Most of the time, it can be easy to tell what a motorcycle is just by looking at it. You’ve got your aggressive and fully faired sportbikes, your laid-back cruisers, and your retro sporty cafe racers. But once every now and then, a bike that blurs the lines between these segments comes along.
I’m talking about the likes of the Harley XR1200, Buell Super Cruiser, and maybe even the Indian FTR 1200. What these bikes have in common is that they’re built with cruiser DNA, but come with features and styling cues you’d expect to find in sportier machines—sort of like a cross between a cruiser and a cafe racer or scrambler.
And the same is true with the recently released Jawa 42 FJ. You see, Jawa’s a brand that’s almost synonymous with cruisers, and the entirety of its lineup embraces the whole retro cruiser vibe, but without the faff that goes into running and maintaining an old cruiser.
But the 42 FJ is a little bit different.
According to Jawa, the 42 FJ is the sportiest model in its lineup, and it’s pretty easy to see why this is the case. For starters, it gets mid-controls as opposed to the forward controls found in the rest of Jawa’s lineup. And while it’s built upon the same frame as the regular 42, it features a different subframe—one that gives it a sportier, more cafe racer-esque look.
Jawa says that the 42 FJ is meant to pay tribute to František Janeček, the dude who founded Jawa Motorcycles way back in 1929. And so it’s fitting that the company decided to make the 42 FJ the most premium model in the Jawa 42 lineup.
But the Jawa 42 FJ isn’t just a styling exercise, it’s also rocking some pretty cool tech updates. For starters, it’s powered by Jawa’s Alpha 2 engine, a liquid-cooled thumper with a 29-horsepower and 21-pound-foot output making it the most powerful roadster in the 42 range. Said engine sends power to the rear wheel via a slipper clutch-equipped six-speed gearbox. So yeah, it’s safe to say that the 42 FJ one-ups some of the other bikes in the competition.
Speaking of competition, the 42 FJ enters quite a saturated market, particularly in India, where the 350cc to 400cc retro-inspired segment has seen quite a lot of new entrants in recent years. Some of its most formidable rivals include the entire Royal Enfield 350 range, as well as the recently released Hero Maverick 440 and the Harley-Davidson X440. Of course, there’s also the Husqvarna 401 series, and not to mention the value-packed Triumph Speed and Scrambler 400.
And so the question remains: does the new Jawa 42 FJ have what it takes to go head-to-head with the competition? Well, only time will tell.
