Reviews

Mason Bokeh Force 1

Feature-packed adventure bike demands to be ridden off the beaten track

Dedicated adventure bikes are all the rage right now and Mason Cycles have proven themselves pretty good at developing bikes that we want as soon as we lay eyes on them. Needless to say, we want a Bokeh. Now.

The Bokeh brings a serious amount of features to the table, including an aluminium frame that’s specifically designed to feel right at home on off-road excursions. There’s an endurance flavour to it, as you’d expect, and the bottom bracket is raised higher than a road bike’s to provide extra clearance. It’s not quite in cyclo-cross territory, but it’s plenty high enough to help you chip over rocks without much concern. The Bokeh is a bike designed for adventure.

Made of triple-butted aluminium Dedacciai 700-series tubing, custom formed to arrive at the final Bokeh frameset shapes, Mason have teamed the frame with a broad and stiff Parallax carbon fork, featuring thru-axles for optimum stiffness and strength. Mason have also gone to the trouble of fitting dedicated mounts for mudguards, while the geometry – especially the long 1028.4mm wheelbase for a 54cm frame – keeps handling predictable even when the road gets a bit grotty and you’re determined to power through.

Given its focus, you half expect it to weigh a proverbial ton, but it’s nothing of the sort. The 54cm bike weighs a claimed 8.8kg, which puts it right at the doorstep of some alloy road bikes, and ideally it can do a decent impression of one too thanks to the balanced geometry, as well as the ability to run 700c size wheels alongside the 650b hoops on our RCUK 100 model.

In this guise, the wheels are 650b Mason x Hunt AdventureSport hoops, and are specially designed for the Bokeh. These are matched to hardwearing Panaracer Comet Hardpack tyres, which make use of a lightly nobbled tread that keeps road-rolling relatively smooth, while affording the grip needed for assured riding on the rough stuff.

As we’ve come to expect from Mason, there’s also a serious level of detail within the frame – you’ll find fully internal cable routing, along with tapered ‘BoatTail’ rear triangle tubing to help keep feedback informative without shaking your teeth out. Of course, there’s plenty of clearance for your optimum choice of wheel and tyre – the Bokeh will support up to 41c rubber in its 700c guise, and 50c in 650b.

Naturally there are disc brakes here and the Bokeh is designed to run the now industry-common flat-mount standard. Other features include mounts for a third bottle cage, which makes all-day adventuring in the wilderness a real possibility. In fact, it’d be rude not to with a bike like the Bokeh in the stable.

Mason Bokeh Force 1

Price: £3,100
Website: Mason Cycles

Mason offer the Bokeh in four builds and this flagship model comes with a SRAM Force 1x drivetrain that has equal prowess on the road as it does off it.

Sure, the lack of a front derailleur makes things tidier when the going gets muddy, but the wide-ranging 10-42t cassette at the rear gives a good spread of ratios equivalent to a compact for just about any scenario you could want to face. SRAM’s clutched rear derailleur means any chain slap is easily kept in check.

This is joined by SRAM’s HRD hydraulic disc brake system, with a high quality finishing kit that befits the Bokeh frame, including a Deda Superzero handlebar and a custom made Mason Penta 27.4mm seatpost that boosts compliance through the Fabric Scoop Elite saddle.