OPEN releases road bike

[bespoke]

Thats the exciting thing about carbon printing
You will soon be able to get a 117mm stem, with 385mm widthbars
And the exact drop and reach you want....

As you say; you can have a custom bike - but the reach and drop are set for you

[kundica]

I don't get the amount of hate on this new frame. I ride an Open U.P. I built to try and minimize the number of bikes I own but I regularly find myself wanting a bike at the edges the U.P. doesn't hit. Offroad I want more tire clearance like the WI.DE and pefectly happy running 1x with a wide range cassette. On the other end I want a bike that's lighter and bit more nimble on the road, yet retains the comfort of the U.P., preferably with the gearing of a 2x setup. The MIN.D seems like the perfect road bike for me, albeit, pricey. The geo looks like an endurance bike I'd enjoy riding.

[bespoke]

Thing about successful brands is they dont care about the haters
Haters dont kill a brand; apathy does....
You can have 90% of the market hate your stuff; but if you capture a 10% die hard following you have a very successful business
I cannot think of a forum less suited to loving a 32mm tyre endurance bike than WW
I am sure Gerard and Andy will be fine; the amount of pre-orders will be their KPI not forum love (or lack thereof)

[Tamu8104]

I can’t attest directly to Factor QC, but it does get rid of a middleman. We can discuss the merit of owning your own factory vs contracting one, but there is clearly more oversight in the former situation.

As someone who has worked in supply chain and risk management extensively, unfortunately that statement isn't accurate. There are plenty of companies that are very good at supply chain management and have extremely effective due diligence, controls, and oversight of contracted entities. I would much rather have a product from that company versus one with poor internal controls and oversight of it's owned manufacturing. There are plenty of companies that are lucky rather than good when it comes to controls and oversight of their manufacturing. Owning your supply chain is not an indicator or guarantee of quality.

[TobinHatesYou]

I can’t attest directly to Factor QC, but it does get rid of a middleman. We can discuss the merit of owning your own factory vs contracting one, but there is clearly more oversight in the former situation.

As someone who has worked in supply chain and risk management extensively, unfortunately that statement isn't accurate. There are plenty of companies that are very good at supply chain management and have extremely effective due diligence, controls, and oversight of contracted entities. I would much rather have a product from that company versus one with poor internal controls and oversight of it's owned manufacturing. There are plenty of companies that are lucky rather than good when it comes to controls and oversight of their manufacturing. Owning your supply chain is not an indicator or guarantee of quality.

That’s why I explicitly said I can’t make claims about their QC and that there are merits to contracting factories??

[Tamu8104]

I was specifically referring to your "....clearly more oversight in the former situation". Intuitively you would think so but unfortunately not reality.

[wheelsONfire]

Thats the exciting thing about carbon printing
You will soon be able to get a 117mm stem, with 385mm widthbars
And the exact drop and reach you want....

As you say; you can have a custom bike - but the reach and drop are set for you

You should get involved in 3-D printing!

[alexneumuller]

Thats the exciting thing about carbon printing
You will soon be able to get a 117mm stem, with 385mm widthbars
And the exact drop and reach you want....

As you say; you can have a custom bike - but the reach and drop are set for you

You should get involved in 3-D printing!

I’ll second that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bespoke]

Yeah; when we first started Retul was new and we were first to bring Retul into the EU
Now Retul has almost become a verb!
In the near future the fit led shops will be the ones doing 3D printed contact points and saddles - will be cool

[golfsierra]

I don’t entirely understand the hate either, I can only assume it’s due in part to Hamboni and his legion of arm chair composites engineers

I have built up many UPs, Wides, Minds, dealt with post sale support for customers, owned them myself, and have not had a single issue in thousands of miles

I cannot say the same for Cannondale, or Trek composite road bikes I’ve worked with

[FlatlandClimber]

Me and my wife each have an Open. Awesome bikes.
The Min.D isn't that interesting for me from a spec POV. The UP however is one of the best bike designs I have seen, especially considering it is 5 years old.

[FactoryMatt]

Hate is due to pricing, gerard being a hypeman, the horrific way in which they handled the hambini situation. Around here its a status bike rather than something you see "die hard" people riding, generally speaking.

[golfsierra]

I don't even know why they'd even respond to Hambini

I'll agree with the pricing

Die hard riders don't really buy frames that cost more than $2500 in general, or really people in general outside of a weird subset

is an S-Works anything not as much of a status bike though? Just sold with a longer history of hype and marketing

Gerard has always been a hypeman, but isn't it somewhat undeniable that he also created some of the most significant and influential road bike designs in the past 15 years, in regards to the Cervelos he designed, the U.P. and I guess even the 3T thing.
Hype is necessary to sell those that aren't really paying close attention to the finer design details of bikes, which I suspect is the majority of people who can afford a premium carbon bike

I think the min.d is an exceptionally specific appeal for a bike, but I think essentially fills the same space as an Aethos except with less marketing BS
A road bike designed for feel and actual riding rather than fantasy of racing

I think both of the bikes are great

Price being equal, I could see the Aethos being a more appealing bike on weight alone, but at $1700 cheaper than the S-Works I think I'd live with 200g extra

[tomato]

Die hard riders don't really buy frames that cost more than $2500 in general, or really people in general outside of a weird subset

I live in a town of "die hard" cyclists, most of whom spend considerably more than $2500 for a frame. It's no big deal.

[FactoryMatt]

all good points. yep.

with both open AND spesh, i do wonder how much the markup grows moving to the top tier layup. Gotta wonder what actual marginal cost increase is in material....