This is the best gravel bike offer I've seen probably ever

Triathlon Forum
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many of you are naive to the fact that we have a front page ;-/

and even if you read the article to which i’ll point you, you might’ve not gotten to this offer, so i thought i’d mention it. the offer happens to be on the gravel bike i ride, which is an OPEN WI.DE., and it’s the subject of an article that went upon the front page a couple of days ago.

i bought this bike - frame and parts, and wheels - about 4 years ago. that bike was close to a $9,000 bike when i bought it; it’s still my everyday driver (for gravel); and is the first and only of the 3 gravel bikes i’ve owned that just hit every mark and for that reason i’m not replacing it any time soon. i really investigated which should be my 3rd gravel bike before i landed on the WI.DE. as to the offer…

OPEN Cycles is selling this build that i ride - SRAM mullet config, 12sp 1x Force AXS from the crank forward, Eagle XX1 AXS electronic in the rear, for $3,750 or $4,500 - depending on wheel selection - until they’re out. this is because of an upcoming build, and i know what the upcoming build will be, and it will be nice, but not nice enough for me (were i in the market) to pass this current build by in favor of the new build.

i ride this bike with 650b (27.5") wheels schwalbe g-one bites in a pretty fat size (53mm, aka 2.1"). but they also offer it with a 700c wheel and a skinnier tire. it’s an even fatter (57mm) tire on the build they offer if you choose 650b, and it’s a 45mm tire if you choose 700c wheels. they offer the bike with the SRAM eagle 10-50 cassette, which is the only way to go imho.

this bike can be had cheaper yet if you choose mechanical 13sp campy ekar. but the SRAM build is the way to go in my opinion. this offer is for OPEN Ambassadors, but is being offered to slowtwitchers at the Ambassador price. go to that link, in that article, at the bottom of the article, to buy this bike at that price.

neither i nor slowtwitch nor anyone associated with slowtwitch benefits from this. it’s just a deal that was offered to slowtwitchers and i thought it was good enough to pass on.

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Can confirm, Dan is legitimately obsessed with this bike.

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Can confirm, Dan is legitimately obsessed with this bike.Think that is pretty clear from such a dispassionate tour de force.
This left me confused:
“Next comes the wheel diameter. I wrote about this previously every bike designer ought to have a wheel diameter in mind or in this case a tire diameter: what is the diameter (or circumference) of the inflated tire. When I ask bike designers, 9 in 10 don’t know what I’m talking about, or why I’m asking the question. When I asked the designer of the OPEN WI.DE, Cervelo founder Gerard Vroomen, he said “345mm.” Short, sweet, to the point.”
Maybe trig is not a strength of either @Slowman or Vroomen, though that seems unlikely. A wheel with tyre fitted diameter of 345mm would be even smaller than the wheels of a Moulton (16") in the days of yore. Maybe Vroomen answered the question “What is the radius of a wheel with an inflated tire?” and he answered with his ideal RAM.
I suggest @Slowman is denigrating “9 out of 10 bike designers” unfairly: asserting they “don’t know what I’m talking about” is hyperbolic. Or he just confused them with his question.
Superb article and I look forward to the sequelae.
And the offer on the OPEN is an outrageously good one.

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Can confirm, Dan is legitimately obsessed with this bike.Think that is pretty clear from such a dispassionate tour de force.
This left me confused:
“Next comes the wheel diameter. I wrote about this previously every bike designer ought to have a wheel diameter in mind or in this case a tire diameter: what is the diameter (or circumference) of the inflated tire. When I ask bike designers, 9 in 10 don’t know what I’m talking about, or why I’m asking the question. When I asked the designer of the OPEN WI.DE, Cervelo founder Gerard Vroomen, he said “345mm.” Short, sweet, to the point.”
Maybe trig is not a strength of either @Slowman or Vroomen, though that seems unlikely. A wheel with tyre fitted diameter of 345mm would be even smaller than the wheels of a Moulton (16") in the days of yore. Maybe Vroomen answered the question “What is the radius of a wheel with an inflated tire?” and he answered with his ideal RAM.
I suggest @Slowman is denigrating “9 out of 10 bike designers” unfairly: asserting they “don’t know what I’m talking about” is hyperbolic. Or he just confused them with his question.
Superb article and I look forward to the sequelae.
And the offer on the OPEN is an outrageously good one.

ah yes. radius. not diameter. thank you for that catch.

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Dan,
Have had an Open UP for about 4 years. Was wondering as I read the front page article about the Wide vs Open. Have a 650b w/2.1’ schwalbes and 303s for the road.

Originally built the bike to ride up Mauna Kea and it has worked flawlessly. Most comfortable bike I own, and the only time it came up short was in Bentonville trying to ride the Bush Push. The Red AXS 44/33 w/an 10-33 wasn’t enough.

Do you see a reason to consider adding a WI.de? Does it come in RTP so the wife won’t notice a new frame?

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I’ve been doing ‘gravel’ a long time and I have very similar requirements you mention for what I want in a gravel bike. When I was searching for my ‘all in one’ bike about 8 years ago, I couldn’t find an off the shelf bike that ticked all the boxes for me, so I ended up getting custom steel bike made to tick the following:

  1. optimized around 700x35mm tires for geometry
  2. able to fit 650x50 for chunky riding (like you said, keeps the effective diameter similar)
  3. Road(ish) geometry, and no toe overlap (I’m only 5 8’ so can be tricky so a longer TT and shorter stem was speced). I like my front end to have a trail figure around 58mm for neutral cornering and shortish CS of 415mm, and lots of BB drop (78mm)
  4. Threaded BB

8 Years later I still love this bike and also have zero plans to ‘upgrade’!

I also used an excellent builder who completely understood what I was trying to achieve - awesome experience.

