Motor on a road bike

Are you in the UK, if so, a place to start might be to ask what are the laws for motorized bikes and how would that affect you? Then, what's your budget. That's a nice old bike, if I were to motorize it I wouldn't use any made in china on it, I'd think lightweight belt drive.

If you like the drop bars they are fine. If people recommend swapping them out it's probably because they don't want a road bicycle.