For what it is worth, I used go to the Rivendell shop pretty regularly, they are on my biking route home from work, and the folks there LOVE Surlys. Their opinion seems to be a lot on the lines of that they realize they are expensive, sort of a boutique bike, and Surly is the next best thing. They are very convinced Rivendell is the absolute best thing. Last time I was there they had a Surly Big Dummy they were playing with and were totally excited about.