OPEN UPPER Complete Bike Builder

After decades of building bikes for the masses, it became time to build the bike’s they’d buy if those bikes existed. That meant they had an Open canvas to work with and boy, did they get to work.

First, Open released the Open O-1.0, which was an insanely lightweight, incredibly responsive and high performance hardtail mountain bike. At the time, it was the lightest hardtail mountain bike on the market. The duo followed that up with a trio of road and gravel inspired bikes in the Open U.P., the Open WI.DE. and the Open MIN.D. Each is very similar in many ways, but uniquely different in important ways.

Vroomen and Kessler could have made one all-road bike and called it good. But they didn’t. With the philosophy or building the bikes they want to ride themselves, the Open Cycle founders didn’t want to make different versions of the same bike. They wanted different bikes for different riding styles.

The U.P. stands for Unbeaten Path and opened the doors and trails to gravel and dirt road riding like never before. Fortunately, Kessler and Vroomen wanted to go farther off the unbeaten path and created the WI.DE. for winding detours. The Open WI.DE. has geometry and special touches that make it the perfect ride on singletrack trails that snake through forests or atop mountain ridges.

Of course, Vroomen and Kessler had road cycling in their blood - probably why they’ve concentrated on building drop-bar bikes - and it was only a matter of time before the Open MIN.D. was released. While being responsive and fast was important, so was remaining comfortable in the saddle. Short for MINimal Design, the MIN.D. isn’t a bike worried about complicated gimmicks or splashy tech. It’s quite simply a road bike the guys at Open would have wanted to ride if they were in charge of designing the bike and, what do you know, they were.

That said, to be a successful bike company, the bikes Andy and Gerard wanted to build for themselves also had to be bikes other people would ride. The high-performance bikes created by Open ultimately become the perfect bikes for every rider because the bikes are sold as framesets only. Each completed Open bike is built with personally selected components and features that make the bike precisely the bike each owner wants to ride.

A few years later, Vroomen earned his mechanical engineering degree and designed a UCI legal time trial bike dubbed the Barrachi Green Machine as his graduation project. This led to the formation of Cervelo which quickly gained a reputation for being the most aerodynamic bikes on the planet with loyalists ranging from World Tour road teams to being the most popular brand at the Ironman World Championships.

For Kessler, a love for cycling developed after some injuries helped steer him away from team sports and onto a mountain bike. As a college student Kessler began working as a part-time secretary at Cannondale before eventually working his way up to being CEO of BMC. He clearly knows a thing or two about the bike business.

Like many collaborators, Kessler and Vrooman crossed paths in the business and worked together at Cervelo for a few years. They each eventually left Cervelo - Kessler to pursue other interests and Vrooman because the brand he helped build from infancy had grown beyond his personal comfort level.

Vrooman wanted to hit the reset button professionally and, knowing Kessler’s experience and business acumen, gave him a call.

Thirty-plus years of expertise came together, again, and started from the ground up. Knowledge of what works, what doesn’t work, craftsmanship and proven business sense together to create the bikes true cycling aficionados would immediately fall in love with.

Bikes that combined the best in design, the best in materials and the best in function and performance.

In 2012, Open Cycle launched and its history is now being written.

We consider ourselves the local experts. Whether you walk through our doors or give us a call, our staff knows the answer to your questions and you’ll get the same professional service whether you are in the shop or on the phone. Many of us, like you, are more versed in one area than the other. If the first person you talk to at Contender Bicycles isn’t the expert you need, we’ve got the expert just a few steps away. We’ve got more than 250 years combined experience in the shop at any time and there’s always someone on duty with the experience and expertise you trust.

To make sure you find the right bike, we make sure our staff is up to date on the latest innovations and technologies. The bike world evolves every year and so do we through training and education. With our size, sales volume and reputation, we have excellent relationships with bike brands, component companies and apparel makers. If we don’t have it at the moment, we can get it.

Contender Bicycles is one of the largest physical bike shops in the country and we have an unmatched selection of quality bicycles from numerous brands. Many bike shops these days have narrowed down their inventory to one or two brands. That’s absolutely not the case at Contender.

We also offer a high end selection of gear and apparel. Our jerseys, shorts and other accessories are things we’d feel comfortable wearing while riding. There’s not much risk of buying a set of bibshorts from us with a chamois you regret.

An area Contender Bicycles takes special pride in is our Pro Build service. Many of our customers don’t simply want a great bike from the floor. They know their parts and components and have something special in mind. With our Pro Build service, you can select a frame - road, mountain, gravel, whatever - and consult with one of our Pro Build specialists to create a complete bike that matches your needs and tastes to a T. We can even help you customize your bike with a paint job that is truly one of a kind.