I've been riding a Trek CrossRip for my commuter for the last 7 months. It's a great bike, but I did make a few upgrades. It's an aluminum frame, but I put a carbon seat post on it and really makes for a very nice comfortable ride now. In fact, I took it on a 75 mile charity ride due to bad weather and never felt the normal jarring of the aluminum like I was expecting. The carbon post made all the difference.
I had some parts from another bike so I opted to buy the lowest end bike with Disc brakes and swap out parts. If you go this route and have the budget, upgrade the wheels, the stock wheels are very flexy and the brakes rubbed a lot, drove me nuts. I got a set of Boyd Altamont's for disc brakes and no longer have the disc rub. I also would upgrading brakes if the model you pick is running the BB5's. I changed out the BB5's to the TRP Spyres, but I understand the new version of the HY\RD are suppose to be really sweet, I almost wished I had waited for those to come out.
I really love the ride and feel and at this point in time, it may be my favorite bike.
Here is my bike.