I am building my first SS commuter, and ended up with a Jamis Aurora. I have a Surly rear hub for it, but am a bit lost as to what crank/BB I should go with for proper chain allignment. Anyone have any recommendations? I was looking at 165 Sugino RD's, but am open to other things in that price range...

Doesn't the Jamis have vertical dropouts?

Yup, but it was cheap and can be done (the joy of half-links should get me to the proper chain tension)

I also thought about getting an eccentric hub if the Surly doesn't work, but it was only $20...

For, SS just get a chain tensioner. You probably won't even need a new crank given that the SS conversion kits give you enough spacers and you have nearly the width of the cassette hub to play around with the chainline.

I would like the ability to ride fixed from time to time, so I am pretty set on not going the tensioner route. As well it has a crap ass Tiagra triple front, and that is def going to go. So, we are back to square one. What BB length do I need to have the correct chain line with a Surly rear hub?

Oh I see. You're going to run flip flop. Comment over.

Buy a crankset, install it on the old BB, check how much the chainline is off and get a new BB based on that. (Assuming of course your new crankset has the same taper as the old one)

Thanks.