Hello and welcome to PowerDrift. My name is Shumi...
And this is my towel!
Why I have a towel? I will tell you at the end of the story...
But it has something very very intimately to do with the new motorcycle that I'm riding today...
The Jawa 42 2.1!
Now, the 2.1 is not officially part of the name.
It just tells you that this is the new, top of the line 42...
And you can distinguish it very easily by looking at the bottom of the motorcycle, which is now all black.
All black because it looks more badass!
Also, in styling terms, there are three new colours...
This is the matte black, there's also a matte red and a matte white.
All three of them actually look quite nice.
And they've also added, effectively, a half a racing stripe with the 42 lettering on it as well as...
The word Classic Legends, the name of the company now officially appears on the motorcycle.
You can also see the new alloy wheels at the bottom, and that also means tubeless tires...
But, we'll talk about those in just moment...
When we rode the motorcycle for the first time, we did say that the seat felt a little bit soft...
And you were sitting on the base plate a little bit too early in the experience...
Jawa says, they've fixed that...
This is a new seat, it's slightly wider than before, the form is firmer than before...
And like I always like to say, if you're going short distances, soft seats are fine but...
As soon as you want to travel a long-distance...
And this, remember, is a 293 cc engine so you probably will...
At that point, you do want a firmer seat.
And now, let's talk about the changes to the engine...
And most of them are changes that you can't see apart from the black paint obviously.
So what's not changed is the gearbox, the bottom end, all of that remains the same.
But remember, we didn't get to ride the BS6 version of this engine at all until today.
And what Jawa has done, basically, is introduced what they call the cross-port technology...
Now remember, this engine is a little bit unique because it's got a four-valve head...
But each of the exhaust valves connects to each of the exhaust...
For BS6, they've removed the wall in the middle as it were...
So now the manifold is connected and therefore, the right valve, in theory...
Can exhaust onto the left exhaust if it needs to...
What Jawa says this does, is give them more volumetric efficiency, which means the engines run better...
And what that has translated to, for you as the user, is about 1 BHP more...
Despite the fact that this is now BS6 compliant.
But Jawa has also gained another advantage from this, because they've relocated the catalytic converter...
And because now, they've two small cans attached to each of the header pipes...
You actually save 2 kilos of weight...
What that translates to again, is a little bit more power, the same peak torque as before, but a fatter top curve overall...
And a little bit lighter weight, and that should mean better performance...
Now, unfortunately, we were riding only on mountain roads today...
And I can tell you that there were hairpins that I should have taken in first...
Which I was able to easily do in second, so the torque promise seems real...
And the motorcycle actually feels more or less like the old one...
It's easy to ride.
I think if Jawa were to lower the strength of the throttle spring a little bit more...
This motorcycle might actually feel a little bit more lively as well.
And now, let's talk about the frame and honestly, not much has changed...
So, the double-cradle frame, the telescopic forks, all of those units remain exactly the same...
But remember, the alloy wheels cause a little bit of weight loss, they are lighter than the spoke wheels on the basic 42...
You don't have a tube anymore, and that also gives you a little bit of a weight advantage...
And therefore, the motorcycle's balance has changed by a very very small amount...
So, there's 2% more weight on the front, and that actually changes a couple of things...
First, it sort of makes the steering feel a little bit heavier...
I'm not going to say that that's a problem, I'm just going to say that's a new character that the motorcycle has developed...
And you're going to have to learn to deal with that.
The other thing it does is it sort of improves your brake feel a little bit...
But braking is the weakest part of this motorcycle...
Because I want a lot more bite from the front brake.
As it is right now, it stops, no problem!
But it feels like I put a lot of effort into the lever before the brakes actually respond...
In terms of ride quality and handling...
The only change they've made apart from the weight shift is the fact that...
That the front is now running higher preload, so the front sits a little bit higher than before...
And Jawa primarily did that for ground clearance...
Because they said, a lot of people were complaining that the front of the motorcycle would touch on a speed breaker
As they were approaching it on the brakes.
What that's done for you, is that in terms of handling, it still is the Jawa 42...
We remember, a motorcycle that's not too sporty it's not too lazy...
It's right in the middle, and it sort of responds accurately to what you're trying to get it to do.
It's very neutral.
But on the right quality side, you can immediately tell that this is a much firmer motorcycle...
Again, to me, that's not a deal-breaker because on good roads, that actually feels really really nice ...
On broken roads, it does give you more shocks but you'll get used to it, and it's not something that you really complain about...
So, that's the updated Jawa 42 2.1!
Lots of small updates that amount to a small difference on the motorcycle as you ride it as well...
The alloy wheels do mean that the price goes up...
And in theory, I think in the showroom, it won't be called the 2.1.
This will be called the Jawa 42 alloy wheel.
This is about Rs 4,000 more than the base 42 which also gets all of the other upgrades...
That leaves the Jawa Jawa, to me, they're all variants of each other because it's the same platform effectively...
And if these two have already got the updates, then I'm assuming within the month...
Jawa will also roll out those updates to the Jawa Jawa.
Which remember, is Rs 5,000 more than this motorcycle.
Now, that brings us to the question of what is this doing here?
Well...
The towel is from the book.
It's a very famous book, it's called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams...
And in that book, in the beginning, there's a man called Arthur Dent...
Who is about to embark on a journey that becomes the book...
And the one thing he's told that, if you're going to travel successfully in space, you need a towel!
What is it doing here? Well, in the same book...
Is where the origin of the name of this motorcycle comes from...
Because that is supposed to be the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything...
But is the Jawa 42 the answer to life, the universe, and everything?
Honestly...
No!
If there's anything else you'd like to know about this motorcycle...
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