[steady lad]

Hopefully somebody who has a Mason bike will be able to say whether they are as exceptional as the reviews suggest.

 

The situation is that I like them and would buy one if it weren’t for the fact that we have a cycle to work scheme with Evans cycles that due to my tax circumstances amounts to a discount of around £650 and on top of that we have a discount scheme which would get me a further 10% off the balance at Evans.  So I’m finding it hard to justify not going to Evans which is pushing me to a Specialized Roubaix or a BMC Road Machine or a Trek Domane.

 

This would make a Mason bike relatively even more expensive for me so I can’t decide if they are sufficiently better than the Evans options to justify foregoing the savings.  Can anybody offer an opinion?

 

Cheers

 

 

Topic

[steady lad]

By the way I ended getting up

By the way I ended getting up a Specialized Roubaix the entry level one (elite I think).  I like it very much and am happy with it after 1000 miles. Cheers

[HowardR]

“or get the missus to drive

“or get the missus to drive alongside handing out musettes” – Simontuck

Now there’s an idea!

 

[Chris James]

Simontuck wrote:

SO much petty bickering on here nowadays.

etc

Spot on. I’m a mechanical engineer and have a very practical view of bike design. Most frames are made with geometries that are extremely similar to each other, using similar materials with similar wall thicknesses. So they basically ride pretty much the same.

However, workmanship, quality of finish and selecting your own finishing kit are all things that can be appreciated. It all depends on how much this mean to you.

[Simontuck]

SO much petty bickering on

SO much petty bickering on here nowadays.

The simple answer is, it depends what sort of rider you are. If you will covet and polish your bike and service it yourself and only ride in the dry, then invest in a machine with gorgeous paintwork and bespoke welds and monogrammed chainlinks. If you just want a bike that’s nice to ride, won’t get laughed at, and can then be shoved in the garage without washing after a wet ride because you got home later than expected and the missus is expecting you to go to B&Q and get YOUR kids out of her hair, and you’re happy to let a time-poor mechanic with a queue of people wanting punctures fixed loose on it, then buy the cheaper bike that won’t be as pretty but from the cockpit will function almost exactly the same, and you won’t lose too much sleep if it does get a tiny scratch where you stupidly put a tri bag on the top tube once because you thought it would be handy for snacks (it’s not, they’re stupid and catch your knees, use your jersey pockets or get the missus to drive alongside handing out musettes).

[Rapha Nadal]

Spent a lot of time riding

Spent a lot of time riding one though so I’m quite OK to comment on it given that I have real world experience of the product.  If you spent more time thinking outside of the box and taking off your blinkers then you’d probably get somewhere in life instead of being a fourth rate internet troll.  Nice try though.

[nowasps]

Duncann wrote:

Just buy one that’s a nice colour.

 

But if you get a nice blue one, after about eighteen months the nice red ones start to look a lot more interesting.

 

 

 

[rjfrussell]

Surely once you get past a

Surely once you get past a certain price point many (most?) people buy bikes with the heart, rather than the head?  I would have thought that at the Mason price level all bikes are very very good-  so you chose the one you love?

[steady lad]

Dr_Lex wrote:

graham_f wrote:

Why not get in touch with them, see if you can take one for a test ride, and decide for yourself?

This is what I did; Dom couldn’t have been more helpful, despite being crazy busy just before Christmas. It rode wonderfully and I now need to sort out placing an order.

(I won’t get into the confirmation bias debate, but I certainly would be happy to order kit from someone so committed to making great bicycles)

 

What bike did you ride? And how long did you get it for?  I live in Sheffield so Brighton is a long way!

[steady lad]

Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the advice.

A test ride would be the best thing to do but I live in Sheffield and we have two young kids so would struggle to find a full day to go down to Brighton although its not impossible I guess.

Cheers

[gmac101]

I don’t have a Mason but I

I don’t have a Mason but I have recently bought a Kineses T2 frame which I understand Dom Mason was involved in the design of.  I moved the wheels, groupset, finishing kit (excluding brakes)etc from my previous frame a Specialized Allez only changing the tyres from Vredsteins to some Michelin Pro 4’s.  I only did this because I was getting fed up with the lack of mudguards on theAllez for commuting but the change in the ride quality is amazing. The bike now deals beautifully with all the lumps and bumps and those potholes that i used to wince when I hit the bike just absorbs them with very little vibrations, the contrast with the Allez is quite marked. If he’s got better at bike design I imagine the definition is a wonderful bike to ride

[Carton]

Simon E wrote:

Violin players don’t put themselves in debt for a Stradivarius simply because it’s old.

Violins seem to be a “better” example. But that also seems to be more about looking for a specific sound than an altogether “better” one. 

And I certainly don’t find any fault in paying for a specific sound or look or feel. I think “ride quality”  and “fit” are more than just geometry and compliance (though those seem to be a good starting point). So I think I’m in the consensus in both saying that while he is unlikely to find Mason to be the best value-for-money proposition given his specific situation, the OP should try to ride a Mason and find out for himself.

[ChrizM]

I’ve got a Mason Definition,

I’ve got a Mason Definition, and there is no doubt it is a beautiful frameset. The craftmanship is superb and it rides as well as a carbon Canyon Endurace, its both stiff and fun on twisty descents whilst not being harsh on the delightful British tarmac. The attention to detail is great: mudguards fit properly, treaded BB, neat cable routing, smooth welds, and sharp graphics. I love mine, and wouldn’t change a thing on it. 

However, I’m not sure anyone buys one purely on price, so you’ve got to value the craftmanship and extra design over a mass market bike. My observation when choosing mine was that the fully assembled builds offered no savings on sourcing the parts, and building it yourself. Not surprising as Mason aren’t big, so won’t have the OEM pricing the likes of Trek, Spesh, and Cannondale will have, and it’s hand assembled in the UK. I sourced my parts myself online and spent 5 evenings building it, which saved me a couple of hundred on the fully assembled version of similar specification. 

You might find it works out econmical to buy something like one of Evans’ own brand disk frames under C2W scheme, and transfer the components over the Mason frameset. 

Mason customer service is exceptional too, drop them a line and they’ll help you with the decision.

[Swiss]

ALTERNATIVE – You could buy
ALTERNATIVE – You could buy the mason with your own money and use the cycle to work voucher on a load of kit for you and the bike.

[Kadinkski]

No offence, but surely you

No offence, but surely you understand that 99% of the answers you get to this question are going to be from people that do not actually own a Mason, right? Honestly, do you expect the consensus to be anthing but ‘don’t bother’?

If you’re interested in one, go for a test ride, speak to Dom – there ye shall find the answer to your question.

Then go to Evans and test ride a Trek or whatever. Its not rocket science.

 

[Dr_Lex]

graham_f wrote:

Why not get in touch with them, see if you can take one for a test ride, and decide for yourself?

This is what I did; Dom couldn’t have been more helpful, despite being crazy busy just before Christmas. It rode wonderfully and I now need to sort out placing an order.

(I won’t get into the confirmation bias debate, but I certainly would be happy to order kit from someone so committed to making great bicycles)

[Author]

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