Current Projects chat and miscellany

Having got used to the 42cm bars on my mile-munching functional bike, the 40cm Campione Del Mondo bars (pre-90s, 26.4 clamp) on my posh bike have annoyingly started feeling too narrow (even though I've used them on and off for 25+ years...) Also I've never been entirely happy with the deep drop. So I'm considering options for a more satisfying bar size whilst staying with the classic shape + quill stem arrangement...

1. Straight swap with Giro D'Italia 42cm, NOS or VGC.
   1b. Take the opportunity to also swap out the 1A stem for an XA, which I had on there originally and prefer the aesthetics.
   
2. Start afresh with new quill stem/classic style bars (with something approximating the configuration of Giro D'Italia + XA stem.)
   
   

So a few questions...

• Will I get the same flat(-ish) transition with GD'I + SRAM as with the CDM?
  
• Is the XA stem really a functionally inferior design to the 1A or is there nothing in it? I'm not racing any criteriums, I just want to keep my teeth going down Westerham Hill on a Sunday afternoon.
  
• Old-school romanticism of Cinelli aside, if I went for new equipment, what's recommended? Nitto? I'm not interested in stems with ugly sharp edges; any improvement in stiffness/performance would be nice but again, not a major consideration. (And I can't say I'm very impressed with the finish on the NEW Cinelli GD'I bars.)
  
• And a proper noob question; I've never set up SRAM myself (LBS job when I put the bike together.) How much of a hassle will the swap-over be? Can I just transfer over all the cables as is??