We don’t always tell you about every single new product that we get wind of because, well, a lot of them are a bit dull. This new cassette from Interloc Racing Design is certainly noteworthy, though – at 135g for a nine-speed 11-32 block it’s 100g lighter than a Shimano XTR unit. It achieves this bonkers level of lightness by being largely made from hard anodised 7075 aluminium – the seven biggest sprockets and the splined carrier are machined from a single block of the stuff.

The top two sprockets are also one-piece but in steel – you can get away with aluminium when there are plenty of teeth to go around but the little sprockets really wouldn’t last long – and there’s a steel lockring to top it all off.

We’ve no idea how well it’ll work, although it doesn’t appear to have much in the way of shifting ramps and pick-up pins. And it’s clearly never going to last as long as a conventional cassette. But for ‘core XC racers 100g is a big weight saving and we could certainly see some riders being tempted. Although at $300 (about £165) you’d have to be very tempted…

More from IRD’s website – the company doesn’t appear to have a UK distributor at the moment.