bill is
aimed at a legitimate nuisance: the illegal use of "mini-moto"
type machines in urban areas. No-one disputes that these are a thorough
social irritant and their mis-use needs curbing. Unfortunately, the drafting
of the Bill has been done so loosely and carelessly that it will quite
literally destroy motorcycle sport both as a spectator industry and a
participant activity.
The Bill
relates primarily to motorcycles but also includes trikes and quad bikes.
All other vehicles are exempt.
The Bill
requires every motorised, two-wheeled vehicle to be registered with the DVLA
in Swansea. In order to do so, the motorcycle will need either:
1)
European type approval
2)
An extended "MoT" to ascertain compliance with European type
approval
3)
Age related registration using, presumably, the same system which is already
in place today. i.e. the onus will be upon the owner of the motorcycle to
prove that the motorcycle in question is of the age and type claimed and the
components currently in use on the bike are of the same age as the claimed
age of the motorcycle itself.
Clearly, the
implications for race bikes in particular are savage. Depending on how rigid
is the interpretation a replacement gearbox or uprated suspension could make
a bike non-compliant with its original "date" and it could thus be
re-classified as a "modern" motorcycle.
The onus will
be 100% on the owner of the vehicle to resolve these issues in order to
comply with Road Traffic Act Legislation. A failure to do so, and a
subsequent failure to register the motorcycle, will mean that the bike could
be confiscated and destroyed.
In all cases,
the vehicles will have to be RTA compliant. In simple terms, they have to
meet all the requirements of current Road Traffic Act legislation. All
motorcycles will also have to be insured and taxed in order to obtain a DVLA
registration mark.
Even with a
relatively simple race bike, derived from a road bike, there will be a huge
task in terms of making it road legal and fully RTA compliant. In the case
of a classic thoroughbred, such as GP racer, it might well simply be
impossible. Regardless, do you want to be forced to have to go to all this
time, effort and expense merely because you legally own a competition
machine and use it responsibly?
Museum exhibits
will also have to be "modernised" in order to meet MoT
requirements. Once more, it would be lovely if this was a joke - but it is
not.
Custom and show
bikes will fall under the same axe. Even if the bike is a non-running show
bike, such as a radical chopper, it will still be illegal and subject to
confiscation.
Farmers using
off-road bikes, or quads, for commercial use entirely on their own private
land will also have to register their machines and make them RTA compliant.
The all
encompassing nature of this bill needs stressing.
There
are no exemptions for any bike, for any reason.
This
one point is critical. THERE ARE NO EXEMPTIONS IN THE BILL FOR ANY REASON.
It is either
taxed, insured and fully Road Traffic Act compliant or it can be
confiscated and destroyed.
The
implications for this ruling are dramatic. First, the vast majority of race
bikes are unable to be made RTA compliant – particularly in terms of the
stringent demands of current MoT testing.
However, a
secondary effect will be that many museum exhibits will also become illegal
unless they are re-commissioned and updated.
Clearly, custom
and show bikes which are not ridden on the road will cease to exist.
I enclose
examples of the sort of bikes which will become illegal - unless they become
fully RTA compliant. If you need to illustrate the immense nature of the
threat to those who do not have in an depth knowledge of motorycling these
images are an easy way to do it.
Mr.
Stringer’s bill seeks to give the Police wide-ranging powers of
confiscation. In short, any motorcycle which is not RTA compliant, and
registered, can be seized by the Police and destroyed. In a very real sense,
priceless examples of British, and foreign, motorcycle engineering could be
seized from museums because they are incapable of being registered for
current road use.
In the case of
the damage to British tourism, the effects would be huge. Initially, we
thought that we would primarily have problems with non-British entrants
simply refusing to comply with British requirements to register a race bike.
However, it now seems that the measures will be much more draconian. Any
motorcycle which is not registered for road use in its country of origin can
be seized at the port of entry because there are no exemptions. Again, I
need to stress this point. The Bill allows no discretion or
exemption for any motorcycle of any kind or origin.
