The Barron will see you now

I am working on a friend's vintage tourer with a fairly long top tube. It currently has drop bars. We picked it up from someone in Surrey, and it was their mother's bike and apparently she put plenty of miles on it. Nicely maintained, and a lucky find.

Currently with the elbow on the saddle and the arm pointing forwards, like the image below, my friend's fingers are 65-70mm back from the bars. Image below is from Dave Moulton's blog.

I want to convert it to a town bike with upright bars, for a nice upright position. I have some Ergotec 2 Stuttgarter bars with a significant sweep back. The centre of the grips are 80mm behind the centre of the stem clamp area.

I'm shopping for a stem and must choose a length.

My question:
Considering the steering (obviously bike fit is also an important factor) do I want the hands to be:

• ahead of the steerer,
  
• level with the steerer, or
  
• behind the steerer ?
  
  

I'm tempted to get a short stem with long rise, to place the hands high and ~50mm behind the steerer for ~Dutch bike fit. Perhaps nearer to a Raleigh three speed fit. Bad idea?

I'm hunting for the following parts:

• quill stem (not sure length yet) for 25.4 mm bars and 1" steerer - probably with a tall rise
  
• levers for flat bars and double pivot road calipers
  
• 8 speed indexed (Shimano) gear shifter
  
• compressionless brake housing
  
• Pelago rasket or similar front rack (with/without a basket)
  

Nice bike. Funnily enough I am currently servicing a Barron on behalf of my dad.

They are built in Lincolnshire as far as I know. Nice frames. This one seems to have been a time trial bike at one point, as it's got a short wheelbase and only a single brazeon for a shifter.

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Does your dad only use the drops? Makes sense for a TT setup, I suppose.

Either way that looks a nice frame with a very short wheelbase. And it has the same curl to the top of the seat stays. Nice when builders have their trademark touches.

It's not how I would set the bike up but it seems to work for him! It's also 120mm spaced at the back so would be a great fixed conversion, but he's into 1x6. 'one by' before it was cool.