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After January’s snow, and a week away on a Euro Tour beano, the IO ID has finally been taken out for its maiden voyage. Chipping over to Llandegla, I hit the red and black routes as per usual. With snow and ice still on parts of the trail, some parts were a bit tricky, including the first set of black jumps, and my personal nemesis, the last knobbly northshore.

General impressions of the bike are certainly positive – the bike felt nicely balanced and responsive, giving me more confidence than before to hit berms and jumps with more speed (probably a bit too much, as I ended up stacking it on the big double in the middle of JJ’s Jumps…).

Having only V-brakes (albeit poorly set-up ones) on my old Rockhopper, I found the Deore disc brakes a lot better, braking consistently and reliably for the whole ride. The RockShox Recon forks weren’t really tested at Llandegla – with the trail being relatively smooth – but I’m sure they ironed out my mistakes throughout the ride.

The Shimano Alfine internally-geared hub worked well, with little noticeable effect on the ride. Shifting was smooth for the most part, apart from an annoying clicking when in 2nd (hopefully remedied on its 6 week service), and having to really ease up when shifting down to 1st under load. Probably down to having done little to no exercise for the last two months, and the indulgences of the last week’s holiday, the climbing was more of a struggle than previous outings. This may be down to the additional weight ( I found myself having to shift my weight further forward on climbs), or the gear range being a little off. 1st gear was probably 3 or 4 gears off the 1st gear of a normal 27-speed setup, and left me struggling more than usual up the longer climbs. I’m sure this is nothing a bit of fitness work won’t fix!

Overall, I am really pleased with the IO ID – once I improve my fitness, and perhaps get some wider handlebars, I’m really looking forward to riding it again.