Cyclocross - Can I use my IF for cross?

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e34/tress94/IF04.jpg

Can I turn this into a bike for cross? What makes the most sense? Single speed? Swap the V's for Canti's, add a drop bar and levers and lose the old 8-speed? The sloping geo is hard to shoulder, but it's doable for a few races, I'm new at cross and don't want to buy another bike just to try it out a few times. What do you all think? How would you rebuild this?

If you are going to try it out. Why not leave it as is and ride it that way. I'm pretty sure you can enter a cx race with this bike. Maybe get some knobbies. If you have your heart set on converting this, maybe some drop bars and brake levers and some bar end shifters. Standard brake levers wont pull enough cable for those V-brakes but you can get those travel agent devices...or some new cantis.
Then, if you end up loving cx and get a new bike, you can make this the beater/sscx??

Knobbies are the only thing you need to use that bike for cross.

Knobbies are the only thing you need to use that bike for cross.

+1

I watched a guy dogging it for an entire beginner's race in the granny gear of his mountain bike.

Get some tires and go for it!

I don't think you need to turn that into anything, it's fit for cross. Just get the tires and if you are racing in a lot of mud you may want to go with the canti brakes.

Try it out with tyres first. Before try anything more than that, think about the reach - drop bars and brake levers will add nearly 10cm to the reach, so you might have to go to a short stem or, as in my case, it might make the whole thing impossible.

Thanks for all the feedback, might just add the tires and go for it.