My wife and I have done a lot of touring on 28 mm Continental Gatorskins, including riding across the U. S. on them. We might have used 32 mms, but they were not available in the U. S. at the time. We have used them on several other tours with no significant problems. We later changed to 32 mm Gatorskins when they became available. This is a good compromise between comfort, weight, rolling resistance, and durability. Your rim may take the larger tire sizes, but will they clear forks and chainstays?

If you are going Schwalbe, I'd recommend the plain jane Marathon. They are lighter than the Plus and are very durable. Here again a good compromise. We have used 32 mm Schwalbe Marathons on several trips. Including a 3-month tour through Europe, which included over 400 miles of dirt and gravel roads and paths, a lot of it in wet weather. We did not hit much gravel or dirt in Spain.




On the same ride we rode over 500 miles on cobbles, paver stones, and sett stone roads and trails, our first European trip, and close to that on our second one. The 32 mm Marathons did fine.


We rode on gravel quite a bit, including this 5 mile stretch just outside Yellowstone on 28 mm Gatorskins without any issues. However, they do not do well in goat head country.