OP, I was gonna say to pick one gear combo on your Surly and ride that for a week, resisting the temptation to ever shift.

I went ahead and picked up a SS only after doing several of my usual routes with the same gear ratio as the SS bike comes with. I found that although the ratio wasn't ideal, it was good enough, and the SS bike would serve its purpose of being a low-maintenance bike for any weather.

I don't ride it all the time, though.