Riku'O – The King of the Roads

In 1935 Sankyo Company acquired a license to manufacture Harley-Davidson motorcycles in Japan. A part of the deal was that the bikes could not be exported outside of Japan and that the bikes would be called RIKU'O, a name that roughly translates to "the king of the roads."

With Alfred Richard Child at helm, the mass production of RIKU'O started. This marked a beginning for Japan’s large motorcycle industry. The original RIKU'O factory was destroyed in the Hiroshima bombings.

Only a handful of RIKU'O bikes exist outside of Japan and Riku Routo has a bike so unique that even Japanese collectors are not known to have one. The bike in question, a RIKU'O 1200 with a sidecar, found its way to Russia during the war from where Riku Routo salvaged it in 1996 – in its original shape.

Today the RIKU'O is in Finland in Lahti in Riku Routo's loving care and in the near future it will have a place as a guest of honor in the soon-to-be-finished motorcycle museum.

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Classic Bike 3/1998	Cycle World 4/1978	Easyrider 2/1998	A. R. Child's recollections 1977	Kopteri 1998	Antique 44/2005	Antique 45/2006
Antique 45_2/2006	Hemmings Motor News 9/2010	Riku'O 2011

Riku'o Photos

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