Finally built up and ready to ride, this is my Brian Rourke 853 mountain bike. After collection from the bike shop, I couldn’t resist taking it for a spin around downtown Porto for a little test ride. I love the chrome together with the polished aluminium of the Shimano Deore DX rear mech.

Overall it rides like a dream, most things work as they should. The Deore XT thumbshifters provide surprisingly crisp indexed shifting across the cassette, and the XTR V-Brakes stop exceptionally well. The Pace RC 36 suspension fork looks great, but will need a bit of tuning to get the sag and damping set up to my satisfaction. And the long stem and narrow bar are going to need changing for something a little more practical!