That is interesting. My wife has an old REI Novara Randonee that's exactly like this thing. Works fine, especially for short legs. Very versatile. MTB tires for off road, HP road tires for pavement. The heel strike issue is solved by going light, using either small panniers or none. Chainrings on the Surly look under geared to me. Rings on my wife's bike are larger, though smaller than standard road rings. Probably fine for touring singletrack, though.