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Dan,
Have had an Open UP for about 4 years. Was wondering as I read the front page article about the Wide vs Open. Have a 650b w/2.1’ schwalbes and 303s for the road.

Originally built the bike to ride up Mauna Kea and it has worked flawlessly. Most comfortable bike I own, and the only time it came up short was in Bentonville trying to ride the Bush Push. The Red AXS 44/33 w/an 10-33 wasn’t enough.

Do you see a reason to consider adding a WI.de? Does it come in RTP so the wife won’t notice a new frame?

i can see why you’d have trouble with a 33x33 as your lowest gear. as to the wife, you gave yourself away. your UP has RED AXS. with bling like that you can afford a new $4,000 bike. the only legitimate concern is space.

in my gravel sojourn what i have discovered is that it’s very infrequent that tire width is a detriment. i lose about 15sec/mile versus my road bike on the pavement. if i had some fast rolling 35mm tires that might be 5sec per mile. but once you go offroad, the differences are minimal and once i get to the point where i need that wider tire the differences are huge.

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Hey Dan,

Any issues with pedal strikes on the 650 tires? Any reason why you like sram force/hybrid more than campagnolo ekar? looks like a great deal. Thank you. How much did your bike end up weighing( although less important would be good to know)

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Hey Dan,

Any issues with pedal strikes on the 650 tires? Any reason why you like sram force/hybrid more than campagnolo ekar? looks like a great deal. Thank you. How much did your bike end up weighing( although less important would be good to know)

pedal strikes? you mean pedals striking the ground? no. it might be an issue if i ran smaller tires but the 53mm tires i have on there aren’t just wider, but taller. they grow in height in proportion to their width. so, the BB height is pretty normal. if i ran these tires on a 700c wheel i’d have a different kind of pedal strike: pedal meets the trailing edge of the front tire.

there’s a lot i like about SRAM. the gearing. shifting on both levers. just the precision of electronic shifting. and of course look ma! no wires! i took that bike to steamboat gravel last year and bikes like that are easier to pack without derailleur cables. but i haven’t ridden ekar, so i can’t compare. i’m sure ekar is great.

my bike in size L, as i have it set up, weighs 18lb., and that’s with pedals, water bottle cages, computer and light mounts and computer and varia radar (which i wouldn’t and don’t need except when i’m riding loops that contain paved sections).

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Yea i mean pedal strikes(hitting rocks/roots)on like single track. Lots of gravel races/ride in norcal can be gnarly. Thank you for the info. Do you know any issues with toe overlap on the 45mm tires it comes with on 700cc

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Yea i mean pedal strikes(hitting rocks/roots)on like single track. Lots of gravel races/ride in norcal can be gnarly.

The circumference of a 650bx2.25 is 2182, which is roughly equivalent to a 700x38.

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Most comfortable bike I own, and the only time it came up short was in Bentonville trying to ride the Bush Push. The Red AXS 44/33 w/an 10-33 wasn’t enough.

If you adjust the RD screw the Sram can do the 10-36 cassette. It’s lazy on the shift near the fastest cogs but that isn’t often in gravel.

Then 33/36 is easier than 1:1.

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A wheel with tyre fitted diameter of 345mm would be even smaller than the wheels of a Moulton (16") in the days of yore. Maybe Vroomen answered the question “What is the radius of a wheel with an inflated tire?” and he answered with his ideal RAM.

Maybe I was just looking up in my office when I answered Dan:

IMG_2245.jpg

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Well played!

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It was all about the assist in this case, the scoring was easy. I only have two bikes hanging in my office, so I just have to wait for somebody to make a Baracchi comment, then I can point to the other corner of my office. Those are all the flavors I have.

IMG_2246.jpg

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i also have bikes hanging in my “office” but they’re, you know, rideable. (and ridden.) most of which flow via one brand or another from you.

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I can assure you these are ridable and have been ridden too! But really, it’s time for you to hang a Redstone somewhere. Maybe not ideal for gravel, but definitely the color is very 2023. And of course the wheels are perfect for every generation of wall-hanging bike (my Moulton also has a HED connection but that’s another story).

2014-08-18-19-20-50_5-jpg.jpeg

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I can assure you these are ridable and have been ridden too! But really, it’s time for you to hang a Redstone somewhere. Maybe not ideal for gravel, but definitely the color is very 2023. And of course the wheels are perfect for every generation of wall-hanging bike (my Moulton also has a HED connection but that’s another story).

i know your moulton’s HED connection. sometimes steve did business deals not because they made particular strategic sense, but because he really liked the product and/or the people behind the product. somehow doing deals on that basis paid a business benefit in the long run. i think the hed’s stayed in alex moulton’s castle in england, so there’s that too.

i’m a divester. steve was a collector. i just divested myself of my backhoe this morning. my rule these days is to get rid of 2 things for every thing i get. my most useful tool is my dump trailer. i take a load to the dump a couple of times a month. it’s amazing how much junk one can acquire.

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is there any option to change out stem length if buying the WI.DE.?

edit: i mean during purchase, swapping to a longer stem before shipping the bike?

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Depends a bit. I’ve sent you a DM.