If buying steel, go w/ the Niner Sir 9. So legit.

Of the two...I would get the Felt.

I do like the quicker geometry of the Felt for racing and riding around. Someone who has not raced on one might not be able to tell but it does handle differently when talking about head tube angle, wheelbase, etc.

I also like the design of the frame itself. I don't like the look of the forks or the rear dropouts of the Surly. If you bend the hanger on the Surly, is it replaceable? It is on the Felt.

Color wise, I do like purple to begin with but the Snozberry looks cooler than the Glitter Dreams. To me anyways...

The other issue is $500...I can get a few spare parts or a extra wheel set for that.

You CAN race a gravel bike in a CX race. I've seen mountain bikes, tandems, BMX and even unicycles. Rung what ya' brung!

I'm taking the Felt. That's just me though.

If it was just a choice of materials I would go with the CroMoly, I like the feel better than Aluminum.

But looking at the over all bike I would go with the Felt.

And the rear dropout being built into the Surly frame would worry me. I have bent quite a few hangers on my mountain bikes so I assume this would be an issue for a cross bike too.

If I was to buy a gravel or cross bike I would buy one for that purpose. The Straggler sounds more like an all around not quite cx and not quite gravel bike.

It’s a ‘rough road’ road bike. It’s a cyclocross bike with no pretense about racing. It’s a utilitarian townie. It’s a light-duty touring bike. It’s an all-weather commuter.

Steel is real!

Only kidding. Your husband is right, the Straggler is $500 more due to the "hipster" factor of it being a Surly. There's a bit of a cachet to having a Surly in some circles. That said, they're well made durable bikes that are meant to go and be ridden into the ground as evidenced by a great number of bike packers and off-road tourers that use their products.

Steel feels better (there are terabytes of online debate on steel vs aluminium out there is you want to go down that rabbit hole) to me. It's a preference. Ride 'em all, pick the one that you like the best and ride it like you stole it.

tl:dr: Ride them and see which one feels better.

Steel comes in several grades, which come down to making the tubing stronger so that it can be thinner, although older high end tubing was usually so thin that it would have low weight limits, sometimes as little as 150 lbs. for the rider. Now that aluminum and carbon fiber are the go-to for racing,

Aluminum tubing is basically all the same; the difference comes down to how the frame is put together. The better the bends and welding techniques, the better it will ride. If you're looking at steel and aluminum frames at close to the same price, the steel be more comfortable at the cost of some weight. Spend a little extra on an aluminum bike, and the comfort gap closes while still remaining lighter than steel.