Vintage road/mtb frames with modern components – do-able?

Not exactly vintage, but took my 98 Kapu up to SRAM Red 11sp a while back. Took a bit of chasing to get the King baseplate to fit the old school 1″ fork, other than that, absolutely love how it goes.

I’ve a British Eagle tourer from the 80’s/90s (not been able to date it properly yet) – and much like the Dawes Galaxy they eventually began speccing 3×7 and MTB style cantilever brakes

I was going to keep the 2×7 Suntour w/Simplex downtube shifters, I actually like the feel of friction shifting – it’s not noodly even when loaded, prob on account of being a super-tourist tubeset. Don’t be too hasty to write off older road bikes, especially tourers/audax – these things got/get people around the world in far-flung places off beaten tracks. As for this Touristique – seems to be plenty of space for a range of tyres on the 700c rims (more recent upgrades, with RX100 hubs – fit fine)

Would I change it for an AWOL? Or a Vaya? Would have to try them first, but would prob want one of each 8) AND to keep this as is super comfortable, feels slick and quiet in use, and is lighter than a lot of modern tourers. Just need to get the brakes and tyres how I want them and not worry about indexing or stuff.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/classic-british-tourers-anyone-here%5B