BOTM: Shocking WIDE

A birthday gift from SRAM

SRAM was nice enough to invite me to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for SBT Gravel. It's a great event, the atmosphere is fantastic, the scenery beautiful, it's a really nice destination to spend a few days with gravel lovers from all over. I have to be honest, the race route itself didn't excite me as much, there was too much pavement in it for my liking, including a long stretch on a very busy road. I ride gravel because I like to get away from cars, not to ride on the shoulder of a busy road. But overall, a great event.
And they put together a bike for me for the event, which made for very relaxed travel (I'm not too picky on bike setup, so it was OK I didn't get to ride the bike beforehand even though the geometry was changed by some of SRAM's component choices).

The Fork

Anyway, SRAM built up a bike for me, so I sent an OPEN WI.DE. frame in advance and the rest was SRAM putting on the goodies they like. Most prominent is of course the Rockshox fork. We have customers who ride with this fork. Some love it, others a bit disappointed, I think the only way to really tell is to try. My own take on suspension forks for gravel is that this is a really difficult nut to crack.

A gravel fork is a lot more difficult to design than a mountain bike fork. On gravel, you often encounter washboard surfaces, and any fork will have trouble with the high frequency of that terrain. So for the small bumps, it's a challenge. 

Then for the big bumps, there isn't a lot of travel on the fork, so again a challenge. That's why the recommended sag on the Rudy is so small. It's not necessarily that that's the ideal, it's just that there is already so little travel, 

so if you then give a substantial chunk of it away to your sag, there's almost nothing left. 

And the final kicker, gravel riders are more focused on weight, so adding a kilogram of extra weight to the bike for a suspension fork is a tough case to make. Overall, I enjoyed the fork on some parts of the course, didn't feel it did much on others, and so in my situation, I wouldn't put it on my everyday bike. 

But of course where you live and ride, the situation may be different. What I will say is that the handing of the bike was still fine, it's different than with the standard fork and loses some agility, but in combination with the suspension that's not a bad thing.

The Post

Another part that stands out is the dropper post. This works flawlessly and is definitely a recommendation for people who live in areas where it makes sense. I didn't get to use it really at SBT as there are no technical descents, but having a dropper with the controls integrated with your SRAM shift levers is great.

Overall, it was a great ride for a great ride, so we decided right there and then it would be nice to shoot the bike for a BOTM feature. As you can see, it was a dusty day.
You can find the full spec below the photo gallery. Enjoy. 

Specifications

Shocking WI.DE.
Shocking WI.DE.
frameOPEN WI.DE. size XL
headsetCane Creek standard OPEN
forkOPEN U-Turn
stem Zipp Service Course 110mm
handlebarZipp Service Course 440mm
seatpostRockshox Reverb XPLR
saddleSpecialized Romin (that was OK, they make good saddles :-)
brakesSRAM Rival AXS, Rotor 160 f&r
shiftersSRAM Rival AXS
crank SRAM Rival 172.5
BBSRAM DUB BB386
chainringsSRAM 40T
rear derailleurSRAM Eagle GX
cassetteSRAM Eagle 11-50
chainSRAM Eagle 12-sp
wheelZipp 303 Firecrest
tireZipp G40 - 700x40c

WI.DE. Frameset
WI.DE. Frameset

US$2,800.00

Comments
Amy Thomas
4 Oct 2024

I have had my Open WIDE with Rock Shox for over two years. My husband and I were riding the Arizona Trail yesterday: steep, rugged, unpolished, loose-rock terrain. As I stopped to admire the reflecting sunset off the Vermillion Cliffs, I said, “I have not had a traumatic accident; since we got our Rock Shox!” I also love handling the trail like a queen. I’ll admit, we use our WIDEs for trail and adventure cycling, perfectly paired with dropper posts. We use our Open UP bikes with rigid forks, for road/gravel mix. Still, this technology has been a game changer! (White bar tape, bold choice!) Love our Opens (Always dusty) With gratitude, Amy

Gerard Vroomen (OPEN Cycle)
7 Oct 2024

Hi Amy, thanks for the feedback, glad it works well for you. Sounds like some awesome riding. Keep the wheels turning

Russell Mason
25 Sep 2024

Looks great - I have the same WI.DE in Medium with the new Cane Creek 'Inverted' shocks and the AXS dropper post which I really love - I have this setup for more technical gravel rides and use 650b wheels most of the time - I also intend to do a long bike-packing ride from the top of New Zealan's South Island to the bottom - Sounds2Sounds - Yep, it weighs a bit more but handling is fine - I just had to tweak the seat position and move the stem as low as it could go to ensure I have a good riding position - Really amazing ride on rough gravel roads and so much faster down bumpy trails and roads - Feels so stable at speed downhill! I don't use it for flat easy gravel races - I have my UP for that!

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