Converting a vintage SS MTB to more of a cyclocross rig?

[zanq]

I've been talking a bit with a buddy (who got me into SS) about the idea of him getting a road bike. Since I know how his attention wanders from one month to the next, I told him to look into a cyclo-X bike for street riding, fire roads, and rigid SS. He'd be able to switch it up with less investment that multiple bikes.

So this got me thinking about the below SS of mine. It has more of a road bike geometry and have been using it as a commuter anyway. Details about the frame:

circa 1991 Schwinn High Plains
lugged steel frame
1" head tube
130ish mm rear vertical dropout
~23 lbs. in its current state

So I and have a couple questions:

Would this be a decent candidate for a CX conversion?
Handlebars - Should I be using CX-specific dropbars or will any el-cheapo drops work?
Stem - Mountain or would a road stem work?
Gearing - Thinking somewhere around 44x18t
Tires - Ditch the 26x2.0 Pythons for 26x1.75 semi-slicks (something more suited for road than trail)?

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/zuren1cs/Schwinn_High_Plains_SS-med.jpg

Any other advice/input appreciated! Thanks!

[ZenNMotion]

Sure you could do some cross races on this as a single speed, but its not a typical bike that you see on the line (but then neither is single speeds, old hybrids or cyclocross for that matter!) So to do a few races a year on this, why the heck not? But I wouldnt go very far to "convert" it. First, you really wouldnt get much performance benefit from drop bars. A little cool factor maybe, but that's an opinion... if you have all the parts already, or could get them dirt cheap used then maybe. But I wouldnt buy new parts, not worth it, because you are in for more than you think.
1) road bars take a different diameter stem opening, so you gotta buy a stem if you're going that way. Road bars will also move your position forward quite a lot, so if you like the way it feels now, you would need to get a very short stem and/or a road quill stem with a good rise to it (not common, but possible to find). Although I forced some drop bars into a steel bontrager MTB 1" quill stem once by removing the bolt and forcing it open a few mm's. Pain in the butt, and gouged up the bars bad, but I did it. Not recommended, especially for an Al stem. But hey, it's possible, if not smart. You could just leave your bars as they are, they really won't slow you down much, especially on a single speed with heavy wheels. Aero is not in this bike's vocabulary. You might chop a cm or so off each end of the bar for easier maneuvering in traffic in a cross race.
2) I can't see the head tube diameter from the pic, if its old enough to be 1" (older standard) OK, but if it's the (newer) 1 1/8 standard, you will have a difficult time finding a quill stem that fits, especially one that also accomodates road handlebars. They do exist, for tandems, but tough to find, would take some searching and a special order.
3) It looks like you have Vbrakes on that thing. Vbrakes won't work with drop bar levers without an extra converter gadget at 20 bucks per wheel, and even then they don't work very well (several discussions in this forum on that...) So you also would need to get some cantilever brakes- you can find these cheap and easy though.
4) You will want to reverse your brake levers to left=rear to prevent lifting your rear wheel off the ground while dismounting (think faceplant) No biggie to do.
5) You probably want the narrowest 26in. tires you can find, with a little tread on them, but you could also just go with what you have. I wouldnt necessarily go for a slick with no tread at all or inverted tread except for bone dry courses with no loose stuff, so the narrow width with a little tread limits your tire options. There is a rule that limits tire width to 35c for elite races, but you prolly wouldnt be using this thing for Elite races anyway... if you did or could it would be the ultimate cool though!
6) take off the bar ends, not allowed in cross races

Cross is a party on wheels, people ride on all kinds of rigs. Some larger races even have a category just for single speeds. It's changing though, you see more and more expensive cross-specific bikes every year, even at C races. I'd hate to see the grass roots disappear so that everybody thinks they need to shell out $1,000 or more just to participate like road or MTB racing. Save cyclocross for the masses, Vive les junkyard Frankenbikes! Go for it and have fun- Here's a good account of riding cross single speed style with a little advice-

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlecross.html