Hm, don't know if it's overprized or not, it's hard to say.
Looking at
http://www.roadbikereview.com, the Boardwalk seems to have been around for a while, and people seems to be pleased with previous models. It's usually a good sign if a specific model has been around for a couple of year.
The basic services that you would require includes adjustments of breaks and derailleurs, hub overhauls, wheel truing and similar things that are common to all bikes, so I wouldn't worry so much about this. But still, water is your worst enemy when we're talking about hubs... And if your derailleur breaks down for some odd reason you can always replace it with another one, changing hub or gearing mechanism on anm internal gear is not that easy. But still, most internal gears just keeps on working for years without any problems. But I would prefer six gears instead of three.
Tires and rain is always hard, really good tires for wet conditions wears very quickly. Generally, the less deep tread pattern you have the better, since the tread pattern often shovels water upwards. On the other hand, you loose traction if it's slippery... again, no simple answer I'm afraid. I'd choose a slick or a semi-slick tire, and be careful in the rain until I'm familiar with the tires performance when wet.
Finally, kevlar is a good thing for two reasons, they generally weigh less which is a very good thing, and they often have more resistance to flats. There is nothing worse than having to fix a flat when commuting to work.
Hope this helps...
I wasn't fast enough!
