OPEN MIN.D

It may appear odd that while the whole world seems to shift towards the performance gravel bike style pioneered by the original OPEN U.P., OPEN introduce a new road bike. Andy explains: " he OPEN UP, UPPER and WIDE perform really well on paved roads in addition to their off-road pedigree, but there’s something special about a pure road bike. Obviously Gerard and I both have a road bike background while leading Cervélo and BMC, and that bug will stay with us forever."

That’s what is captured with the MIN.D.: its sleek lines, its lightness, the shimmering midnight blue paint and the splash of retro color from the 4 OPEN logo colors fading into each other on the inside of the fork and chainstays.

Once on the bike, it becomes apparent that underneath its restraint appearance, it’s all business. A strange combination of performance and comfort becomes apparent. Every gram of material has a function. Beyond it is nothing, other than the endless draw of roads unknown.

What is the MIN.D.?
• A high performance road bike frame using OPEN’s ultra-efficient tube shaping for power transfer, low weight & high strength
• Continuous seattube design for extreme comfort without gimmicks
• Tire clearance for modern road tires up to 32mm (since tire labelling is unreliable, always check tire clearance with the frame)
• Classic, understated look in both shaping and color

Comfort
Gerard’s view on comfort is very clear: "So much is talked about comfort. But it’s not about gimmicks, elastomers, electronic suspension or sub-atomic vibration damping graphene-infused nano-particles. Comfort is about finding ways to ride further, for longer, while enjoying it."

That means first of all a comfortable geometry, something OPEN worked hard at on its last generations of gravel bikes and have transferred back to the MIN.D. Our fit geometry is sportive (we still want to go fast) but with a realistic saddle-to-handlebar drop and reach. Our steering geometry is different from the traditional road bike standard, coupling agile handling to rock-solid stability.

Secondly, comfort means space for large road tires. Bad roads are one of the worst comfort killers, whether through cracks and potholes or simply through vibrations. Making your tires a tad larger is the most effective solution, with the added benefit of lower rolling resistance and better grip.

Finally, we create comfort through the frame, in particular the seattube/seatmast.

Continuous seattube
The continuous seattube design is extremely small at 25mm diameter (30mm is normally the minimum if you want to fit in a 27.2mm seatpost). This change adds astonishing comfort to the frame. Removing the seatpost/seattube overlap at the toptube also means the seattube compliance continues uninterrupted.

Our own minimalist seattube top clamp is nearly invisible yet easily adjustable by 0-15mm and slip-proof. We even have our special MOCT saddle clamp (Measure Once Cut Twice) which is adjustable from 15-35mm. This also makes it much easier to resell your frame later on, although you probably never want to lose your MIN.D.

New road handling

OPEN has done a lot of work on steering geometry in the past five years, using a steel mule frame with adjustable dropouts and headtube. The MIN.D. takes everything we’ve learned from our road bike test mule and our gravel bike on/off-road geometry experiments, putting it back into a pure road bike geometry.

R-Turn fork
The OPEN U-Turn was the first fork truly optimized for flatmount brakes by deleting the standard adaptor to switch between 140mm and 160mm disc rotors (you should always use 160mm rotors anyway for added safety & control at almost no extra weight). The adaptor is a feature without a benefit at the expense of weight, stiffness and complexity.

The R-Turn uses the same Smartmount direct-mount design with thru-bolts without adaptors, just like the rear brake. Together with new shaping and a new layup optimized for road, the R-Turn is the lightest disc brake road fork available.

More information
The new MIN.D. frameset is now available for pre-order, shipping within 60 days.
For more information please visit opencycle.com/mind.
Attached the latest price list including the MIN.D