diff --git a/mercurial/bundle2.py b/mercurial/bundle2.py
--- a/mercurial/bundle2.py
+++ b/mercurial/bundle2.py
@@ -1013,10 +1013,9 @@
         self._generated = None
         self.mandatory = mandatory
 
-    @encoding.strmethod
     def __repr__(self):
-        cls = b"%s.%s" % (self.__class__.__module__, self.__class__.__name__)
-        return b'<%s object at %x; id: %s; type: %s; mandatory: %s>' % (
+        cls = "%s.%s" % (self.__class__.__module__, self.__class__.__name__)
+        return '<%s object at %x; id: %s; type: %s; mandatory: %s>' % (
             cls,
             id(self),
             self.id,