Mason Bokeh vs Brother Mehteh

spasypaddy

I'm eyeing up one of these framesets, anyone got an opinion on which to buy?

thegreatdivide

I took delivery of a flare orange Bokeh this year with Ekar and 650b Hunts running fat 47mm WTB tyres (I've also got a pair of 700c Shamal C21s with slimmer tyres for it too). The whole package has been fantastic fun to ride.

From a frame perspective you're getting an Italian made thing of beauty, and the paint job gets 'oooohs' from mates. You've got loads of mounting points if you want to go down that route (more than on the Brother) and from a quick scan of the two, you're saving about 600g on the Bokeh if that's important.

Mason also provide great service and comms, and by the looks of it their lead times aren't too bad.

Good review from James Huang a few years ago - he's reviewing the older model which has only been slightly updated for the newer version:

https://cyclingtips.com/2019/10/mason-bokeh-review/

spasypaddy

thanks @thegreatdivide i read that the other day, this section is what worries me in the UK
"In the case of the Bokeh, it’s fantastic as a mixed-conditions machine — up to Grade 3, perhaps — where you might occasionally do a ride exclusively on tarmac, but are primarily on the road mostly as a means to get to local dirt and gravel. And with narrower tires fitted, it’s a surprisingly good rig for fast group rides and the like.

But at the other end of the spectrum, the Bokeh starts to feel a little more out of its element, even with a wider 650b setup. It can certainly handle it, but it doesn’t seem as much at home there.

With higher-volume 700c tires, the Bokeh is appropriately stable and forgiving, happy to let the wheels slide underneath you without fear that the ends will unexpectedly trade places on you. But while a wider 650b setup gets you the air volume and footprint you want on looser ground, the smaller overall diameter also comes with quicker handling and a slightly lower bottom bracket. That change plays well when using a narrower 700c setup on the road, when you want that additional agility, but it’s less ideal with a high-volume 650b configuration when you’d presumably want more stability."

the weight is a factor for sure, but so is the cost and the fact that perhaps the mehteh is more of a gravel bike than the bokeh claims to be?

thegreatdivide

I've been riding mine on some brutal routes up here in Tayside ranging from manky to bone dry, hard pack to pretty much boulders (slight exaggeration) and on the 650/47mm set-up it's been perfect. Zero issues,

While I appreciate Huang for his kit reviews, for real world experience you need to look at someone like Angus Young, Josh Ibbett and Claire Frecknall who have taken the Bokeh to its absolute limits. The bike has very high pedigree off-road now.

thegreatdivide

Meant to add that I partly bought the Shamals for touring next year.

spasypaddy

thats a fair point, but as someone who is dreadful off road it plays on my mind before making the purchase!

thegreatdivide

Haha! Well I hadn't been off road for a very long time until this year and had a few sketchy moments (thank god for SPD pedals) but it's second nature now. To be fair, I did take the bike down a very dodgy tractor route that would have given a full suspension MTB a hard time - I wont be doing that again!

I sound like I'm giving you a biased hard sell on the Bokeh frame, but honestly, if you buy one you will not regret it.

veronese68

spasypaddy said:

thats a fair point, but as someone who is dreadful off road it plays on my mind before making the purchase!

I'm a complete jessie off road so I would say this makes it less of an issue as I would never get close to the limits of the bike.

spasypaddy

so i have a di2 groupset on the way which means i now cant get the brother mehteh, i guess that means i will be getting a bokeh but i didnt really want to spend that much

another bike build that is just getting away from me!