Nice! Do you have any pics of your set up? I've seen a few other drop bar hardtails out at events but have not seen any FS rigs yet. I looked real hard at getting an NOS FS 26" bike before I did my hardtail conversion but since most of my riding is intact gravel roads I was worried it wouldn't be as fun/fast for events.
steep mountain roads frequented by gas powered all terrain vehicles that chew up the surface and scatter loose rocks.
Definitely familiar with "roads" like the above, a lot of times the are paired with flatter sections of very large loose gravel (still steep!) and steeper sections that are rutted and require good judgement to pick a line and stay upright. Thankfully they're never very long but they do crop up frequently in North Georgia.
What's really funny is that I picked up a 29er hardtail for the conversion initially but decided I should ride it as an MTB at least once. It felt like such a huge improvement over my 26" bike that I decided to keep the 29er as an MTB and run the 26" as the drop bar bike. Now I'm wondering if I should switch them around.
Here's a pic of my bike, might be helpful for the thread. I'm still fiddling with the shifter location. I move them down a little when I want to feel like a roadie and then move them up when I want to feel like a 'crosser.
And here's a pic comparing the bike set-up as an MTB compared with my road position:
