With 153cm and 45kg she is dainty, but is above the 5th percentile of Central European women. However, the industry seems to be primarily interested in the middle and the mass, because even products in smaller sizes shown in catalogues are ultimately not in stock. Conversely, it means that one does not expect those failed customers. This applies not only with regard to body height, but also to unusual wishes in the frame design. No customer request is too unusual for NICOLAI. And word has got around after 20 years. So Isabella hears about her friend from NICOLAI, visits a specialist dealer in her region, locates Kimmerle cycling and starts the “ION16 XXS” project. “The special challenge for me as a designer is to implement the boundary conditions that customers above the 5th percentile bring with them. So you have to venture out of a designer’s comfort zone and accept less space between two moving components. It starts by taking up the wishes of the customers and defining requirements. This includes, for example, body dimensions, field of application and component requirements. The requirement with the highest priority for this order was the lowest possible overhang height. We have chosen the ION platform as the basis for this bike. The design of the ION allows me to lower the top tube extremely without negatively affecting the kinematics. By positioning the pivot points I can influence the progression of the rear end of this frame model very sensitively. With the rider’s weight of 45kg, this is a very large factor contributing to the comfort of the rear end. In order to keep the projection height as low as possible and not to position the handlebar too high in relation to the bottom bracket, we decided on 26″ wheels”.

Marcel Lauxtermann (Konstrukteur)