Open steps into the road bike market with new MIN.D

Designer Gerard Vroomen says that he aimed to “make a carbon frame with top performance features but the sensibilities of a classic frame.” The MIN.D (Minimal Design) features space for 32mm tyres, an integrated seatpost that is just 25mm in diameter, and a “sportive” geometry.

Open has been all about gravel and all-road bikes until now. Its Up was pretty much solely responsible for causing all gravel bikes to get dropped chainstays. This, the Open MIN.D is the company’s first go at a pure road bike.

Vroomen opens his blog post that announced the arrival of the MIN.D by suggesting that “there is not really a ‘need’ for this” and claiming that the Open “Up, Upper or Wide does everything a road bike does.” Open’s marketing department is going to love that statement.

The MIN.D, Vroomen says, is for those riders that want to have separate bikes for their gravel and road rides. As a result, what we have here seems to be a rather traditional-looking road bike. There are no dropped seatstays and there’s no an aero-optimised tube shape in sight.

Open WI.DE frameset review

Open says that one of the primary features of the MIN.D is comfort. A comfortable bike, Open says, allows you to “ride further, for longer, while enjoying it.” This led them to create their ‘sportive geometry’ which they say is “something we worked hard at on our last generations of gravel bikes and have transferred back to the MIN.D.” It results in what Open is calling a realistic saddle-to-handlebar drop and reach.

A quick look at the geometry charts shows a 50mm fork offset combined with a 72.5° head angle. That’s slightly slack for a road bike, but Open says that it gives agile handling with rock-solid stability. The influence of Open’s gravel bikes is easy to see.

The ‘Wire-Stays’ have also been designed to add comfort. “Vertically thin chainstays and seatstays provide compliance, while their lateral width and layup ensure rock-solid propulsion.”  There is also space for larger road tyres, with Open claiming that the new MIN.D will take up to 32mm rubber.

The interesting feature in terms of comfort, though, is the new seatpost/steatmast design, which sees a continuous tube, 25mm in diameter, extend right up to the saddle, with the “minimalist seat tube top clamp” offering 15mm of height adjustment.

We’ve seen plenty of integrated seatpost designs over the years, but they’ve nearly always been used to reduce weight. Open says that its design “adds astonishing comfort to the frame”. The fear with integrated seatpost designs has always been setting saddle height but Open includes it’s MOCT (measure once, cut twice) saddle clamp that takes the height adjustment up to 15-35mm.

The frame and fork are both designed around flat-mount 160mm rotors, meaning that you won’t need unsightly mounts. Open suggest that “you should always use 160mm rotors anyway for added safety & control at almost no extra weight.”

The new R-Turn fork is, Open claim, “the lightest disc brake road fork available” at 335g uncut. It features internal routing for the brake hose and 100x12mm axle spacing with a Carbon-Ti X-12 axle supplied with the frameset.

Read David Arthur's review of the Open UP gravel/adventure frameset

The frame features internal cable routing and Open say that it is primarily designed to be used with electronic systems. However, all 1X mechanical systems are accepted and you’ll be able to get away with newer 2X Shimano mechanical systems too. Claimed weight for a painted, size medium frame with the seat tube uncut is 870g. 

You can pre-order now with framesets shipping on 20th July. The Open Mind will cost €3,600.

open.com