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Good choice. I like the big vents Giros have. I've had two Giro's (Monza and Ionos), and two crashes. Both times my head hit the ground hard enough to split the helmet nearly in two, didn't even have a headache. Giro FTW.

Just bought a Gazelle Champion Mondial Campag A (circa 1979) so may be asking questions in here if there are any snags, will post pics when it's arrived.

Well many thanks for all your advice, I've bought a new old frame now.

I only took one day off work, to be honest I'm more annoyed about the frame, I love the hideous bright pink rusty bastard.

Pedestrian in the cycle lane.

I'd just come up onto the bit of cycle path that is on the pavement at the eastern end of Hyde Park. No-one else about, I'd left work early so it was about 5pm. Going uphill so not very fast, 10mph tops. It was raining.
But what's this? Ahead of me there is a man in the cycle lane, walking towards me. I coast towards him. I look at him. He looks at me. He doesn't move. He's maybe 20 metres or so away, so I gently swerve out of the cycle lane. At which point he seems to realize, and steps out of the cycle lane and right back in front of me again.
Now I'm out of options, so with only 4 or 5 metres between us I haul over but the white line is high having been painted many times, and it is greasy in the rain, and down I go sideways. Two broken ribs, bruise the size of dinner plate on my inner thigh from the top tube, still have a lump in my left calf from the pedal.
He was probably a tourist, he did stop to see if I was OK and what was I going to say, I let him go on his way. Cracking service from the NHS at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital by the way, in and out and codeined to the eyeballs within an hour and a half.

This is what it looked like when I built it, you can see why I'm reluctant to part with it.

TM I think its a 55cm.

Many thanks for your replies, much appreciated. I've emailed Oak Cycles, nothing yet but early days.

£130 + does seem like throwing good money after bad, but apparently despite modern industrial processes, global trade and China, its still not possible to buy a decent but still pretty basic steel bike frame for less than £300. I'd probably have to pay at least £130 for another Reynolds off eBay these days.
My broken ribs are all mended, and its getting hot so I can't handle the tube much longer, I need to get back on a bike.
Trying to talk myself into maybe a Condor Potenza or TokyoFixed Dart frame.
As it is though I need a new helmet (split nearly in two on impact), new bar tape, will need a wheel trueing, and probably brake levers too. Buying a whole new bike might well be the only option, although it won't have quite the same feeling as riding one I built myself...

Hello

I have a Reynolds 531 frame with a serious crack in the headset tube. It was a bit rusty around the butting when I got the frame but it seemed sound enough for about a year, however a fall a few weeks ago seems to have done for it. It looks like the whole tube is a write-off as it seems to have bent around the crack. I have emailed Donhou to see if he can weld it but the phone number on his site isn't working any more so don't know if I'll hear back.

Here are some pics.

I'd appreciate any advice as to whether this is practically fixable, and if so any ideas as to who might be able to do it for me.

Hello FYI Twitter tells me that Paddington Police Sation has just received a haul of 25 stolen bikes, someone's just recovered theirs which was stolen a week or so ago. Maybe a long shot but might be worth giving them a call if you've had your bike stolen relatively recently.

OK, I only hung up because he was a bit aggressive and it was out of the blue. "Legal recourse" perhaps poor choice of words, "am I liable" would have been better.

I would have been following too close if I had been directly behind him instead of between the lanes of traffic, and as I said I don't remember exactly what happened, I glanced over to the taxi on my right and the next thing I know I'm on the floor. So either I veered left or he veered right (and by necessity I'm pretty careful on E+C), but as I have no memory of it I wouldn't accuse anyone else of being at fault. If I'd gone directly into the back of him I would have gone over the roof from back to front and down the windscreen, instead of over the right and down the left side of his car. Also the Police attended so there is an incident report, I've had a letter saying its still being investigated. I don't mind getting in touch and getting it sorted if I am liable, but I am worried that he is just trying it on. Shouldn't his insurance company be contacting me?

Hello

A few weeks ago I had an accident. Into the side/back of a car on E+C, he braked suddenly. Bike frame trashed, clavicle broken. I really don't remember it much, helmet saved me but was quite dazed. It may well have been my fault but I couldn't say either way for sure.

Just got a phone call, the driver asking "what are we going to do about it". Apparently I broke his rear headlight. I don't have car insurance on my bike funnily enough so I just said "I'm not going to pay for your light, or anything do with your car" and hung up.

Has he got any legal recourse? Because I'm minded to just ignore him.

After I collided with him I went over his roof and into the side of a black cab, denting the door, haven't heard from him though....

Spotted a hilarious guy on a hybrid MTB thing at parliament square earlier, olaying eurotrance shit really loudly from his musical backpack and moving his head in time to the music. Literally lol'd. Respect for collossal twatishness, impressive. Hope to god you're 'on here'.

I've seen him, he's a hoot.

Public service announcement.

There's a hairy chap with longish dark hair who cycles home in the evenings along the Chelsea Embankment on (I think) a mountain bike.

Please tell him not to, or buy some proper cycling shorts. Or any shorts that aren't white tennis shorts that go totally transparent when wet. These are not designed for hirsute gentlemen to wear 'commando'.
I'm normally a fairly lazy, relaxed cyclist, so it's killing me having to overtake him like a huffing, spluttering n00b all the time but my eyes simply can't bear to be behind him.

