Our Story
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2025
New Chapter for Pole BicyclesWe’re excited to announce that we have acquired certain assets of Pole Bicycle Company Oy, including intellectual property rights and specific product lines.
Our goal is to relaunch the brand fully step by step. We are set up to make spare parts and later we start making frames.
While we embark on this new chapter, it’s important to acknowledge that Pole Bicycle Company Oy has filed for bankruptcy and is currently under receivership.For inquiries regarding debts owed to Pole Bicycle Company Oy or unreceived products, please contact the appointed receiver.Stay tuned for more updates on the future of Pole Bicycles.
bankruptcy
2024
Although we started the year on the back foot, we soon faced further challenges: two of our CNC machines broke down, and the Finnish logistics industry went on a month-long strike, draining our cash reserves. At the same time, we were negotiating for funding and a potential business acquisition, but unfortunately, we didn’t succeed and had to file for bankruptcy in April.
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Booming business turns into a hurdle
2023
Early 2023 we released information that we will be racing in World Cup DH. We signed with Onni Rainio and developed a bike with his name on it. Onnio and Sonni were born.
We raced a full season and our sales was going well until the autumn hit and the industry started to have it's hangover. We weren't entire sure what was going on until we saw Chain Reaction Cycles go under.
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2022
After the floodgates opened with component drought, we delivered over 400 units of Voima's to our customers. Later that year we released Voima's motorless version - Vikkelä
Leigh Johnson and Joe Nation were third in overall standings on EWS-E and Leihgh Johnson got third in the first race of the season.
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2021
We developed our first E-bike Voima. We sold more bikes in two weeks than last year altogether. Nobody was expecting that the industry would experience such challenges resulting that we would deliver the bikes after almost one year after releasing the bike.
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THE COVID YEAR
2020
This was something that nobody expected. We sold all our stock and ended up in hurdles that made us to change our organization. Leo Kokkonen stepped as the CEO.
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Going Pro
2019
Our business was booming with our newly released Stamina 180, 140 and Machine. Leigh Johson was 9th overall in EWS that year leaving some major teams behind.
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This was a big year to us
2018
We released two bikes. Machine and Stamina. Leigh Joshnosn started racing for Pole Bicycles and we launched our new Race team with Matti Lehikoinen, Joe Nation and Leigh Johnson later that year.
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Bonded frames were born
2017
2017 was a crossroads to Pole. We were engineering a carbon fiber bike for more than a year. We made one master thesis around our carbon project and also a fair amount of industrial design. After Leo visited a Chinese manufacturing facility he came bak to Finland and said that he doesn't want to do it.
After we made the decision that we won't make a carbon project in reality we had to ask the question: "How will the bikes be made in the future when carbon composites are so toxic?" Instead being part of the problem we decided to be part of the solution. This meant that we needed investors on board so we would have enough resources.
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First encounter with media
2016
Pole EVOLINK started to make waves as it was something new in the industry. The first comments were "you can't get around the tree" or "That bike is unrideable." Our team was presistant and we started to get positive reviews soon after.
"It's not me it's the bike"
2015
2015 Pole Rinne Ylä was feateured in Pinkbike in February by Paul Aston. Later that year we started to test the EVOLINK and Leo started to form his final concept around long and slack geometry. What Leo found out from previous models by racing was that we had to increase the reach even further and make the seat post steeper in order to pedal uphill even better.
First bikes delivered Sep 2014
2014
Right after the new year we got a new prototype to test and we got help from a World Cup Legend Matti Lehikoinen. We did the first tests at Malaga, Spain. We were hosted by Swithc-Backs DH and Michael Saunders who became later our ambassador.
Leo won the Finnish National DH chanmpionships at Masters category and our ambassador and future employee Jussi Rajala was third.
Game Changer is born
2013
Pole was founded in September 2013 in a basmenet of an old bakery by Leo Kokkonen and Patric Palonen. Soon after we moved to downtown Jyväskylä as a brick-and-mortar store that we renovated ourselves as the first base of Pole Bicycle Company. We shared the office space with Komia Design that was Leo's first business he founded 2014.
Pole was based on Leo's vision. His vision was to offer high quality mountain bikes that were designed to go up and down the mountain as an XC bike and DH bike would go. Leo believed that by changing the bike geometry and kinematics radically a such bike could be a game changer. Little did he know how much impact a such idea could have.