OPEN Bikes

OPEN is a bike industry outlier. Its business model, predicated on the concept of “working hard to stay small”, is 180 away from almost every carbon fiber bike brand, who see bigger as undoubtedly better. Not though Andy Kessler and Gerard Vroomen, the two founders of OPEN Bikes, who built big brands but saw the summit for what it was, false and flat, and plotted a new, more rewarding route that combined peerless innovation, design and engineering with a refreshingly community-forward perspective that has made this Swiss brand a beloved fixture of the road, gravel and adventure cycling scene the world over.

Those big brands were, of course, BMC and Cervélo, respectively. Andy, brought in to rescue BMC, built it into a big beast, and Gerard, who started Cervélo off the back of a graduation project, went fast and never looked back. Until that is, what was once fun became a drag. Luckily for us cyclists, Andy and Gerard met, got along like shoes and socks, and founded OPEN. The rest, as they don’t say, is not history, but creativity and fun in progress, a business that for once delivers on its elevator pitch and rides with integrity, honesty, world-class product and absolute respect for its customers who have chosen to buy and ride its bikes.