update
Much fun had putting the old babe back together again
The nex xt headset just pushed back into place and I udes the old fork race and a paint roller tube to gently hit the new race onto the fork crown
a difficult job with an aluminium one as there is a grave danger of them splitting but with a good ole XT loose bearing steel one no probs Captain Improvisation to the rescue.
The next job was the Bottom bracket and try as I might she wouldnt go back in I thought the best bet was to leave this to a professional so the next day I called in at Mercian Cycles in Alveston who cleaned the threads with a tap and fitted me an Octalink Shimano BB.
I struggled with this decision not to refit the biopace chainset but I only had one half and the non drive crank was god knows what. So following my idea to keep the build black and white I have used the Chainset off my Cannondale Jekyll a light Coda one in black which I think works well.