My wife got me this Surly Crosscheck for my 40th birthday-- I love it! I go back and forth on how much I plan to ride it in the winters. This week the weather has been good though, so the decision is easy. I changed my other commuter to a 1x8, which seems to be plenty of gears in the Twin Cities (there aren't many hills to deal with). It makes it so much easier to clean around the bottom bracket, I think I may do that to this bike too.