"First love never dies" or how did we start

Guys, I came up with an idea to talk about our first engine powered two-wheelers, those who took us into the world of motorcycles. Not second, sixth, not to the best one, most expensive or the fastest, but about the very first one.

I started on my grandpa's red '82. "Tomos Automatic 3M". I think it was '84, when I made first spin in my street. One spin for a day and that was it - parents and grandparents didn't want to overdose me. :riding:

Nevertheless, year or two later, I was a "regular customer" to this "Tomos". I remember white half-liter "Texaco" 2T oil bottles , omnipresent "Bosna Super" F-65P spark plugs, ATF Type A oil (you need precisely 400 ml for "Automatic's" two-stage gearbox). I remember his... oddish "Encarvi-made-by-Bing" carb with slanted slide and circular air filter with several layers of expanded aluminum mesh and fraking ('scuse my Caprican) air filter rubber flange, which I could never make to be in place where it should be.

At that time I did not understood how does work this choke button on the handle, but it always worked. True, he had no compassion for carb cables, but you could buy them (and all other spare parts too) on every corner for coins.

I didn't like his big, fat seat cushion, but I liked his comfort. I do not know how, but my "Automatic" didn't have this round "Teleoptik" speedo with convex glass. I assume that mine "Automatic" was some kind of a "transitional" moped, emerged during modernization of the old 3M. But, who cares!? It was mine!

Not to forget - he had 6V electrical system with good old ignition breaker. Stock breakers "Iskra" (or it was "Rudi Čajavec"... I don't remember anymore) were good for few years, but "Magneti Marelli's" were real wonder - Install and forget about them for next ten years. Oh, I must to mention horn with that annoying croaking sound, whose frequency was increasing by revving. Really annoying. :eek2:

I hated when a tire (2,5-16") goes flat or engine won't start, because of the transmission, there was some gears that constantly had contact, it was hard to push "Automatic" to the home. Oh, flat tires... I remember how I cursed all workers from tire factories "Sava", "Obilićevo", "Tigar"... Green tin box with "Tip Top" bicycle tire repair kit was always within reach. nevertheless, even today, my tire flat tire fixing looks more like wrestling than repair. :icon10:

God, how I enjoyed when "Automatic" accelerates and then, when reaches a speed of about 22 kilometers per hour, transmission shift smoothly into second gear, and then it reduce the revs.... and then, you feel like you're fly on the breeze. Top speed was about 50 or, with jockeys stature rider, even 60 km/h. Well.... I wasn't among those guys....

I remember my experiments, and also the experiments of my friends with their "Automatics" in order to reach "at least" 70 km/h, with the help of some strange mods. My friend on his "Automatic" 3L installed "Ram Air" intake system. Of course, the benefit of it was a big fat zero. We all wanted to install Austrian ELKO pistons with a single ring, but just a few of us did that, and didn't rode it more than one season with that piston - "Automatic", or more precise, his A3 engine, was not build for some serious tuning.

At that time, there was not many resonant exhaust like today - only a few private workshops across the former Yugoslavia made them for "Automatics". Of course, resonant exhaust is not a guarantee that the "Automatic's" performances will increase. OK, you'll get all the farting and shrilling, but everything else was debatable. This guy from central Slovenia, Igor is the name, for who I heard that is selling his chimneys all over the world, was not one of them. :icon10:

I remember that I had experienced only one incident with that moped. In my street, out of his yard, suddenly rushed out on a same "Automatic" and... mass times acceleration... I catapulted him onto the lawn. I was OK, that guy had some scratches, and my "Automatic" got a "sportier" rake.

At the end of the eighties, my father sold "Automatic" to a neighbor, who rode it for several years, and after that I do not know where he ended up. I would like to know where it is, because I would certainly try to buy it back and restore, along with the old "municipal plates" Opovo-728, to remind me of carefree childhood, and perhaps to keep the memory of the "Tomos" moped brand that lives on only in the memories of us from the former Yugoslavia.

Unfortunately, I can not find any pictures of my "Automatic", but except for color and speedo, he looked the same as the blue one on the photo.

Attachment 12316

One more 3M.

Attachment 12317

Well, since we're in the same part of the world, you can imagine that my first bike experience was on a Balkan 50 and Simson S51.BUUUT, the first real bike I started riding after I got my license at 19 years old, was my fathers's MZ ETZ150:http://media.snimka.bg/3244/012743912.jpghttp://media.snimka.bg/3244/012743916.jpgThis is not the one, but ours was the same red. It was a 150cc, 2-stroke mean machine I really miss it as I'm getting older...

the 1st: Simson SR2 at the age of 9 (we loved to ride through the fields with it...)
Attachment 12322

the 2nd: Jawa 175 CZ at the age of 11 (Mum didnt know about our treasure :-) )
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First bike I rode: 1979 Kawasaki KX125, first bike I ever let the clutch out on. Was my cousins, mainly rode on the back around the farm he lived on.
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First bike I ever rented: Indian Yamaha 1992? RX100
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First bike I ever owned: 1985 CB250RS
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It was a 50cc Honda express, people always asked aren’t you embarrassed ridding it,. I always said I am having way too much fun to care. After that it was a CB200T, which I resurrected last year. That was my first and I still have it.


I am doing some work on it, it runs but need some cleaning up.
Here it is last summer at a friends home,. He as a 71 Triumph.
http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/y...cture006-2.jpg

First bike I ever owned, rode, and learned to ride ::

http://i.imgur.com/HIuW9HI.jpg
Honda VLX400, also known as Steed.

Had a bike just like this, don't have anymore photos cause I lost my external hard drive some time ago. But this is it, same color, minus the crash bars.

Had it for just under two years, did about 20,000 km in Beirut and suburbs.

1st bike I ever owned / ridden: a Chinamade something.
It was a 150cc contraption with a horizontal engine without any markings on its engine / fairings. Bought it in Shanghai in 宝山路 market (now closed) in 2007.
Took it to Nanjing when I moved here, gave it to my friend, who snapped its frame in half jumping a 3-meter hill.

Attachment 12369 Attachment 12370

Hello,
My first was the 3 weeler of my grandpa when he died. He had one leg cut and that was a very strange thing with hand pedal linked to the front wheel with parrallello sustepnsion and 2 large wheels at the back with very short swinging arms. One of those wheels was powered with VAP 50cc engine with only hand controled clutch but no gear change.
Rding this kind of thing full throttle was a great expérience with weight and very strange road handling.
That was in 1970. Then I got a brand new Mobylette 40V for first exams.
Just for fun, I had a CB200 and still have a very good ETZ 150 (plus plenty of other oldies.
Fred

My 1st one was a honda z50,a friend of me had one and at the weekends when he was not working was given to me,after a year i bought mine,original 50cc 6volt electrics,yellow.I made a total rebuilt of my own,repainted all,send the rims,handlebars etc to make them chrome,the engine was raised to 100 cc and the electric system to 12v from the newest z50j, all these made a small pocket-rocket,i kept the outside look close to the original.After a 2 year of hapiness i sold it for another honda but at the triple price that i had given.Attachment 12822my photos are back home,so i took one by the net.
Last year made a research to buy one again and fix it whenever i had time,then i could leave it to my living room just to look at it until my son is capable to ride it.......(in my country they say:when you make plans,god is laughing) now im in China....will see.
ps.Nice thread:bling:

For me it all started here, 13 years ago.

https://xs32sq.blu.livefilestore.com...362.jpg?psid=1

It's just some bits of metal, but this that bike started something in me that has grown to pretty much define who i am today.