Splendidly, the Antidote Lifeline is not only highly polished, it’s also highly Polish – Antidote’s designers are based in Krakow. It’s a 220mm travel DH frame using a short-link rear end with a floating shock driven from both ends. Claimed weight is under 7lb, and if that sounds implausibly light, you’re right – that’s without a shock.

Corsair’s Marque offers 130mm of travel, 67&deg head angle and an idler roller gizmo on the swingarm for neutral pedalling.

Left Exposure’s new tail light isn’t finished yet, but we like the look of it so far. It uses the LED and diffusing lens from the existing Redeye unit that plugs in to the Smart Port on any Exposure headlight, but with its own battery and a neat plug-in seatpost mount. Right Lake’s MX140 offers a waterproof and breathable eVent liner combined with a race-style sole for a lightweight, performance-oriented winter shoe. On test soon…

Sabbath’s Fifth Element is described as being for “all-mountain, all-day riding”. It’s built from double-butted (and fairly girthsome) 3/2.5 titanium and designed around 130-140mm forks. Frames are £1,499.

Full-suspension pioneer Proflex has been quiet for a long time. The brand is now owned by a Spanish company and offers an extensive range of variously-travelled FS bikes (this is the 120mm travel, short-link 680) and, perhaps mildly perversely, hardtails. No UK distributor as yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

Mavic was showing these carbon-spoked MTB wheels constructed along similar lines to its R-Sys road wheels. Mavic’s hollow carbon spokes can be loaded in compression, while a conventional wire-spoked wheel has to start with lots of tension in the spokes so that it can afford to lose a bit to take loads. Without high spoke tension to worry about, rims and hubs can be made lighter. These aren’t a production item, and with tubular-only rims are clearly something of a niche product as they stand. We certainly wouldn’t bet against production wheels showing up in the not too distant future, though.

Left Mavic is also responsible for some quite startlingly eye-catching footwear. Very light, too, although you can’t see that attribute. Right More subtly, Speed Stuff has sheepskin gloves.

The Cube Stereo has 140mm of travel at each end and a through-axle rear. Looks like good value at £2,299 for a RockShox Revelation/Shimano XT/Formula R1 setup.