A Stealth Open Upper Concept Gravel Bike
Open’s UPPER Concept delivers on all fronts. It’s fast, extraordinarily comfortable and surprisingly versatile. Prepare to fall in love with this stealth Regroup build.
September 1, 2025
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REGROUP CUSTOM
Paint to Match: An OPEN UPPER 2.0 in Magic Mushroom
PHOTOS
Daniel Koeth
WORDS
Adam Eggebrecht
BUILD DETAILS
TYPE
Gravel
FRAME
OPEN UPPER 2.0 — full carbon, made in Portugal
GROUPSET
SRAM Force XPLR AXS — 1x, power meter, 165mm cranks
PAINT
Custom, matched to INEOS Grenadier “Magic Mushroom” with chartreuse and purple accents; decals by Slik Graphics
WHEELS
ENVE AR40 Foundation
SADDLE
Alcantara-wrapped by Busyman Bicycles, Melbourne
COCKPIT
OPEN integrated bar/stem and seatpost, painted to match; Alcantara wrap by Busyman Bicycles
TIRES
Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RM, 45mm
DETAILS
Paint-matched cockpit and seatpost; custom decals by Slik Graphics
Every so often, a build brief arrives that’s one sentence long. This one hit hard: Make it match the truck.
The truck in question belongs to a good friend of mine, and it’s an INEOS Grenadier in a color INEOS calls Magic Mushroom — yes, really. It’s a warm putty-grey that looks quiet from across the parking lot and gets complex the closer you get. We matched it as the base, then let in a little chartreuse and a little purple for the accents. I’m told those are the hot colors of 2026. I’m not going to argue: it turned out great.
Underneath the paint is an OPEN UPPER 2.0. If you’ve followed our trips to Basel, you know we’re fans — the 2.0 frames retain the ride quality OPEN is known for and add aero shaping where it counts, with clearance for 35 to 46mm tires and a T47 bottom bracket, all made in Portugal. The UPPER is the lighter layup of the two. OPEN also makes its own one-piece bar and stem and its own seatpost for these frames, so the whole front end is integrated and — because we could — painted to match. The party trick of that cockpit is a stem length you can adjust in 5mm steps without buying a new bar, which is the kind of idea you wonder why nobody had sooner.
The drivetrain is SRAM Force XPLR AXS, one ring, with a power meter and 165mm cranks. That’s the setup I’d put on my own gravel bike, and it’s the setup I did put on my own gravel bike. Wheels are ENVE’s new AR40 — the redesigned Foundation wheel that’s content on road or gravel, 40mm deep and 25mm wide inside. At $1,400 a pair it’s the most accessible ENVE there is, and with the new logo decals on it you’d be hard-pressed to tell it from the ones that cost twice as much. Rolling on them, 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RMs.
But the saddle, the saddle. The part that catches the eye and demands attention. Both it and the bars got the Busyman treatment — Mick Peel in Melbourne, who you may remember from our conversation with him a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned in that piece that he’s been working with Alcantara lately, the synthetic suede, often for clients who want the bike to match something in the garage. Well, here’s one. The saddle in that soft suede is, honestly, insane. I’ve never seen anything like it. The bar wrap matches, and the two of them together are what turn a nicely painted bike into this bike.
The last piece was custom decals from Slik Graphics, drawn to pick up the same chartreuse and purple, so the frame, the cockpit, the wheels and the wrap all read as a single idea. That’s the trick with a build like this.
Every Regroup Custom build gets the same treatment this one did: paint and geometry agreed with the maker, components sourced to your standards, and the complete bike built at our workshop in Tempe. If you’ve got something in the garage you’d like a bike to match — or just an idea you can say in one sentence — you know where to find us. Every build begins with a conversation.
FEATURED
OPEN UP / UPPER 2.0
OPEN's second-generation gravel frames — light, compliant and quietly aero, with an adjustable one-piece cockpit and clearance for up to 46mm tires, made in Portugal. Yours starts with a conversation in Tempe.
