Personality Profile: Joakim

Joakim Uimonen
Hometown: Helsinki, Finland
Position: Product Design Manager
Dahon office: Taipei, Taiwan

Dahon is known as the leading folding bike manufacturer in the world. But what exactly goes on behind the scenes of the company with the big “O”? Every quarter in Personality Profile, we highlight a key person at Dahon who helps bring the bikes that people around the world have come to know and love, to reality.

In this issue we feature Joakim Uimonen, Dahon’s product design manager who leads Dahon’s design team.

Joakim, or Jojo (yo-yo) as he’s affectionately called, joined Dahon in February of 2008 and immediately started contributing to the Dahon product line by redesigning the BioLogic Arx grips and he has been busy plugging away on a number of new projects ever since.

Q: Can you provide a bit of background about yourself?
A: I did my base studies in Helsinki, Finland with a masters of science in machine design, majoring in product development. For my master’s thesis I worked on a controlling device for wearable computers while doing work for the Nokia Research Center.

After graduating, I worked at Nokia as a research engineer for three years after which I went back to school to get a masters of arts in industrial design. For my master’s thesis I made a bike that could transform from a low-rider recumbent bike into an upright bike. It was completely foldable, and when folded it could be used as a trolley.

Q: How did you hook up with Dahon?
A: While I was the product development manager for Tunturi Bicycles, the largest Finnish bike brand, I proposed getting a folding bike into the Tunturi collection. We contacted Dahon at Eurobike in 2005 and I coordinated with Dahon to introduce folding bikes. In getting to know Dahon, I discovered how many cool projects they are working on and it sounded really interesting and challenging to me.

Q: What are some of the things that you are working on at Dahon?
A: There are lots of interesting projects at Dahon. Some of the stuff we are working on includes redesigning some bikes with new frames and components and coming up with a new line of carry bags. There are so many possibilities to design new parts and components because we produce in large volume and have a number of special bikes with special components.

Q: What do you like most about working at Dahon?
A: Getting new, better bicycles and components out. And getting people to actually use them all over the world.

Q: What are some of your favorite Dahon bikes?
A: I like the Speed TR because it’s a workhorse of a bike and has the SRAM Dual Drive. I like the Dual Drive because you get mountain bike gearing for steep uphill climbs but also higher gearing for riding on the road in traffic.

I also think the Mμ frame is really cool. Any of our bikes using the Mμ frame looks great.

The Glide is also one of my favorites because it has nice curves and fits into a very small package. Though it is a full-size bike, the folded size is roughly the same as one of our folded 20-inch bikes. The curves, though, are somewhat feminine, and that’s something that we plan to work on.

Q: What do you like to do on the weekends?
A: I enjoying going to places by bike. Riding into the mountains, riding to the beach, just leisurely riding along the riverfront, and of course, taking pictures of bikes!