After a long evening of unpacking and assembling, my new Open O-1.0 is ready to roll. I took it out on my local loop around the Marin Headlands early this morning, just to break it in. I wasn't out to destroy my previous segment times, but I could immediately tell this is a climbing beast. Read all about my fresh first ride impressions after the break.
Open O-1.0 Frame
It's incredibly light packed with so many refined details. The tubes aren't as enormous as I was anticipating, and the black matte finish and minimal graphics makes for a stealthy and understated looking machine. How the cables run internally and to a single point at the front of the frame is a nice touch. It's very clean, and the housing doesn't rub against the frame.
2013 RockShox Sid WC Fork
I was a bit hesitant on ordering the Keronite Grey SID, but upon unboxing it really mates well with the frame. I love the PushLoc feature, but kinda miss the Specialized Brain. The 15mm front axle is super stiff, and I could immediately tell the difference. Setup was really easy with the new Solo-Air cartridge. No more +/- negative chambers to adjust. Overall it felt really responsive over small bumps as well as larger hits.
ENVE Wheelset
These are the first carbon wheels I've ever owned. They are really light, therefore spin up incredibly fast. They're also very stiff. I had a lot of trouble setting the up tubeless, but I realized the trick is to use a C02 cartridge pump to blast it full of air in order to set the tire bead properly. I went with Schwalbe Racing Ralph tires, and I'm really impressed with how well they hooked up over the loose fire road corners and hard-pack single track.
X0 Drivetrain
My build comes with a lot of new tech from SRAM. I was very excited to go back to GripShift, and the new version is ultra smooth, and makes for a very clean cockpit. I also have a new X0 Type 2 rear derailleur, and it's quite amazing how quite my chain is going over choppy terrain.
X0 Trail Brakes
So much power packed into a small package. The levers actuate over cartridge bearings, so they feel really smooth and solid. Because they're quad-piston calipers I can modulate with a single finger. They're relatively light weight, too. Out of the box there was zero squealing, which is a huge bonus to me. However, I'll have to wait to see how they perform in the wet.
ENVE Cockpit
I've got a complete ENVE cockpit; stem, seat post and handlebar. I appreciate the swept-back bar, and was worried it was going to be too wide, but it's just right. I may cut it down a tad in the future. My favorite piece is the seatpost. It's really clean design and solid anchoring sticks out the most. My only gripe is that I wish they made a more angled stem so that my stack height is lower.
The bike just begged to be pushed hard on the climbs. It's light weight and stiffness across the board will make this a fun bike to ride and race. It's tough adjusting back to a hard tail, but I can tell the frame's design allows for a bit of flex to soak in a lot of chatter. On the downhills I could just point and shoot with the bike. It's stiff front end with oversize axle is really noticeable, as is the rather steep head tube angle. It didn't feel sketchy at all, just really nimble and precise.
I'm beyond happy with the build. Just a matter of dialing everything in, and hopefully I'll be able to put in some major miles over the weekend. More ride impressions to come.
Still figuring out how to us my new GoPro Hero 3 I got for Christmas. I took a few stills from the camera in the meantime. So far I'm really impressed with the image quality. Right now, all I need is a faster SD card and video application that can handle 60 frames per second. I rode around the Marin Headlands late this morning to put it to the test.
