Verdict: The Brother Mehteh is more capable over rough terrain than its rivals, and remains rewarding on the road. A very hard balance to strike, but one that the Mehteh achieves with its fun but functional ride quality.
Brother Mehteh Build
The Mehteh comes as a bare frameset, allowing for customisation to suit your ride requirements. With a bike this versatile, the ability to tailor the build yourself is a big plus.
The Mehteh is constructed from Reynolds 725 steel; a heat treated tubing famed for its strength and weight saving properties, and an ideal material for the challenges of gravel riding and bikepacking. This is now matched with the new 2022 Brother carbon gravel fork – featuring full carbon construction, fender mounts, triple cage mounts on each fork blade, dynamo routing and flip-chip dropouts. The frame and fork have clearance for up to 650b x 2.2″ or 700c x 50 tyres to help you through the rough stuff. My bike was fitted with the previous al back fork, which I found to be spot on for my need, especially as I wasn’t running a dynamo.
I planned on riding the Mehteh on everything from mixed terrain road and light gravel rides, to ultras that would arguably be more suited to an all out MTB. With this in mind I opted for the smooth and reliable Shimano GRX800 1x groupset, which is hard to beat for any gravel bike build. This was paired with Thompson finishing kit – I love the shaping and aesthetics of this, the quality is exceptional, and the unique offset seatpost design adds some more comfort to the ride. The stem is my gravel favourite – a Redshift Shockstop, in a slightly shorter length than I usually run, as the Mehteh frame is designed with a longer reach to handle best with a 1cm shorter stem.
To optimise the do-it-all nature of the Mehteh, I rode with 650b wheels (paired with Terravail Rutland tyres initially, then Vittoria Mezcal tyres after they wore out) when it was particularly gnarly or muddy, and swapped in 700c wheels (paired with WTB Nano tyres) when the terrain was faster rolling. In both sizes I chose the DT-SWISS GR1600 wheelset, which are something of a benchmark gravel wheel.
Frame tubing: Reynolds 725 heat treated chromoly double-butted main triangle, ED coated
Brake compatibility: flat mount, 160mm max rotor size
Rear Dropouts: 12x142mm TA (included)
Seat post diameter: 27.2mm
Seat clamp diameter: 30mm (included)
Headset: 44mm, ZS44/28.6 upper, EC44/40 lower (not included)
Front derailleur clamp diameter: 28.6mm
Bottom bracket shell: 68mm bottom bracket, ISO threaded
Maximum tyre clearance: 700c x 45mm, 650b x 56mm
Fork: 1.5″ – 1.1/8″ tapered steerer full carbon disc fork, mudguard/triple cage mounts, Dynamo routing and flip chip dropouts, 12x100mm TA (included)
Details:
- Full-length cable housing guides for derailleurs and brakes
- Stealth dropper post routing
- 3 sets bottle cage mounts on all sizes
- Rear rack and mudguard mounts
- Chainring clearance: up to up to 52-39-30t triple, 50-34t double, 48t single
Build Quality
The quality of the Mehteh frameset is incredibly high, and the welds in the Reynolds 725 steel are really nicely done. In fact, it’s hard to find any fault in the tubing whatsoever. The ED coating provides protection from rust and corrosion, so the Mehteh will stand the test of time even with the worst of British weather being thrown at it. Rounding off a flawless frame, the alignment is also mm perfect.
The full build quality is open to change of course as this will vary from bike to bike, but with the frameset as a jumping off point it will be hard to go wrong here.
Ride Quality and Handling
The first thing I noticed about the Mehteh as I rolled down the road and turned onto the rough stuff is how smooth that transition was. Nailing the balance of benefits from an all-conditions all-terrain bike is tricky to achieve, but Brother has done it in style. The ride is planted and stable, but it certainly isn’t boring.
Photo by Dan Sparrow
The Reynolds 725 tubing has made the frame plenty stiff enough for a responsive ride while remaining comfortable. While the Mehteh is far from twitchy, it has still got a pick-up and turn of speed that delivers a fun ride.
When looking for an adventure bike, there are now more options than ever to bridge the chasm between an endurance road bike and a drop-barred MTB, giving riders the option to opt for one bike that can do (almost) anything you ask of it. That being said, the Mehteh stands out as being really really capable, even when pitted against similar bikes in this category.
I have ridden the Mehteh year round, and across a huge variety of surfaces and lengths of ride. Really pushing it to its limits during an ultra-endurance event that was arguably more suited to an all out MTB, the Mehteh surprised me. It’s incredibly strong, and handles high levels of luggage without upsetting the handling and ride feel of the bike. It proved incredibly capable across the wide variety of terrain, but remained rewarding to ride when I hit the smoother, more flowy, surfaces. Even after days in the saddle I was still happy to be on board the Brother.
Photo by Dan Sparrow
Conclusion
Whenever a bike is touted to be a beautiful all conditions all-terrain gravel and adventure bike, it’s hard to pin down a niche within which to judge it, so instead it has to live up to this title at every turn. It needs to be smooth and fast enough on the road to remain rewarding, and competent over a vast array of terrain. The Brother Mehteh has managed to do both incredibly well, and it’s a joy to ride.
The nuanced nature of surfaces I’ve encountered while riding this bike, even when just tackling the back lanes in the British countryside, has put the Mehteh to the test, and I’ve been continually impressed by how truly adaptable this beast is.
If you’re searching for one bike that is built for adventure seeking in almost every sense of the term, then the Brother Mehteh is hard to beat.
More Information: https://epic-cycles.co.uk/brother-mehteh
