2024 Jawa 350 - First Ride Review

Photography - Kamesh Chauhan

When it comes to classic or retro motorcycles in India, there is only one company that dominates, and it's not Jawa! When the company launched or rather relaunched in India back in 2018 with the “Jawa Jawa” or the Jawa Classic, they tried something different - basically a classic bike with a sporty edge. And while that did create a lot of hype it didn’t set the sales charts on fire. Now, though Jawa is trying something new once again with the new Jawa 350 - taking that sporty edge and sanding it down. But has it worked?

More chilled out, but more fun?

So while this bike is called the Jawa 350, that name is a bit of a misnomer as the engine capacity is 334cc. In fact that's the same engine capacity as the Jawa Perak and even the bore and stroke and figures are identical to the Perak at 81mm x 65mm. That said, with 22.5PS on tap, this motor actually makes less power than the old “Jawa Jawa”, but it makes more torque - 28.1Nm to be precise. But, more importantly, that power and torque comes at a lower rpm.

The main reason this new motor makes less power is that Jawa has reduced the compression ratio from 11:1 to 9.5:1. But to ensure a quick response from the motor, it now gets a larger 38mm throttle body, a higher pressure fuel pump and an updated camshaft with optimised valve lift. Add to that, a pair of redesigned mufflers, and you get a bike that just sounds fantastic on the move.

The end result of all this is a motor that's a lot smoother than before and much smoother than the Perak’s motor too. And it's gruntier too. Now don't get us wrong… this motor is short stroke, which means it likes to rev, but now the meat of the performance can be found in the mid-range. So if you're on the highway, say at 60kmph, and you open the gas, the bike responds instantly.  Sadly though, that means you do miss out on some top end performance. That makes the ideal cruise speed for this motorcycle on the highway is around 80 to 90kmph. And you can sit at this speed pretty much all day long. It can go faster too (we saw about 120-130kmph on the speedometer), but once you get past 100kmph, the vibes get quite bad, especially in the pegs, the tank and the handlebars and they do get quite annoying. 

But because of this increased bottom & mid-range performance, this motor is quite tractable in the city as well. In fact, you can slot the bike in sixth gear at 40kmph and while it will struggle a little bit for a second or two, it'll build up speed quite easily after that. If you do have to shift, though, the six-speed gearbox is super slick and thanks to the slipper clutch the lever action is quite light too.

It even gets revised gear ratios with shorter second, third and fourth gears, along with a shorter final drive ratio. This means that even with less peak power, the Jawa 350 still has pretty brisk acceleration.

But one issue we did find was with the fuel mapping. If you’re cruising along at a steady speed and make small throttle changes, every once in a while, the engine skips a beat before responding. This is also apparent when you suddenly open the throttle. Is this dangerous? We don’t think so. Is it annoying? Yes… very much. But is this something Jawa could fix easily? Absolutely… and they really should fix this quickly!

Handles like a charm

Now this new Jawa 350 comes with a brand new chassis with a taller front fork and longer rear shocks as well. This has pushed the centre of gravity of this bike higher which means it's a lot easier to tip into corners. Thankfully, this hasn’t come at the cost of stability in the turns. That’s because this bike now weighs 194kg (9kg more than before), and the wheelbase has gone up by a whopping 80mm (and now stands at 1449mm). On top of that, it also comes with wider tires at the front and the rear, which means you have plenty of grip and confidence in the corners.

And this Jawa 350 stops quite well too. It’s got revised brake pads along with a rerouted brake hose for the rear brake. Bite from both brakes feels adequate without being overwhelming. But the best part is that dual-channel ABS comes as standard.

Does it feel comfy?

Now although the seat height has gone up to 790mm (from 765mm on the Jawa Jawa), the handlebar and the foot pegs have moved up with the seat height as well. So the riding posture remains pretty much unchanged. The footpegs are a little bit rear set and the handlebar is tall which means whether you're riding in the city or on the highway, the posture is quite comfortable. Plus with the revised seat foam means long hours in the saddle are no problem at all. 

When it comes to ride comfort, not only is this suspension taller than before, it's got more travel too, along with revised spring rates. This has allowed for a ground clearance of 178mm which is 13mm more than before. Jawa claims this is the tallest in class, and you can clear tall speed breakers without scraping anything. 

As for the way it rides the front feels almost plush, but the rear is a little bit firm which is fine for the most part but the sharp bumps do translate from from the wheel up to your backside.

What a stunner!

The Jawa Jawa was always a good looking bike. But there are lots of small improvements all over, such as a neater wiring harness, redesigned switchgear, new decals and new badges on the tank and engine cases as well. And let’s not forget, the lovely brass fuel tank cap. All these combine to give the new Jawa 350 a much cleaner and far more appealing design. And the chrome finish across the bike looks absolutely gorgeous. But there still are some odd-ball design choices that are carried over from the Jawa Jawa. Such as the speedometer, which sits too flat in the headlight nacelle. Which means, if you’re less than 6-feet in height, you’re going to have difficulty reading the speedometer from about 40 to 100kmph.

Now Jawa has been emphatic about the fact that they’ve revised testing processes for this bike. This has resulted in a significant improvement in overall build quality. To be honest, we didn’t find any fit and finish issues on our test bike, and we’ll go as far as saying that this is the best built bike from Jawa yet.

Something for everyone

Now this new Jawa 350 has come a very long way from the original Jawa Jawa. It's better in almost every way, whether measurable or unmeasurable. It's not as manic as the Jawa Jawa, but that's a good thing because classic bikes need some chill, and chill this Jawa has in plenty. So is this our new favorite classic bike then? Well, we can't say for sure yet. For that we'll have to do a proper road test and a comparison with you know what. 

With a price tag of Rs 2.15 lakh ex-showroom Delhi, this new Jawa 350 is almost in the same ballpark as it’s chief rival. So this should make this a really interesting comparison. But it goes without saying if you like your classic bikes with a little bit of brattiness, the Jawa 350 is a very easy recommendation.