Well, I gave my bike the commute test today.... I pedaled it to church and back this morning (~2 mi each way) and I discovered that the gearing is okay for climbing hills, not bad on long grades or steep short ones either, though I'm certainly not spinning a whole lot, but I am also finding that I am spinning pretty damn fast to keep from coasting in traffic on flats/downhill sections. Overall, I guess it's not bad since I AM riding a SS after all. I think that this will work fine for around town stuff, it cruises fine probably around medium speeds on flat ground, so I'm not too worried.