The Open UP has been a class defining frame since it’s inception. After Cervelo restructured and Andy White together with Gerard Vroomen took off and started Open, it was only natural that they started such a detail oriented company like Open. The Open UP Ready to Paint is their answer to the custom market, a frame that comes as a blank canvas, ready for your local painter to spray the frame to suit. Read on below to learn more about this build and check out all the photos of this minimalist build.
Building a “premium” gravel bike like this, SRAM AXS was a pretty obvious choice, although 2x12 instead of a single chainring may be the less obvious choice. Living and riding the Netherlands means that there is enough asphalt duty before making it to the more chunky stuff. The smaller jumps of a 10-33 or 10-36 cassette mean you can fine tune your cadence while getting out of Dodge, all the while having that second 30t chainring at your disposal for when things go Up™. SRAM Force AXS Wide takes care of all the drivetrain on this bike, with a 43/30t crankset up front, and a 10-33t cassette for the groad wheels, and 10-36t for the more adventure-oriented 650b wheels.
Now we gotst’a talk about these Beast wheels. Being a wheelbuilder, you very quickly get an impression of quality during the build process. Although telling only half of the story, in the initial steps of build a wheel when all spokes have been tensioned equally using a specially designed tool, a wheelbuilder can see how straight and stuff a rim is, as well as how “round” it is. Honestly one of my favourite things about these rims is showing customers how straight these things are from the box, as well as the finish. Look at the photo again… that rim is not painted. Not even clear coated. That’s just how the rim comes out of the mould… Which, if you have no idea about carbon component manufacturing, I’ll just clue you in: that’s absolutely wild!
Pair some of that sweet, sweet German engineering with a Chris King hub in the back and SON dynamo in the front, and you’ve got one of the fastest wheelsets out there that’ll light your re-entry into the atmosphere when you cycle just a hair too far to get back in time for dinner. Good on ya.
When this client came to me, they had a pretty clear vision of what they wanted, and I just needed to fill in the blanks. A lot of the conversations we had were along the lines of “I’d like a carbon bar, what are the options?”, which is kind of a sweet spot for me. From the 1000 options, I can slowly whittle down what’s available on the market, trimming the options that don’t suit the user, maybe don’t fit the application, are of lesser quality, or just don’t fit into the budget.
Check out the gallery below and shoot me an email if you have any questions about this bike or your own! Mag ook gewoon in het Nederlands hoor!
