Like this Scott Strike Limited. If you’re looking for a race-ready full susser, take a gander at this. Carbon front end, Scandium rear and a spec straight from a World Cup startline: CrossMax SL wheels, SID Race, XTR…

If a Scott is too mainstream for you, perhaps you’d consider a Seven Duo? Obviously you do need £2,800 for the frame, which is something of a hurdle, but you do get a full custom titanium suspension bike built around Mavericks’ Monolink design. The Monolink also makes an appearance on Klein’s Palomino at a considerably lower price. And the Klein version should now be the right shape unlike the prototype bikes…

We’ll shut up about suspension bikes in a minute, but not before a quick shufti at one of the full range of Specialized Epics – the polished look hasn’t been in vogue for a while but this one looks rather purposeful. Also available in matt grey, red and white. If you’re really lucky the colour you want matches up with the spec you can afford…

Also on the Specialized stand is this remarkable device, as ridden by Mario Cipollini. Yes, furry saddle and all. It’s just one of a substantial number of road bikes at the show. If you fancy checking out lots of brightly-coloured road frames made by companies whose names end in ‘o’, this is the place to be…

Amongst their titanium and titanium/carbon frames, Serotta have this intriguing road softtail design. Springy curved stays do the, er, springing, while elastomer strips clamped to the underside of the stays offer a degree of rebound control. The design apparently gives 10mm of travel.

More conventional but at the same time innovative suspension products are to be found on the Pace stand. The latest generation of Pace forks features all-carbon lowers, including the brake arch, and a new, sleek hollow crown. We couldn’t help thinking this fork would look well on the front of the Strike Limited…

Sigma Sport (the shop, not the computer manufacturer) also have a carbon fork on display, only this one’s for the road. It’s a new aero fork that incorporates slotted aerofoil section blades. The idea is to reduce air turbulence around the fork legs. No news on whether they’ll come with “Caution – Intake” decals.

Not crazy enough for you? OK, how about this laminated wood bike? Stiffness can be tuned by adding tension to the cables. Tension is introduced by loosening a bolt, sitting on the bike so the seat tube loads the cables, then tightening the bolt again. Needless to say, it’s more of a design exercise than a practical production proposition.

The show also has plenty of parts and accessories. SRAM have new range of derailleurs and shifters. The good news is that most of their derailleurs now have aluminium top knuckles like those found on the X.0 set-up, so they should be a fair bit more durable. They’re also doing a hollow-pin chain, saving 20g (whoopee!) on the current one. These MRX shifters have a new gear indicator window, and they’re even doing women-specific shifters with smaller-diameter grips.

So what did we think? Well, if you’re not a fan of the noise and selling-of-things-cheap at the NEC Bike Show, Cycle will probably be right up your street. There’s a lot more road bikes and niche stuff like recumbents and folders. You don’t get indoor BSX racing but you do get lots of shiny bikes.

All the details about the show, which runs until Sunday, are on the Cycle 2002 website