"First love never dies" or how did we start

[Zorge]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tomos_Automatic_3m.jpg

One more 3M.

Tomos_Automatik_3M.jpg