Paying Homage

[Aikman666]

Yes ladies and gents, its time to pay homage to The Tomos 50cc 2 speed automatic

This bike is surely a legend known (or at least should be) to all bikers. I have fond memories of the Tomos, as it was the first motorbike my immediate family ever owned in my life time. Well acctually we owned 2, none of which worked. Yes, bought for 25 quid each my dad and older brother spent time tinkering in the back garden for weeks to make one Frankenstien of a bike. And a frankenstien it was. The seat rattled so loud when moving that you could hear it before the engine. The thing had a 150mpg quote and topped out at around 25mph if you made forward swaying motions. This was the type of no gear whatsoever (and highly illegal) field biking that many of us have experienced! It spawned many a day off ludicrous offroading, and now years after its selling, it is rumoured to have been back on the scene not that long ago. No one knows where it is, who has it, or if it still works, all we have is the memories, and hell they were fun!

I had a quick search around the web and it seems they still produce these kings of kings, these masters of machines.......you get the point

I want to hear YOUR musty old memories of bikes that shaped your life forever, this is your turn to pay homage!
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Will work for petrol
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[Hex]

I just threw one in the skip last week.
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The BCF's very own Party boy! Though he's getting old and feeling it!
Monkey hanger, Born and bred
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[Biker-Kev]

Aikman, you got a thing for older bikes?
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Zhongyu ZY50, Aprilia SR50, Motorhispania RX50, Aprilia RS125, Honda VFR400 nc24 and my corsa
https://www.bikepics.com/members/bikerkev/
Theory: Passed 8/11/2005 Practical: Passed 13/12/2005 Proud holder of A2 license

[Aikman666]

[Lee_367]

The motorcycle i learned to ride on, was that colour but had a bit of rust and no exhaust though. Legendary in my books.
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?It?s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack?not rationality.?

[mistergixer]

Aaaah, the first 'bike' i ever crashed into a hedge on.

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Space Monkey #7
Don Eladio is dead. His capos are dead. You have no one left to fight for. Fill your pockets and leave in peace. Or fight me and die!
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[stinkwheel]

My first bike

I had a black Tomos Tango with five-spoke gold wheels and red rim tape. Which according to some people on this board makes it cooler than cool. This was nearly twelve years ago so let it not be said that I am not a trend-setter

Wierd noise it made as it changed up into second gear. The trick was to keep it in second at all costs once you were up there. If you dropped below 20mph it changed back into first, then you were stuck there at 15mph until the next bit of flat/downhill. The way to do it was to 'tack' the bike up steep hills and adopt the 'full prone' riding position with feet on the pillion pegs and holding onto the fork stanchions instead of the handlebars.

I also remember it having the weediest charging system in the history of the world. The flashers were designed to flash front to back so there was only one bulb on at a time and if you had both the flashers and brakelight on, the headlamp went almost off.

Other features, if you rode it flat out for more than 50 miles in a oner, the points would weld together. It would still run but at no more than 15mph.

There was no ignition switch either, just a 'stop' button. There was nothing to stop someone operating the kickstart and firing up the engine when it was parked.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Section59]

I prefer the puch maxi.

Simply because they have pedals, saves you having to get off and push it when you get to a steep hill.

https://moped2.org/d/moped/wesley/puch%20blue%201976%20maxi%20r.jpg

[stinkwheel]

[Aikman666]

Pfft Looney, that was half of the fun!
As i remember, for a 50cc that bike couldent half pull, it managed to take me and my brother on it up a hill at a decent speed! Without a run up too! I feel i should mention the Bantam too, but it was not that long ago, and i cant be arsed writing it up TBH
Sounds like you were the toast of the town stinkwheel
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[Jack_Cheese]

[stinkwheel]

Actually I tell a lie. It wasn't rim tape because there was no such thing. I used a long thin paintbrush and humbrol enamel paint to paint coachlines on the wheels. You just brace the brush against the fork stanchion and rotate the wheel.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[pj25]

[KLR600]

The Tomos 50cc 2 speed automatic is responsible for the funniest thing I ever saw in my life. I can't explain what happened as you most definatley had to be there kind of thing but I was in fits of laughter for about a week .

