FOR SALE: Rata JOPO

Olli is selling his unique Rata Jopo, here.

Truly one of a kind custom tarck bike. Don't sleep on this, collectors.

Jopo Pista

Or maybe Jopo Tarck? ChopperOlli is on some real next level shit here...

So what we have here: a classic 1960s Finnish 22" wheel-size Helkama Jopo frame modified heavily to correspond more or less a 54cm size classic track bike. More pics of the project here.

Helkama Starts Manufacturing Jopo Bikes In Finland Again

News of the day: manufacturing of the Jopo, the most classic and loved Finnish single speed bike, will be brought back to the original site in Hanko, Finland from Taiwan. Even the steel used in the frame will be sourced from the Finnish Rautaruukki mills from now on. Bite it, globalization! Too bad the modern re-designed version is ugly as sin.

Also, one of the reasons for this move is, and I quote the Helkama Velox CEO Mr. Jarmo Elamo: "... the need to able to react quickly enough to the changing color trends in the market." All right. Great news nonetheless.

Here's little something I've written about Jopo bikes long time ago:

"Everyone in Finland knows Jopo -bikes because between 1964 and 1975 Helkama company manufactured over 250 000 of them in their factory in Hanko in southwestern Finland. They also manufactured fridges and other stuff but Jopos were always their #1 product.

The name Jopo stands for an abbreviation of 'JOkaisen POlkupyörä', meaning 'EVerybody's BIcycle', and in a this size country basically everyone and their grandmother had one of those. The design of the bike stayed almost the same until the manufacturing stopped in 1975 and today the classic Jopo is considered a modern Finnish industrial design classic.

In fact there were several models besides the standard one, there was an official orange mailman version used by all the mailmen of The Post of Finland, there was Jopo Rodeo, an extra rare chopper-style model, small kiddie-size Jopo called 'Joponen' and larger-sized Iso Jopo, a foldable Jopo Mobil, a Jopomatic with gears and a super rare early bmx-style Jopo Cross. They even had an exercise model for the gym.


The main selling point was that they were affordable, good quality, durable and good to ride. Then of course Jopos became somewhat trendy some years ago and soon after that Helkama company who owns the brand name released a modernized new Jopo, which, just like the new VW Beetle, sucks. On the other hand it has never been difficult to find an old Jopo in Finland even if people are nowadays trying to ask for really outrageous prices for them."

How To: Steal A Bike In Helsinki

First, these pictures are not taken by me. Secondly, if that's your Jopo on the pictures or you know who is the owner, the pics have been delivered to the Helsinki Police Dept. 

So what's going on? Basically, two junkie/thief assholes on Toinen Linja in Hakaniemi, Kallio, are stealing someone's 1970s vintage Jopo bike by simply lifting off the traffic sign post on which the bike was locked to with an U-lock. Pretty easily. That was yesterday, in the middle of the day too. 

So remember to lock your bike to a properly stationary object, or at least lock up the back wheel to the frame, since this is exactly the same method used and the very same neighborhood where Pauli's Steamroller was stolen a while ago.