Would you
disembark at Calais knowing that French police will stop your van, take out
your race bike and destroy it? The situation really is this basic and
straightforward.
The same
problem will hit modern racing. A current factory team, arriving with MotoGP
bikes, will have them seized at the point of entry. Clearly, this is not
going to happen because no team will come near Britain.
The effect on
British tourism and engineering will be dramatic. Of the classic events, the
Thundersprint, with an attendance of over 125,000 will cease to exist - as
will any other event which depends on the participation of non-RTA compliant
participants.
In terms of
events for current motorcycles, the British MotoGP round will cease to
exist, as will the three British based rounds of World Superbike and
off-road internationals.
The British
Tourism industry, of which motorcycle racing is an important element, will
suffer a huge loss since clearly the major motorcycle events attract huge
numbers of foreign visitors.
British
engineering companies are amongst the foremost in the world in terms of
supplying racing components and they will be unable to have a complete
racing motorcycle on their premises unless it is RTA compliant.
In terms of
modern events motocross, grass track, speedway - and maybe even trials -
will simply disappear because the bikes participating in these branches of
the sport will become illegal.
The final
result of this ill conceived, badly drafted Bill will be mass civil
disobedience. Imagine the scenario where the police arrive to confiscate
your race bike merely because it is not RTA compliant. Will you help them
load up your bike to be taken to a crusher?
Incidentally,
Mr. Stringer’s bill makes no mention of compensation for confiscated
bikes. Race, show or custom bike - the Police can legally confiscate and
destroy all your bikes without paying you a penny in compensation.
I have spoken
with Mr. Stringer and found him to be unhelpful. He terminated our
conversation in mid-sentence during my attempt to explain the implications
of his Bill for the motorcycling community.
I have also
spoken with Alistair Carmichael, the LibDem spokesperson on transport, and
MP for Shetland and Orkney. The LibDems are the key supporters of Mr.
Stringer’s Bill. Mr. Carmichael also seems not to understand the impact of
the Bill on motorcycling and drew comparisons between agricultural tractors
carrying number plates without paying road tax duty and racing bikes also
carrying DVLA approved number plates but still being road tax exempt. I did
point out to Mr. Carmichael that tractors and racing machines were not
entirely comparable in terms of their use and construction.
I have a
statement from the Conservative Party saying that they will vote against the
Bill. Plaid Cymru and the SNP have not responded to my enquiries.
If Mr.
Stringer’s Bill is not stopped it will become law in the Autumn of this
year and 2007 will see the end of motorcycle racing in Britain.
So what do you
do? You need to write to your MP now, immediately. You need to ask him/her
whether they are supporting Mr. Stringer’s Bill now and whether they will
vote for or against it at its Third Reading. I would suggest that you
explain what will be your reaction if the Police arrive at your house,
confiscate your race or custom bike and remove it for destruction.
One further
point that I would stress is that Mr. Stringer’s Bill is a Private
Member’s Bill and is not a reflection on government policy. The
Conservative Party has already indicated that it is against the Bill and we
need now to ascertain whether the Labour Party will join the Conservatives.
We also need to establish what is the individual reaction of LibDem, Plaid
and SNP MPs.
If
you never write another letter in your life - write this one now!
To write to
your MP, put his or her name followed by MP. Address your letter to:
The House of
Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
If you don’t know who your MP is you find out easily using this link: http://www.upmystreet.com or
there is an easy to use form at this address: http://www.writetothem.com
When you find
out the views of your MP, let your local TV, radio and newspaper know. In
short, show your MP that their response will be publicly and openly recorded
for voters to remember.
You can follow
this story by reading Steve Farell's reports in Motor
Cycle News and tomorrow's Daily Telegraph will also carry a feature in
the Motoring Section of the paper.
Frank
Melling frank@thundersprint.com
© Chris Baddiley / JAWA CZ Owners Club of Great Britain and Ireland
Last
Updated: 24 February 2010 - Privacy
Policy - Terms & Conditions
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Website Visitors - Year 2 (June 2008 to June 2009)
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