I had a white Nishiki in the 70's. I loved that bike with a burning passion. It was the first "real" bike I had and I rode it like a madwoman all the time and everywhere. It disappeared, and I replaced it with a Peugot.

Spending that much to upgrade the Etape, yeah, I'm leaning with Kathi on this one toward buying a higher end bike instead. You're looking at paying half again the price ($629 is what I found) for the Etape at your LBS. Putting that money toward a Tourmalet would buy you a lot of other improvements in a "bundle".