Part of the reason I bought my Steamroller because I'm originally from Minneapolis, where Surly is located. I'd only heard good things from my friends there who ride all of the Surly bikes in ALL weather. I figured if it can hold up there, it can hold it's own in LA.
The only reason I say that is because from people I've talked to out here, Wabi is much like that- except a much smaller company than the corporation that owns Surly. From my understanding they hand build all of their bikes and Richard is a super cool dude who cares about his product. So, like I said in my previous post, though I've never ridden one, from what I've read I think their probably good bikes.