I just got a Downtube Nova from EBay. The bike is great. It seems to be light.
I changed the crank to a 53 teeth and the freewheel to a 11-34. My crank has a smaller 39 ring, but I decided to not install a front derailleur. The 53 front ring gives me 31 to 96 gear inches. Hopefully that is enough.
Below are the gear inches I got from Sheldon Brown's site.
53x11 96.4 13 81.5 15 70.7 18 58.9 21 50.5 24 44.2 34 31.2