option product with variants

hi all,
first let me say that i am very pleased with hikashop, really an awesome software.
as a newbie to hikashop i am in the process of checking it out.

now this is my problem:
i define a product that will be used as an option. this option product has 2 characteristics with 2 values each ( also tried only one characteristic, same problem).
(by the way, i have noticed that hikashop sets up the matrix of variants only correctly if i add both characteristics at once. if i add one characteristic, save the product and add the second later on, i only see two variants in the "managed variants" list and have to set up the others manually. this is uncomfortable, but not a real problem.)

however, if i add that product to another as an option, the system provides the 4 variants of the option, but does not offer the choice not to have the option at all as it does with options products w/o variants.
since it does in the demo with the desktop tower (keyboard and mouse) i am obviously doing something wrong. but what?

thx for your answer, but that way seems quite cumbersome to me.

(for example: i have a topcase that comes in 2 sizes and several colors. i want to sell that topbox separately and as an option (with the variants) to several bikes. so i would have to define the characteristics and a second set for the topbox as a product, because for that case the variant 'without' doesn't make any sense. and most of all i would have redundant data.)

but i found a simple workaround by patching the view product/option.php

after line 50 ( }else{ ) i inserted a copy of line 28 :

$this->values[] = JHTML::_('select.option', 0,JText::_('HIKASHOP_NO'));

              if($default){
                // $value = $variant->product_id;
                $value=0;
              }