Not a long term TI owner, but I did choose between TI and steel about 9 months ago. My theory was that riding on rough, chip sealed roads, that are heavily salted in winter, TI's lack of paint and TI's rust proofness sorta justified the few hundred bucks difference in cost. So far it has been great. The ride is a vast improvement over my previous Aluminum ride. Plus it is easy to clean, and my back has been thanking me with the loss of a considerable amount of road buzz.