[quacker_boy]

[alfie698]

Cor I must have had a posh upbringing!
I learnt to ride on my dads Honda C70 at 14 on some private roads. What he didnt know was that I turned off the tarmac and went down the forest trails (at 40mph) and then turned back down the fire breaks. It was unburstable

One day travelling with me on the back it seized at full tilt and locked the back wheel. He managed to get it into neutral and stopped without crashing (gods know how). I asked him when he last checked or topped up the oil, and he just gave me a blank look. He'd only had it a couple of years! Five mins later it had cooled down and we managed to take off again and nurse it home. Honda quality!

https://www.grizzlychoppers.com/passportright.jpg

Ah, happy memories!
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Dougal: "I still dont get it, Ted."
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[Section59]

[Section59]

Dont forget the fz 50 either. Another fun little bike.

https://www.emmc.no/odd/tur-2003/bilder/FZ50.jpg

Me and my cousin got one off my uncle for £30. It lasted a whole day of me and him offroading it, before it was dead.

Was fun while it lasted though.

[Aikman666]

[stinkwheel]

The C70 is a better bike than the C90. Faster and pulls better due to a harder cam and bigger valves.

Very few ofd them about now, they didn't make that many and those that were left have been snapped up by the monkey-bike brigade.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[KLR600]

Gah, well I'll attempt to write it up but you really had to be there to get the full effect.

So I was at my ex's house, she lived on a small-holding and her parents were farmers and had lots of vehicles like land rovers, quads, trailers and agricultural type things (balers etc), old cars and plenty of knackered old motorbikes (the Tomos being one of them) lying around their yard (to set the scene like!).

I should probably explain here that there was something wrong with the Tomos so that when you pulled the throttle it went as normal but when you shut it off totally it picked up again so in order to come to a stop you had to find the middle of the throttle where it shut down. This was very bizarre but played a major role in what happened. It also had no brakes whatsoever and topped out at about 8/10mph.

So this one day her 2 cousins (both good friends of mine and around my age, also petrolheads!) had come up and my ex's brother was riding the Tomos around one of their fields so we went to watch him riding it around. Before long my friend Mat was on the Tomos (he didn't know about the throttle thing) and was riding around and then he attempted to come to stop next to us but couldn't find the middle of the throttle and just rode passed with the most frightened face I've ever seen on anyone! He was only doing about 5mph at the time but it was really funny.

Anyway....

After a while we decided it was time to put the Tomos away so on the way back to the yard Mat had found a little bump he could get air off so he was playing about on that for a bit. Me, Phil (mate) and Fig (ex's brother) were standing next to a trailer that was on very rooty ground just under a tree watching Mat getting centimetres of air on the Tomos.

Well he hit the "jump" for the last time and landed a bit funny so in an attempt to slow down he shut the throttle off completely but just as he did this the front wheel hit a rock that sent it skywards so that Mat slid off the back and was now running behind the Tomos trying to find the shut off point of the throttle and trying to get the front wheel back on the ground but he was heading towards the tree we were standing under. This was a hilarious sight in itself with the Tomos bolt upright and the mudguards scraping on the ground with Mat running behind it!

Seconds later he arrived at the tree and was still struggling with trying to find the shut off point as me, Fig and Phil leaped out of his way. The roots on the ground made the Tomos fall over and it was doing donuts by itself on the ground with Mat and Fig desperately trying to shut it off but not get run over at the same time.

Eventually they managed to kill it and Fig (being really cross at the whole thing) storms off to put the Tomos away. Me, Mat and Phil on the other hand are actually on the floor laughing so hard it hurt for days!

You must understand that all this happened in the space of about 10/15 seconds and the looks on peoples faces coupled with Mat really struggling with the Tomos and fig getting really cross about the whole thing made it all really hilarious!

Like I said, you probably had to be there to get it though....