I agree, and I'd be all over an IGH for this myself. You gotta do what you gotta do, of course, but a three speed would still keep the lines pretty clean and you'd have a pretty elegant riding solution. Relative to patina, you're going to hear a lot of differing opinions here. However, since you open it up to discussion, here's my two cents worth: I'd clean it, wax it, and leave it alone. I've "refurbed" frames in the past and seldom do I not feel some sense of remorse after having done so. No matter how slick and shiny the new frame turns out to be, it looks just like a "new" frame and has lost much of the original character that appealed to me in the first place. The decals, missing chunks, just never look the same when replaced. You'll hear it again but it's only original once.