Open Unbeaten Path (anyone?)

[wheelsONfire]

Better ask the cyclocross crowd (i hope), anyone of you guys having any hands on experience with Open UP (Unbeaten Path)?

What's your impression of the frame/ bike?

[Transientgolf]

I'm interested as well. Anyone have experience with this bike?

[Jengaback]

I love the idea is this but I think the lack of provision for mud guards is a weird one.

[Birdman]

I'm also interested in some first hand experience of the U.P..

Seems like the Norco Torrent 27.5+ incorporate the same drop chainstay idea, with slightly shorter than normal chainstay length.

[mtbstuff]

I don't think you're going to find much real world experience out there.....
http://www.opencycle.com/blogs/article/fess-u-p-


And the drop chain stay is nothing new.....just not used often.
It is a beautiful bike....saw them at Interbike
I had the hots for one. But the the $3K price for a frame, too low head tube( for me) and the fact they don't exist in the real world....

[clarkson]

I've seen and briefly ridden one (albeit a size too large). Quality and craftsmanship is absolutely top notch, as you'd expect. The feel of the thing was not cross specific and a bit more adventure oriented, but it's a very fun do anything machine.

[wheelsONfire]

I'm working hard to buy a ready built UP. I think it's time to ask government for funding for this disease before i live in a tent.

I am getting tired as i can't sleep normal, as my buddy says, it's the OCD.

Anyone who actually bought one of these bikes, please chime in!

[RyanH]

Bumping this to see if anyone else can provide their feedback? I have a serious itch for one of these.

[KWalker]

A few people I know have them and love them for what they're meant to do- ride on fire roads and less bumpy singletrack. Good compliance, high volume tires help with traction and stability, and they can do mixed-terrain rides on them.

But these guys also own every type of bike and are finding it hard to justify riding a lot of the time. Handles slower and rides slower than a road bike (you can swap tires for the speed part), less capable off road than a mountain bike and unless you are making use of the larger tire options, no more capable than a Stigmata or similar. Most would recommend it to those that ride off road on a large percentage of their rides AND/OR can only have 1 bike to do those types of rides as well as road rides.

[FreshlySqueezed]

I have had mine ( https://opencycle.com/showcase/freshly- ... d-1-by-pcb) since the middle of December and have ridden over 1200km of mixed terrain stuff on it now. If I could only have one bike this would be it. It's supremely comfortable over distance, stiff in all the right places, quick and responsive on and off road.

If you'd like to know anything else I shall do my best to answer..

[raven14]

I have an UP as well. I use it mostly as my winter road bike for 'long and slow' outside, and I have 2 sets of wheels to choose from for that: 27.5 set shod with WTB Horizon 47mm slicks, and a 700c road/cross set with (at the moment) gravel tyres (Clement Xplor MSO tubeless). In summer tyres will be changed for Thunder Burt or Racing Ralph on the 27.5 set (off road stuff) and 32mm tubeless Hutchinson Sectors (on road and a bit of gravel, mostly pavé in Flanders and/or social group rides).

It is a jack of all trades, but to me (as pointed out above) it doesn't excel in many of the niches in which it can be used. That's not bad per se, but eg do not expect it to be on the pointy end of the race bike spectrum. It is a very comfortable road bike though. I am a road rider typically so to me the extension of applications thanks to the UP, is in the direction of gravel/off road, and there I must say I'm surprised by what a bike like this, shod with MTB tyres, can do, even compared to a cross bike. Steering can be a bit slow compared to a cross bike, but the traction you get from the tyres gets you thru some pretty rough terrain.

[RyanH]

Thanks Raven, while I don't plan on replacing my road bike, I would like to pick up a second bike that can overlap with occasional road duties while handling a ride range of dirt duties. I don't really have space for more than two bikes so something like the UP would be nice. For the road application, one of the more common attributes of the all purpose bikes is slower handling than road bikes, but I feel like that can be acclimated to. OTOH, if it lacked stability on descents, then that'd be something that would be hard to overcome.

Based on the geometry, with the shorter chainstays and wheelbase, it seems like the UP would be better suited for road applications than most cross bikes, do you feel that way?

[KWalker]

I dunno why everyone thinks riding a road bike on the gravel requires a specific bike. A few years ago we were all racing road races with gravel in them on 23mm tires and doin fine. Unless all of your rides have quite a bit of gravel it is super redundant.

Stability should depend on your response the geo and your weight distribution given the geo, but it shouldn't be massively different. Mountain bike geo effectively changes every time suspension moves, yet it doesn't get more unstable provided your weight distribution is correct to begin with.

[raven14]

I like the way the UP rides on the road, how it steers, brakes, filters noise. No real experience with cross bikes on the road, so difficult to comment. But stability in descents with the UP is definitely not a problem. If I'd rate my current bikes based on confidence I have in descents, I'd say the (2014) Foil (due to precise steering) and UP (stability) are right up there together, and my Altum is less confidence inspiring due to more nervous steering (weight distribution? dunno really) and toe overlap in hairpins.

[RyanH]

@KWalker, we mostly have fireroads which vary from hard packed dirt to hard packed dirt with gravel and sand/fine loose shit. While we've done many of those roads on a regular road bike with 23s, what I've learned is that wider makes it a lot more enjoyable. Even with 28s, when you're descending down washboard type terrain, rim brakes lose their effectiveness. Whether it be an UP or a cross bike or maybe even just a full blown MTB, the goal is to make those outings a little more enjoyable. I have a Caadx coming next week so I'll ride that around for a bit to see what I do and don't like.