By The Takeaway: With the WI.DE. Open continues to raise the bar on how far you can take a road bike off road and still have an agile, fast rolling, rollicking good ride.
Who Should Buy This Bike: All-in gravel lovers who want to ride, race, hit the trails, bikepack, and motor along on rugged terrain.
What We Love: The WI.DE. blows the roof off tire size options, accepting a 2.4 inch mountain bike tire on 650b wheels. It also offers more carrying capacity than other OPEN gravel bikes.
Something We Don’t. Dedicated 2x riders will not be happy that it’s a fully dedicated 1x bike.
Price: $3,200 (frameset)
Weight: 1,385 grams (claimed, size medium, frameset only)
What do you get when you put massive 2.4 inch tires on a drop bar bike with road geometry and cranks? Either a wonky Frankenbike that barely rolls or the latest, and possibly greatest, creation from Open—the bike company that has dedicated itself to redefining what a drop-bar bike can do—the Open WI.DE.
WI.DE is short for WInding DEtours. But they really should have just called this brilliant bike the WFO, because it truly cracks the possibilities of how, what, and where you can ride fast and have fun wide effin’ open.
Open first kicked down the walls defining what a road bike could do with the U.P. (Unbeaten Path) and the U.P.P.E.R (a lighter and more refined U.P), which enjoyed road to gravel to light trail shape-shifting versatility thanks to clever engineering (specifically dropping one of the chainstays) that made room for big 2.1 inch tires while keeping the rear compact and still running road cranks.
Now they’ve raised the tire-width bar by dropping both chainstays and designating the WI.DE. as a 1x only frame, which enabled them to use the inner chain space to move the chainstay outward, making room for even bigger tires with room to spare. (It also leaves the lefthand shifter open to operate a dropper post, which would be a perfect addition to this all-terrain beast.)
“The WI.DE. fits up to 2.4” mountain bike tires,” Open co-founder Andy Kessler said in a press release. “At the same time, it still offers a performance road position for the rider and fits narrow road cranks, so efficiency is very high. This means it can conquer almost any terrain, without slowing you down on the easier roads and trails.”
I found that to be 100% true. Though it’s slightly slacker in the front and has a slightly taller headtube than its U.P./U.P.P.E.R counterparts to deliver more control over tricky, rugged terrain, it’s still light and lively on smooth dirt and pavement and maintains a nimble, quick road bike feel.
The WI.DE. keeps the clean aesthetic Open is known for while adding extra carrying capacity for a toolkit under the bottom bracket and will eventually be able to be outfitted with Open’s upcoming De-Fender mudguard system.
The Open WI.DE. promises to be the perfect bike for today’s roadies who are less interested in pavement, but still have a need for speed on the tracks and trails where the tarmac ends.
5 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT THE OPEN WI.DE.
OPEN WI.DE. Feature gallery
Skinny Stays
Vertically thin seatstays and chainstays provide added compliance over rugged terrain.
Clean Mounts
Open's U-Turn fork lets you bolt the disc brake calipers directly to the fork, no adaptor necessary.
Large Carrying Capacity
Load it up. The WI.DE has room for frame bags, a (strapless) top tube bag, as well as saddle, and handlebar bags for longer adventures.
Monster Tire Clearance
Double dropped chainstays make room for 700c gravel tires up to 46mm and 650b gravel or mountain bike tires up to 2.4”.
Zero-Setback Seattube
The WI.DE.'s seat tube angle is designed to use a light, efficient zero-offset seatpost.
Special Features
The WI.DE. features Open’s super light U-Turn fork that lets you bolt the disc brake calipers directly to the fork, no adaptor needed. They also utilized what they’re calling Smart-Mount 160 in the rear, which allows the rear brake calipers to be mounted directly to the frame to accept 160mm discs, no adaptors or spacers required.
Open added extra mounts under the bottom bracket for a toolbox. The mounts are placed off-center to create extra clearance on the chain ring side. Or you have the option to forgo the toolbox and mount a larger water bottle under the downtube.
