The interlocking strands are said to give better strength and stiffness for the same amount of material, while also being more resistant to crash damage – it behaves like a thicker-walled tube and it can cope with losing a few “links”. For those of us who live in mankier climates, the frame comes with a set of super-thin Lizard Skins covers to stop the tubes filling up with mud.

Frame weight of the Arantix is a claimed 1.2kg (2.7lb) – there are lighter frames available, but Delta7 says that this one is designed to be ridden hard and to last, rather than raced and retired. There’s no rider weight limit. Making them is frighteningly labour-intensive, though, and the price tag is pretty scary too – $7,000.

There’s also a diamond-frame version for those who want to either save a little money or have something (slightly) more conventional-looking. All Jones bikes are 29ers – not having to allow for a suspension fork means that Jones has a lot more flexibility to design geometry that works.

This experimental bike is a new twist on the 29/26 idea – it’s got a regular 29in wheel at the back and a 26in up front shod with a 4in Surly Endomorph tyre, the outside diameter of which is around about 29in anyway. The idea is extra cush without a suspension fork or too much extra weight.

There’s hardly an inch of this frame that hasn’t been machined to within a thousandth of an inch of its life.

And there’s a pair of custom bashguards to finish it off.

Tubes, gussets – nothing is left unmilled.

You can always rely on Craig Calfee to come up with something a bit different for the shows. A couple of years ago it was bamboo, but since Calfee is now producing bamboo frames that’s just not eyecatching enough. This, then, is the carbon fibre Spiderweb bike.

Carbon strands run every which-way on the frame (although there are full-length ones joining all the key points together).

It looks a bit like one of those “free energy” machines from the outside…

Lahr’s efforts were rewarded by Interbike’s Best In Show for Innovation trophy. And lots of industry figures had been to Lahr’s stand aiming to do deals – the CVT in particular was attracting a lot of interest.

…while inside there’s a computer-designed 3D contoured drum, some rollers on cams, some planetary gears and, for all we know, elven woodland folk. We watched it going round and shifting for several minutes and still have almost no idea how it works.