A man with a vision. To establish a competitive frame production facility in Switzerland. An integrated industrial manufacturing process to satisfy the most exacting quality requirements. A highly efficient carbon frame which is not laminated, but instead made from loadspecific woven tubes. A revolutionary half-shell system that connects these tubes with ultimate strength. A world champion who tests the bike and instantly declares it suitable for racing. A utopia?

When Andy Rihs gets on his bike, not only is it good for his fitness but most of all for his businesses as well. Sitting in the bike sad- dle is where he does his thinking. It’s where he “gets into the flow”, where the contradictions are re- solved, horizons open up and things can be thought that previously were unthinkable..

This love story officially begins in early 2001 when andy rihs, the boss at hearing systems manufacturer, Phonak, and bike producer, BMc, announced their mar- riage. at this point in time, BMc was mostly constructing mountain bikes but that was about to change fast. The following year, andy rihs’ Phonak racing Team started the Tour de France on BMc racing machines. The riders in their green-and-yellow were pedaling to help people’s hearing. “We race for better hearing” was the message they took out across the world.

The strategy bore fruit. Phonak advanced not only to become the biggest and most innovative but also the best known manufacturer of hearing systems in the world - and in the world of road racing BMc became a brand that stood out with its highly independent frame design and its use of innovation.

But andy rihs had bigger ideas when he got into the bike business. He doesn't believe in doing anything by halves. now what was driving him most of all as he bowled along with his bike purring under him is the question of why this ingenious invention - which does so much to propel him forward in his thinking - has still not arrived in the modern age? He was unable to understand why a high-tech material such as carbon was always processed using low-tech methods. and nor did he think that the production of bicycle frames fit for the global market necessarily had to be based in East asia. and that's when he began to get an idea of where the journey might take him...

andy rihs covered another lap on his teammachine and then decided: that's what we will do. We will set a true industrial standard for the construction of carbon frames. We will develop all the technologies we need right through to series production. We will do all of it in Switzerland - with Swiss thoroughness and precision. and when we have finished we will be the first manufacturer in the world able to offer our customers an absolutely faultless carbon frame that satisfies the highest demands. in short, we'll build the impec.