So I have a Soma Smoothie with carbon fork, 11 speed Compact Campagnolo group as my "go fast" bike. I've put thousands of miles on it and set many personal records (speed, length of ride, elevation, etc). A few years ago, one of my riding buddies bought a All City Space Horse and wanted to start focusing on gravel rides. The Soma with 28c max tire clearance was just not cutting it. I had a 9 speed Compact Campagnolo group in the parts bin so I bought a Surly Cross Check and built it up with 43c GravelKings. I had read about Surly frames being "beasts", but wasn't too worried about it as I'm a bigger guy anyway. Anyhow, the Cross Check absolutely slays and I've since matched or broken many of my efforts made on the Smoothie. Both bikes are great and serve their proposes, but if I had a time machine, I would have skipped the Smoothie altogether and just went with the Cross Check. It truly is a great "do it all" bike.