The WI.DE. is constructed with what Open calls TRCinTRS Technology, which places very stiff, ultra-high modulus carbon wherever they can to shave weight and tougher grades of carbon where it’s needed to add durability. For the first time Open is adding an extra small bike to the line up with the WI.DE XS.
OPEN NEW U.P. DETAILS
All Open bikes are sold as framesets to be built to your liking. Here’s what it’s built to take.
Sizes: XS/S/M/L/XL
Color: Grey matte/gloss mix
Material: Carbon
BB standard: BB386EVO pressfit
Shimano crank fit: All road cranks
SRAM crank fit: All GXP road, all DUB road, Force 1 BB30
Front derailleur mount: none, 1x drivetrains only
Recommended ring shape: Flat
Maximum 1x ring size: 46t (flat ring), 42t (SRAM offset ring)
Front disc rotor size: 160mm only
Front brake caliper mount: Smartmount 160 system with direct-mount, no adaptors
Rear disc rotor size: 160mm only
Rear brake caliper mount: Smartmount 160 system with direct-mount, no adaptors
Seatpost: 27.2mm diameter
Cage mounts: Seattube, downtube, under-downtube, under-BB
TT bag mount system: 100mm front-post-to-headset-edge
The Open WI.DE. Family
The WI.DE. has two other siblings in the Open family, which are really like non-identical twins: The U.P. and the U.P.P.E.R. Both feature the same shape, geometry, and tire clearance, but differ in carbon layup, weight, and color. The U.P. is available in green, blue, and RTP (ready to paint). The U.P.P.E.R. is 180 grams lighter than the U.P. and is available in matte black and RTP. The primary differences between the WI.DE and the U.P. bikes is that U.P.s lean more toward road and gravel while WI.DE. is built for all road and off road use.
WI.DE vs. U.P.
Feature | WI.DE. | U.P. |
Riding style | Allroad, Gravel, Extreme trails, Mixed surface (off-road dominant) | Road, Allroad, Gravel, Mixed surface (on/off-road) |
Tire widths 700c * | 35-46mm | 28-40mm |
Tire widths 27.5” * | 1.9-2.4” | 1.9-2.1” |
Drivetrain | 1x only | 1x and 2x |
Geometry | Tall Road | Standard Road |
* Depends on tire & rim combination, always check for sufficient clearance
4 Cycling GPS Computers We Recommend
Everything we love about the BOLT, but with new on-device navigation capabilities, as well as integration with Singletracks and MTB Project.
Garmin Edge 1030
Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt
Riding the Open WI.DE.
In a boxing mix-up, the WI.DE. came to me for testing with the incorrect wheels/tire set up: 50mms on 700c wheels, a wagon wheel set up that left barely a sliver of daylight between rubber and frame in places (and set the stage for some serious toe overlap on singletrack). Stoked to test it and too impatient to wait, I decided to say screw it, and just see what the WI.DE. could do as is.
I took it to Lu Lacka Wyco Hundo—a 100 mile odyssey in Northeastern Pennsylvania that covers cratered out mere suggestions of roads, rutted rooty singletrack, 18 percent grades, and ripping stutterbump laden descents. About 20 years ago I had a chance to put the pedal to the floorboard on my brother’s Pontiac Parisienne across the New Mexican desert and giggle like an idiot as it just floated over the choppy sun cracked tarmac. The WI.DE was exactly like that—except made from carbon, stupid light, and much easier to get up to speed.
I freakin’ hauled over deep, fresh gravel and wasn’t bucked off my line once no matter how hard the washboarded backroads tried on high speed descents. Even the muddy sections weren’t as problematic as I’d feared given the lack of clearance on the too big wheel/tire setup, because the Schwalbe G-One Bite tires I was running shed the sloppy stuff before it could pack up my frame.
The WI.DE. is impressive on technical singletrack, going further than the Open U.P. ever could. I cleared large boulders and even hopped fallen trees pretty easily, but the wheel/tire combo left me buzzing my toes and having to time my pedaling and steering just so when things got really tight. The correct wheel/tire combo is en route, and I’m stoked to see just how far 650b/2.4 inch mountain bike tires will take me. I imagine it will be where no drop bar bike has before.
