fraba

Well you are right. We may be a little too enthusiastic

While you can use it as a road bike with 700cx28 or 25, it is heavier that a similarly priced road bike (My New UP with Force 21 and 3T carbon wheel is approx. 18 lbs. With the UPPER, it could be a different story). Also less nimble. But it descends like a bullet! Off road or on gravel, I can't compare since it is my first gravel bike. But it is really FUN with 650bx47. It feels rock solid (at least for a plastic bike trailangel ). During spring when the roads are crap, full of dirt and holes, I use my 650b wheels and it's a dream. The rolling resistance of these fatty tires is surprising low.

Basically a fun bike that I use also for soft single tracks. For pure speed, I have a Cervelo P3 (I do triathlons), for the rest, I am OPEN

Garfield Cat

I would say the size of the company. High volume companies can lower their price points, offer different models to attract as much of the market as possible. OPEN, started with the hardtail mountain bike and then the UP.

Near where I live, is a bike shop that recently carries Cervelo. So I asked the manager about OPEN UP and he says he cannot offer both the Diverge and the UP as the Diverge is selling very well and the UP price is not competitive. Bike shops have to continue doing business and the consumers will think twice, thrice, before laying down that kind of money for a frameset alone.

So what makes the UP so special besides the engineering? I think Gerard Vroomen's experience in the industry. His knowledge of carbon layups, his friendship with the late Steve Hed, his relationship with Pon Holdings (Netherlands). There's a book about Cervelo, written by Phil White's wife, no doubt. That gives you the insight of the Vroomen-White experience at Cervelo.

Where do you get that kind of background in today's bike business?

FlashBazbo

My use of the OPEN is similar to fraba's. If I want to go as fast as possible on good pavement, I pull out my BMC SLR01. For just about everything else, I ride my OPEN. It's less than 1 mph slower than the BMC on smooth pavement and it's excellent on broken pavement, chipseal, dirt, and gravel. Comfortable and fast at the same time. Handles great. If I'm going to be on unfamiliar roads on a casual ride, I always prefer to be on the OPEN. It takes roads comfortably that would make me wince if I were on the BMC. And in group ride settings, it's generally fast enough for anything.

RidingMatthew

@FlashBazbo how do you like the Elwood tires?

I am doing the unpaved pennsylvannia ride and am considering putting them on my journeyman instead of the byways i use for commuting.

FlashBazbo

I like the Elwoods for the conditions I've used them for. The Open Range 200k includes a huge variety of surfaces, most of which don't require a 47mm wide tire. But a lot of the course this year involved very deep, very fine sand. The Elwoods made the sand tolerable. I suspect the volume would also make washboard surfaces more tolerable. At the same time, the Elwoods didn't seem to slow me down very much on the dirt, clay, or paved sections. If you don't know the course conditions and want to play it safe, the Elwoods are an excellent choice. Extremely versatile.

If not for the deep, fine sand, though, I would have gone with a 700c x 38mm (or 35mm) tire like a Challenge Gravel Grinder. The Gravel Grinder is a little faster on packed dirt, clay, and paved roads. But I suspect they would have been somewhat squirrely in the Open Range's deep sand.

HarborBandS

I find mountain bikes squirrely in sand. At some point, there's just not much you can do about a loose sandy surface.

RidingMatthew

thanks @FlashBazbo I am currently riding on 650b x 47mm Byways. they said that 650 x 2.1" WTB nanos are too much tire. I think they would be slow but cushion would be nice. I told wife for the ride that I don't need tires but I really think some extra tread would be nice on 90+ gravel ride.

FlashBazbo

QUICK UPDATE: After 8 months and thousands of mixed surface miles, the OPEN U.P. continues to impress. The quality holds up and the handling never grows old. I haven't found anything yet that I dislike about the bike. Okay, do I wish it had a T47 bottom bracket? Sure. But you can't have everything. Gerard Vroomen was never going to spec a T47 on one of his bikes.

Recent changes:

• I ditched the Redshift Shockstop stem and replaced it with a Niner RDO. I guess I'm not a fan of flex. Actually, I notice flex even in the Niner RDO stem -- but it's an amount I can live with. And, if memory serves, the Niner stem weighs about half what the Redshift item does. Less weight and less flex? For me, it's a two-fer!
• My BMC TeamMachine Disc has been in the shop for two months under the BMC fork recall. This means the OPEN has seen a LOT more road duty. I have experimented with tubes, tubeless, and tire widths including 38mm, 32mm, 28mm, and 25mm for the road. Now, the OPEN wears the carbon wheels and 25mm tubeless tires from my BMC -- and it is very nearly as fast as the BMC on smooth roads. It makes an excellent "only bike." In group rides, I don't feel I give up anything by being on the OPEN rather than the BMC. The tinkerer in me wonders what would happen if I put a narrow road bar on the OPEN in place of the wide Salsa Cowchipper -- would that make the BMC obsolete for my purposes? I don't know. I will try to resist doing anything until after I get the BMC back (IF I get the BMC back). At this rate, I might decide the OPEN is the only bike I need.

dwmckee

I ride an U.P also and in blue. I find the bike amazing. It is nimble at the right times and stable at other times, I thought it expensive as well but after riding I had no hesitation about shelling out the cash. It is well worth what I paid for it. Interestingly, it cured my constant interest in riding oother bikes; maybe I actually wound up spending less this way by not buying something else a year or two later. It don;t get no better'n dis! It accekerates like a scalded dog and I can ride it on long distance rides and be comfortable all day on it. On really rough roads you worder where all of the bumps go. There is definitely a reason you never read any negative reviews of it, the design and manufacture are impeecable. And on road riding I prefer it by far to a road bike.

I am pretty sure Open makes a good margin on the frames, but they certainly have earned that right.

Mayday328

OPEN U.P owner checking in. I agree with what has been said here. It is by far the best bike I've owned and I've gone through quite a few over the years.