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 |
Riku and Riku'o at the Bike Week - Daytona Beach, FL 1999
Dorothy Child (Alfred's daughter) and Riku Routo
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