3 minute read
IN BOBA MEMORIAM A first-time bike builder pays tribute to his best friend with a Jawa bobber
By Ben Lamboeuf
There’s clearly no shortage of creative moto-energy Stateside, with amazing homegrown custom motorcycles seemingly coming out in droves at each event from sea to shiny sea. Europe has also been fertile ground for outstanding bike building, but more recently a lively custom movement has been developing a bit farther to the East. Bike builder Evgeny Bakhmach is part of the movement. He hails from Kiev, Ukraine, formerly part of the USSR, and this Jawa bobber – his first complete build – is a perfect example of what can be done with small sums of money but large helpings of inspiration and good taste.
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Evgeny grew up in Kiev and spent lots of time playing by the Dniepr River with his best friend Boba. The former Soviet republic was slowly emerging from years of Communist rule and life was hard in a nation that had only recently gained its independence, but kids don’t care about any of that. The two boys went from pushing old
scooters around to riding pedal bicycles with pieces of cardboard wedged through the spokes to emulate the sound of real motorcycles. Sound familiar? Then, one day, fate would separate Evgeny and his buddy forever. Boba died suddenly at 16, leaving his friend behind to grow up without him. That was eight years ago, and Evgeny strug-
gled to make sense of life without his childhood chum. At first, he channeled his energy toward building scale models and listening to music, but his passions weren’t enough to ease the pain.
Eventually, life goes on and Evgeny entered the workforce. After running errands for the university where his mother had a teaching job, he worked as an accountant, but hated that. At age 25, he kissed corporate life goodbye and put his mechanical skills to use by starting a motorcycle repair business.
This is how he stumbled upon a derelict 1973 Jawa 360, a Czecho
slovakian twostroke twin that hadn’t run in five years. Making matters worse, the bike had been stored outdoors, where it suffered exposure to the harsh elements. Rather than ripping into a rustedout engine to get the bike running again, Evgeny opted to replace it with a similarly styled four-speed 250cc single from a ’63 Jawa. Besides its easy availability and quick fitment in the frame, it also retained the cool finned aluminum housing for its Jikov carburetor.
Next, he turned the frame into a rigid, shaving off unwanted weight and losing rusty eyesores such as the swingarm and shocks. He laced spare hubs from an old Russian bike to a pair of 16-inch rims to form a bare-bones rolling chassis. Completing it is a fork assembly that uses the Jawa’s original top tree, tubing from undefined origins and a leaf spring taken from some abandoned Russian car. Accessories are deliberately scarce on this bobber, but include a homebrewed fuel gauge, an oil tank made from a surplus military flask, bicycle handlebars featuring a twistgrip-actuated clutch, a cool little Puch moped headlight, a taillight that was formerly a turnsignal “borrowed” from yet another unsuspecting Ruskie car, and a well-burnished bicycle seat. Fender fabrication was easy – there are none!
Between paying jobs and parts scrounging, it took about a year to complete the bike. Evgeny did the paint himself, including the pinstriped Ukraine logo atop the fuel tank. His first custom bobber is so special to him that he gave it a meaningful name: “Bob 816.” Eight is Evgeny’s lucky number and 16 was Boba’s age when his life was cut short.
nFounded in 1929, Jawa went on to become a genuine Commie success story, producing more than 3 million motorcycles, mostly utilitarian runabouts. Older readers may remember the restyled 1960s-’70s Californian 350 two-stroke, often seen in the U.S. hauling around a Velorex sidecar. The company survived the fall of the Berlin Wall and is still in business today with a topof-line Rotax-powered 660 four-stroke model.
