THE SPIRIT OF HELSINKI: Everything But the Reverse Gear

Jopo is a Finnish masterpiece from 1966. It was at the time the hottest in youth fashion. The bike, lacking only the reverse gear, was sturdy and mostly pedalled to the very bitter end in a few decades. Was that it? No. Suddenly something happened. Hipsters needed a city bike and Jopo was their choice. Jopos are made mainly by hand at Helkama’s Hanko factory, which is very fitting for our time, a locally produced bicycle. The Jopo connoisseurs are a breed of their own. They look out for old bikes and original colours. The obdurate ones find old velocipedes and mend them.