Unless she was in love with it, I would sell it (which would be easy to do here) and get something that came with more alloy and more conventional threading. Probably a 80s rigid MTB for the camp thing. If she's in love with the UO8, I would fish some alloy 27 or 700c rims out of a garage sale this summer, get a few cheap parts from the bins at Citybikes or Community Cycling Center, get the Velo Orange french BB, and mount a donor square taper alloy crankset off of a MTB.
Kudos on trusting your MB-Zip frame for commuting. You must not be a Clyde.
I also live near Tabor. I've yet to make it up that hill.