The company – from parents' garage to the top of the world cycle industry

Heiko Müller and Markus Riese just wanted to keep their ears warm: that was the start of riese und müller. In winter 1992, Markus Riese's ears were freezing on a ride he took while at the technical university in Darmstadt.

This really irked this committed cyclist and he decided, in the classic style of an up-and-coming mechanical engineer - "I'll make something to fix it!". Together with college friend Heiko Müller he developed Hot Ears, soft and warm fleece ear warmers which could be fixed straight onto a cycle helmet.

These Hot Ears came onto the market in January 1993 and were the first product of the then newly-founded company "riese und müller". But as co-founder Heiko Müller says "riese und müller only really got going properly with our first Birdy folding bike."

Read on for the exciting story of how the Birdy was invented...