Jopo is a Finnish bicycle brand that was launched in 1965 and is going strong still today. The name is the abbreviation for “jokainen polkupyörä”, basically saying “a bicycle for everybody”. Eero Helkamalla had the dream of designing a bike that everybody could drive, irrespective of age, size, sex or dimension of wallet. And irrespective of road conditions. I still recall the story of one elderly couple way back in Northern Carelia, who proudly told the story how they got together: the man driving regularly over 40 km after work to see her, through forest, on sand and gravel “road”. That’s dating the Finnish way.
The group Kliff has now published a song titled “mun jopo“, meaning “my jopo” (and how he dreams about the girl riding with him on it). Some topics never change…
The featured picture comes from this page http://www.flickr.com/photos/valpas/8994730363/.
Besides this original type there is today all kinds of colors and small changes, but in essence, the jopo is the same.
Sisu Travel 