Jawa was formed in 1929 when František Janeček took over the motorcycle interests of the German company Wanderer - the name combines JAneček and WAnderer. It went on to become the major motorcycle manufacturer in Czechoslovakia, making the whole range of motorcycles including competition models, particularly for speedway, dirt track and ice racing. In recent years, the speedway business has been made into a separate, successful, company, while consumer motorcycle manufacture has struggled.
The Dandy 50 was first introduced in 1996 by Moto Union a.s. in Vodňany, but production was taken over in 1997 by Jawa. It was a small lightweight machine intended as a starter bike for inexperienced riders. Despite its small engine it could reach 70km/h at first, and with later versions up to 100km/h. It had a 5-speed gearbox and a disc front brake.
The model was published in 2007. It is scaled 1:15, so I enlarged it by 7% to 1:14. The drawing is much finer than that found in earlier models, but is still quite approximate in places. I had to adjust quite a few parts, particularly the various fairings, for which symmetry does not seem to have been a priority. As usual there were also parts to be made from wood and wire, which I mostly made from rolled paper. The model is designed to have working springs, but that seemed to me pointless, so I made the forks rigid.
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