Mason Cycles has unveiled an all new road bike in two flavors, and while Dom Mason is reluctant to call it a gravel bike the new Bokeh is certainly about taking on any road surface quickly. The first new model since Mason’s steel Resolution and alloy Definition disc brake road bikes on which he launched his brand, the new Bokeh aims to be ridden just as fast but when the going gets a bit rougher. The speed element is mostly why he wants to avoid a gravel moniker. Even though it gets the ability to go the Road+ direction with wide, high-volume 650b rubber, Mason calls it an AdventureSport bike as it is still designed to be fast-moving. Take a closer look at how it will be outfitted for your adventure after the break…
First off the two variants of the new Bokeh will be one in aluminum and one in titanium. Dom Mason spent years working for Kinesis designing bikes before he hung out his own shingle, and his alloy bikes deliver a ride quality that far outpaces the affordability you get by building bikes out of aluminum. But if you are looking for an even better ride, what better way to go than switching out to buttery smooth titanium.
The bikes were developed as he saw more and more people looking to ride fast both on road and off, looking for a bit of adventure. Basically what happened was that more and more of his customers were riding the Resolution and Definition bikes more off the road, and more with lightweight touring setups. With last year’s TransContinental Race winner Josh Ibbet riding his bikes, it was no stretch to think of doing a bit of bikepacking on Mason’s bikes, but the addition of high volume 650b tires means riders can get farther off road, while staying comfortable on long days in the saddle.
That is essentially what Dom sees as AdventureSport. Ride fast, and don’t be afraid to leave the asphalt behind and head out on the track that takes you somewhere farther than you’ve ever been. And while Josh won last year’s TCR on an alloy Definition, he took off on this year’s event on his new Bokeh Ti, one of the bikes’ last batch of pre-production prototypes. (Unfortunately due to leg cramping issues, Josh has had to withdraw from the current TCR to recover for future events.)
While the bike is still meant to be fast, it really is an off-road bike to Mason and gets both slightly slackened angles and a bit longer wheelbase for more stable handling. With that the fork goes to a 50mm offset to keep trail in check for quick handling. Even though that changes a bit, the Bokehs have essentially kept stack and reach figures the same, so you get a similar feel on the bike and still end up with a more race-oriented fit on the bike, as opposed to the more upright position many of the current gravel crop lean towards. They call the concept FastFar. Both Bokehs will come in six even sizes from 50cm up to 60cm.
Like the bikes before them, both ti and alloy Bokehs are being made in Italy. Mason has developed solid relationships with several Italian production frame shops over the years, and has been really pleased with their capabilities, and of course the ease of working closely with them.
Both bikes use entirely custom tubing sets shaped by Dedacciai in Italy. They also get D-shaped downtubes in Ti or Aluminum like seen on the steel Resolution for improved stiffness and bigger weld area at the tapered head tube and bottom bracket shell. The bikes also gets slightly dropped chainstays for better clearance at the flat mount rear brake and reduced chainslap on the driveside, and custom shaped stays to balance comfort and stiffness. Both frames also get ovalized toptubes.
Both bikes are built around 12mm thru-axles and get clearance for a 50mm wide 650b tire or up to 41mm wide on a 700c wheel. Mason sees anything bigger than that as proper mountain bike territory and not where this FastFar bike is aimed. The bikes also share an all carbon fork developed specially for the Bokeh to match that tire clearance and uses their new F-stop 12mm thru-axle setup that also showed up on their new road fork (see below.) The bikes both get modular internal routing with adaptable cable ports, and braze-ons for 3 bottles in addition to the full-coverage fender mounts.
The ti bike actually mixes tubing from Dedacciai, Rewel and Reynolds to get the ride Mason wanted. They also use a new 3D printed set of dropouts made by UK company Mirada Pro (the same company producing 3D printed drops for Moots) to match up to the Reynolds ti stays. Mason helped develop them for Reynolds to match up a 12mm with flat mount discs, and will be the first to build bikes with them. The dropouts have internal shaping for Di2 wires and fender mounts that can be opened up for those who need them bit otherwise left hidden, something very unique to the 3D printed means of construction.
A very limited run of the new aluminum Bokehs will be available in September, with pre-orders opening up in the next week or so. You will need to put 20% down through Mason’s online store to get on the first run waiting list. There will be SRAM 1x builds and framesets available, in both Flare Orange and Element Gray. These pics show the first coat of paint on the production bikes to get a sense of the colors, but will get a deeper, glossier shine once they get their lacquer top coat.
Aluminum framesets (including fork, headset, seat clamp, MultiPort inserts, F-Stop thru-axles and all bolts) will sell for £1150, and Mason will offer several complete builds with both wheel size options and 1x or 2x drivetrains. The Ti frameset will go for £2650, with a SRAM Force 1x 650b complete expected to sell for £4300. More details on build kits and pricing is expected in the coming weeks.
UPDATE
OK, Mason just sent over a few photos of the final paint on the aluminum Bokehs in ‘Element Grey’ and ‘Flare Orange’ with their completed graphics and clearcoat. The pics are so far exclusive to Bikerumor, and we just wanted to share what the glossy bikes will look like. “The Element Grey has Copper/Mustard/White/Black detailing, Flare Orange has Tungsten metallic/Ochre/White/Black detailing.” Mason is still waiting for the orange forks, but they will have the same matching ‘M∆SON’ detailing here in the metallic tungsten grey.
Aperture2
Spec’d for their other two road bikes Mason also had a new all-carbon Aperture2 fork to reveal recently as well. While the current Mason bikes use QR dropouts, like the new Bokeh’s move to 12mm thru-axles, the new fork does the same. The drive here has really been the availability of more good thru-axle road wheels and the industry settling a bit on a road thru-axle standard. The Aperture2 has a unique solution to dealing with the thru-axle and actually uses tapered and threaded inserts that press into the carbon fork legs. The tapered inserts mean that as you tighten the axle, it also tightens the insert interface so it should run creak-free.
This does double duty of meaning that the threads can be replaced if damaged, but also it seems that you can decide yourself which side of the bike you want your axle levers on. Mason calls the axle system F-stop as it lets you set the insert with the lever in whatever position you prefer, and it is supplied with a nice looking internal-cam QR axle lever.
The new fork improves tire clearance a bit over the previous Aperture fork as well, up to 33mm now, and gets cleaner (and sealed) internal routing of the front brake hose. It still gets a tapered steerer and the same mounts for fenders as the gen1 fork, but not goes to a flat mount disc caliper. It will replace the current fork on the Resolution and Definition going forward, and be available from September. Interestingly for titanium fans we’ve also heard that a ti version of the standard disc road Resolution will be coming soon under the new name Aspect. And while both of the new Bokeh’s above get a different fork with a bit more tire clearance, they use all of the same tech features as this new Aperture2.
