thanks for the info! I ended up finding a mongoose cromo early 80s bike locally for 80 bucks. Will grab it later today if still avail.

I looked online,and it will be a little over $100 for dirt drops, new stem, and orange velo bar end shifters.

In the end it will pretty much be a cyclocross bike on 26" rims….or shell out 800 + for a cx bike? However the cx bikes usually do not have the options for racks, act.