I can’t speak to the manufacturing quality, but the Open Up is definitely not an off-the-shelf design with a few tweaks because it can’t be. This was the first road bike I am aware of that could take mountain bike tires, and the dropped chain stays are the reason it has so much tire clearance. When it came out in 2015 it was about 5 years ahead of its competition. Many other manufacturers followed and copied those and the other design features.
In isolation the video looks really bad. But we don’t know how often these problems actually occur. I haven’t heard of systemic problems, but perhaps that is because in absolute numbers there are only few Open Ups out there. The most notable person riding (and loving) an Open Up is Rides of Japan (on Youtube) who is a very meticulous about his bikes. He has had to replace his frame once (he crashed into a car, not a manufacturing defect), and as far as I remember he was happy with Open’s service. Of course, service is a weak point if you opt for a bike from a smaller manufacturer, though. Nevertheless, on substance, I agree: if a customer was serious enough to have had their frame scanned by a pro (ultrasound to my knowledge), Open should be, pardon the pun, more open to replacing the frame.
Nevertheless, if you look at either Hambini’s other videos or at e. g. Luescher’s youtube channel, you’d think that you should stay away from big brands names like Specialized or so, too. Peak Torque rips Specialized and all other manufacturers who have adopted the new T.47 BB standard a new one, too, because that’s a clear indication they don’t think they can manufacture BBs to spec, too. (BBs are Hambini’s main topic for obvious reasons.) I’ve been chiming in to the choir, because I agree with them on substance. However, Hambini gets to see the worst of the worst, so we don’t know the actual statistics, i. e. we don’t know whether the frame he had was an outlier or whether it is a common problem.
Everything is a trade-off, and the more versatile a bike, the worse it gets at one specific task. I think if you are offroad a higher BB reduces the likelihood of pedal and rock strikes.
But I’m in your boat, I don’t like how my endurance road bike handles, which I why I’ll replace it with something sportier very soon. The higher BB IMHO plays a part in that. But as a concept, I think this is well worth it. A lot of people who ride casually on their road bikes torture themselves with super narrow tires and high tire pressures. And rather than having to turn around when the paved road gives way to a fire road, you can just continue. I really like that, and I hope that the majority of road bikes will go in that direction.
), I developed a cross bike with a lower BB than traditional CX bikes, a longer TT and a shorter stem. Rode wonderfully, even in CX races.
