As a child I was frequently ill, but an annual holiday of several weeks on the Catalan Costa Brava brought an improvement in my health. The combination of sun, sea and the fresh air did me a lot of good and afterwards I always felt a lot better. I also got to know the coastal area of Catalonia really well and I looked forward to a future where I could be there all year round.

Today, in my second life - in my first I was a motorcyclist - I rediscovered the Costa Brava on a gravel bike. I regularly take part in events and that's how it happened that I was at the starting line of the TRAKA200 in Girona at the beginning of May 2022. At the event I saw a special gravel bike which Diederick Deelen rode to 4th place on the 360km route.

He had built himself an OPEN WI.DE. fitted with some great parts. But I was even more impressed by the finish of the gravel bike. It reflected the landscape of the Costa Brava with its different tones of brown, grey and green - a real eye-catcher. I started researching and came across the painter Sergio Escribano from Malgrat de Mar.

I visited him during my summer vacation on the Costa Brava coast and he immediately agreed to create for me a similar paint job. For this project I took my OPEN U.P.P.E.R. frame that I still have and that I had built up as a road bike. I now had the idea of ​​building an ultra-light gravel bike for hard and hilly gravel events.

During my next autumn holiday on the Costa Brava, Sergio completed the new paintjob on my frame within a week and on the day of my departure from Catalonia I was proud to take the frame home. The frame is painted using water transfer printing. This is a process by which objects can be covered with a pattern over their entire surface. This also works with objects that do not have straight edges and surfaces. Special colors serve as the transfer medium, with which a large selection of patterns can be created.

When thinking about the construction of my new gravel bike, I considered the following points - the bike should be as light as possible for the mountains, but also reliable and durable enough to finish long gravel events. The weight of my finished U.P.P.E.R. is exactly 7.0kg!

The handlebars, stem, seat post and saddle come from MCFK, a small carbon producer from Leipzig. These parts are very light and yet durable enough to withstand the loads off-road. I also rely on MCFK parts for the wheels. With the UD matt finish, this resulted in an overall picture that gives the gravel bike a certain raw look. For hubs, I trusted in the noble parts from Tune in the Black Forest. There are lighter hubs, but the robustness and reliability of the King/Kong hubs speak for themselves. 

The first impressions of riding the finished U.P.P.E.R. are impressive. I've never ridden a gravel bike with such acceleration, but one that's also so stable - it's like nothing and nobody can throw it off its line. The pleasantly agile, well-balanced handling puts you in a good mood and strikes a very good balance between smooth running and agility. The OPEN U.P.P.E.R. marches unphased over bad roads or gravel trails. It can also convince in terms of comfort. The combination of frame compliance, vibration damping of the cockpit and seat post and the self-damping of the Continental Terra Speed ​​tyres leaves nothing to be desired.

Now it's time to train, train and train again for the challenges of the coming season. In addition to the Traka360 in Girona, I’m planning to also use my U.P.P.E.R. at the M&M gravel grinder and the Graveltour de Mont Blanc.