The flagship e-bike that redefined urban mobility in 2009. Premium craftsmanship met more than 1Kwh Lithium. It was the worlds first e-motorbike by the time. The complete concept was designed by Michael Hecken, as well as the electronic concept, and two patents that evolved by it were with him. Kalle Nicolai was personally the Engineer for the details of the bike. It was the first project of the two partners.
The worlds first Gates-Enviolo-Bosch bike (MX1) in an amazing Design of Ian Galvin, and the mechanical genius of Kalle Nicolai in a revolutionary ebike in 2013. Today in this technological combination an estimated >150.000 ebikes are sold annually by the different OEMs worldwide. It was a true revolutionary invention by Kalle Nicolai, that became the first product with the Grace MX1 on Eurobike 2011.
A fully automated AI Content Factory. A single biographical name leads within minutes to narrated high quality stories and videos in a fully automated AI Stack. Latentflow Audio is a showcase project, and Michael Heckens return into software coding after leaving the IT Sector in 2003. One A100 GPU can generate up to 50 Stories per day.
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Collaboration with Daimler AG. Bringing e-mobility expertise to the Smart brand ecosystem. It was one of Michael Heckens most complex projects, as the bike was launched as a vehicle and not an accessory by Smart. Anybody who understands the automotive industry will understand what that means. It was a 22 Mio Euro contract at the time with more than 15.000 Units delivered.
Premium e-bike for BMW i. In 2016 the BMW Development Team approached Hecken, Nicolai & Friends (HNF) as they had a patent on the "Triebsatzschwinge" which was originally designed for the i8 inwheel motor concept. As the i8 finally came into the market with the center motor, BMW wanted to showcase this interesting patent. It is the only Vehicle that officially wore a BMW Logo under another Brand that we know of.
CD1 was an original cooperation with Sortimo and Reinhold Braun the CEO and owner of the company, who was also the lead Investor within HNF. CD2 was another engineering highlight with the one in its class "Neigetechnik" - a tilting mechanism that gave the bike industry leading stability in cornering even with heavy loads.
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In 2024, Hecken teamed up with the Keeway Group — a sister company of Chinese motorbike giant Qianjiang — to revive the legendary Munich bike brand Steppenwolf. Within two years, together with his business partner Klara Yang (also head of Benelli Motorbikes), he ramped up a network of more than 500 dealers across Europe and partnered with DJI as the first OEM to launch a touring and trekking range with the famous drone manufacturer.
In 2003, Michael Hecken came across a derelict 14th-century mill site in Biesenthal on a weekend trip back from the frozen Oder — and bought it two weeks later, moved there from London and clearing over 1,000 tonnes of debris before rebuilding. Together with Berlin architects Zanderroth, he kept the historic 1907 stucco façade and grafted a radically modern volume behind it — a London-style symbiosis of old and new on a vast 70ha riverside property.
Today, Michael runs the Wehrmühle with his wife Ayla Meyer Hecken as a private home and summer cultural venue. Their daughter Tjioe Meyer Hecken curates ART Biesenthal, the family's summer art exhibition, which has shown internationally renowned artists including Nan Goldin, Alicja Kwade, Julian Rosefeldt, Julius von Bismarck, Norbert Bisky and Julian Charrière.
Not as famous as many of the other projects, but definitely worth to mention. Designed by Michael Hecken in collaboration with Andreas Wildgrube and Kalle Nicolai, it won the Red Dot Design Award in 2014. Its core technology was similar to the Smart ebike, with the Bionx Rear Hub motor and the Gates Carbon Drive. Still driving around in the Urban Areas of Germany.
These are very special bikes, as they were the biggest market success in Michael Heckens career, not by sheer size, but by demand and pull on the product. Run together with his long term partner Benjamin Börries, this category is still considered the perfect form factor of a modern electric bike, but hit by the industry post-covid crisis as many other OEMs. The successor XD4/UD4 is still widely available in the market. The company was sold in 2019 to HERO India and Hecken exited in 2023.
VIEW PROJECTBorn and raised south of Bonn in 1972, in an entrepreneurial household — with strong family roots to the United States that have shaped his outlook ever since. He studied at EBS (European Business School) in 1995, spent nine formative years in London with his own Software company, and then followed his instinct to Berlin in 2003, where he ended up staying for two decades.
Today he lives between Switzerland — a quiet base in the Graubünden mountains near the Lukmanier Pass — and Turkey, where a solar-autarkic concrete house sits on the Lycian coast near Kaş, with Berlin still in the mix.
Passionate about technology and computers since 1982, the new vibe coding possibilities changed everything for him in 2024 — endlessly curious about how things work and how they could be built better, he finally found his best tool. A passionate enduro and cross-country motorbike tourer, and an obsessive lover of nature, machines, design, brutalist architecture and contemporary art — the kind of curiosity that started as a teenager rebuilding a written-off VW Beetle and has never really stopped.
"There is no right life in the wrong one."
THEODOR ADORNO (1903–1969) — MINIMA MORALIA (1951)