My 26 ain't Dead

There aren't many blokes as nice as Deadly Dan.
When my hardtail mountain bike seemed to be done for in the middle of August after doing its best to get round Penmachno, Dan told me that he could repair it. Apparently, it needed a new headset.
Right, I nodded, blinking at him in the bright Welsh sunlight, unsure of what a headset was.
Upon returning to the internet, and some confusing searches and conversations online, I discovered that what I needed was a FSA no11. What I actually ended up with was a small cardboard box labelled INTENSITY UNLIMITED steel semi-integrated aheadset (yes, aheadset, that's not a typo.) Inside was a collection of differently sized steel rings and some bearings. After quickly deciding I wasn't going anywhere near it, I patiently waited for Dan to have some spare time to fit it for me...
I didn't have to wait long: Dan gave up his Saturday morning and appeared at my front door, before he had even had breakfast, with a very heavy toolbox and a determined attitude. He didn't even flinch as my dogs barked and jumped around him, such was his focus on the task at hand.
After brief pause for homemade cake and redbush tea, we went to examine the patient. I had already stripped the fork as much as I could, removing the brake, stem and handlebar.
After some confident bashing with a rubber mallet and 'The Persuader' (Dan's granddad's wooden mallet), we had removed all of the rusty mashed up bits of headset that Penmachno had chewed up and spat out. Dan then had me clean and grease the headtube before he put the new headset in.

We then took the opportunity to drop my stem down a little bit - Dan assures me this will help stability when descending!
After a celebratory second helping of homemade cake and tea, Dan shot off to work and Lucy and I went round to visit a newborn addition to the family (welcome, Sidney Joe!)
Upon returning home, Tilly helped me set up the brakes after I had put in new pads. I also put on a Bontrager saddle - replacing the old Halford's own model that had split. Then I set off on a test run.

After about three miles, I realised that the bike was painfully slow - I was still running Penmachno pressures of 20psi! I popped in to Uncle Jonnie's place to bring the pressures up to 50psi and then turned the bike towards the canal towpath. On the canal, the bike was running beautifully and I could have quite happily carried on right down to Stratford! I didn't notice any difference with the dropped stem but I did notice the Bontrager saddle - that thing is hard!