Strategic Reconfiguration - Phase 1

I am making some strategic reconfigurations to the bike fleet this winter. The Pugsley is gone; I sold it to a friend of a friend who plans to commute on it in winter. I think she will really like it - it's a very fun bike to ride, but realistically, I was not putting it to good use. I hope the new owner rides it a lot and gets great fun out of it.

I am toying with the idea of rolling the proceeds from the Pug sale into an Extracycle Freeradical kit for the Cross Check. That would convert the Cross Check into full-tilt cargo bike, which I think would be handy. I still have a road bike or two in case I want to go fast, so I think I am giving myself more options and versatility with this move. Here's a photo of an Extracycle conversion from a Flickr site:

I have a few questions to get resolved before I take the plunge. First off, just about everyone of these I have seen runs moustache bars or something comparable. I like my road drops on the Cross Check and I am reluctant to change out bars and brakes/shifters to support the conversion. Also, I am somewhat worried about my brakes - I am currently using my stock Cross Check brakes with some STI shifters off of a Specialized Allez I sold last summer. The brakes are only okay but the shifting is good and I like levers, so hopefully I will be able to keep those. I need to talk to someone who has some experience with these things to find out if this would be a decent set up or if there is some fatal flaw I am not considering.

If any readers have experience with a X conversion or have set up a Big Dummy, please comment and let me know your thoughts.