I'd get any ankle problems looked at sharpish. Then get a second opinion.

After a long misdiagnosis during which I was practically disabled it turned out I had Haglunds Syndrome.

Start the Steve Wright In The Afternoon Music.

I'd always had sore feet and back problems, so a podiatrist made custom inserts (which would have cost a mint but she was a friend of my girlfriend of the time) which were amazing, they helped my posture, back problems and sore feet went away. But you're not supposed to run in them.
Anyway, after wearing them for a year or two one day I had to run in them (long story), and a few minutes later I was in serious difficulties, a lot of pain in my ankles.
Went to St. John's & elizabeth's foot clinic, they reckoned I'd bruised my tendons on the inserts and that I just needed some physio to firm them up, no x-ray needed. I should have insisted on an x-ray.
If I did the exercises the physio gave me and kept my tendons stretched out and warm I could just about get a day's work in before the pain got too much, but every other aspect of my life suffered. I persevered with the exercises but they said it would take about 18 months. After 18 months I stopped the exercises and two days later I could barely walk.
Went to another foot surgeon (all this at private rates, NHS had a loooong waiting list), he x-rayed and said "yeah you've got Haglunds". Essentially little spurs of bone grow out of the back of your heel and dig into your Achilles tendons. It only happens to women who wear high heels too much and idiots who wear their shoe inserts for too long whether they run in them or not.
So I had an operation which despite being keyhole still necessitated having all of my Achilles tendons detached. Again at private rates. They can't be re-attached, they just have to heal. After another 18 months its not gone perfectly as the left one is still occasionally painful, but I'm much better off than before as I can now walk. Over the course of several years, this has had a knock-on effect on the rest of my legs. My knees used to visibly tremble as I walked down stairs because they were so weak and because my feet can't take repetitive hard impacts I can't run or jog, so gained weight.
About a year ago I took up cycling. My legs and ankles are much stronger generally and the weight is coming off.

So, er, there you go.

Having worn it for a couple of days (not in bed, I'd get a sore neck) I'm well pleased with the Giro Ionos. The vents are excellent and keep my head much cooler than the Savant and the pads inside are much better quality material and are shaped such that sweat runs down the sides of my face, rather than straight into my eyes.

Does anyone know where I could go to try on a Montane Featherlight Velo? Haven't found anywhere that stocks them...

Excellent, good tips, thank you.

I certainly will be looking to get a 2012 model on sale in the next few months, so the groupset advice will be very useful.

Hi. This isn't for me, my friend wants to get a road bike, he doesn't really cycle at the moment. He's got his heart set on the Wilier Escape Xenon which he can get for £700 on 0% finance now. Here's a link for specs, although I don't think he plans to get it from Evans:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/wilier/escape-2011-road-bike-ec026873#features

This review says it's pretty good for an entry-level bike and handles well:

http://road.cc/content/review/29926-wilier-escape-xenon

I'm don't know much about road bikes, I do think Wiliers look very nice but I worry that they are style over substance? I also worry that that's a lot of money for your first proper bike but maybe I'm just being tight. I myself am looking at road bikes so I know that while you can get an apparently OK one for around £500 the components might not be great, so maybe its not a lot of money and £700 is about right to avoid the crappest groupsets without going crazy.

I'd be interested to know what people think of Wiliers and if there might be better options at the £700 mark.

Giro Savant gets a big non-brain-damaged thumbs up from me, oh yes.

As you can see up there it took several big dings courtesy of the side and roof of a BMW, the door of a black cab and then the road - all within a 1-second window. There's more damage on the other side but its not as dramatic. Broken clavicle, and both the top tube and down tube of a steel frame bent all to hell, but not even a headache. Not sure that a lower-profile helmet would have saved me from the side impacts. Giro FTW.

Black and yellow, this one:

The Livestrong one is about £118, the normal Ionos is about £180, its a no-brainer really. And I like yellow.

I know you've all been desperately waiting for closure on this; I got the Giro Ionos Livestrong.

I might try that.

Some details here: http://www.madison.co.uk/giro/

Can't be sending it off to get a new one, what will I wear in the mean time?

I've been trying on helmets.

A large MET Stradivarius doesn't even fit on my head.
Giro Atmos looks ridiculous.
There are no large Giro Aeons in the whole of West London.
Giro Ionos is £180 but the Livestrong one is £120 - I may very well end up with one of these if not another Savant. Can't be doing with the Monza at all.

Does anyone know who stocks Mavic helmets? They have them on Evan's website but not in the stores.

Many thanks for these suggestions. I'm going shopping tomorrow. It'll probably take a while due to the aforementioned big head, shops don't seem keen on stocking the larger sizes.

• shopping on the hottest day of the year
  
• all day in bike shops
  

Well this did it's job but now I need a new one:

That's a Giro Savant, which I bought because it was about the only one in the shop that fit, I have a big head. But I need more air flow next time around. I very nearly didn't wear a helmet that day because it was so hot. Wouldn't be here if I hadn't though.

What can people recommend for maximum airflow? Around the £100 mark.

I'm obviously now quite keen on Giro, but I also like Met and Kask. At the moment I'm looking at the Giro Ionos and Atmos - I love the Aeon but its a bit too pricey for me.

I haven't seen Kask helmets anywhere, and I don't buy anything without trying it on first. Who stocks them?