I haven't done any touring on mine, but I have ridden my Xootr Swift up a 16% grade hill (Taylor Street in San Francisco). The stock 36 gear inches in 52x28 forces you to stand and mash like a madman...there's no other way about it. Obviously not ideal for in-the-saddle-granny-gear-spinning as what you may need for touring.

Gearing aside, the Xootr Swift frame easily handled the hill...good and solid with no flexing, creaking, or ticking, in spite of my yanking on the bars like a gorilla to counter-act the tremendous amount of force being fed into the pedals to crank up that killer hill in a crazy 36 gear inches.

You might want to get in touch with Xootr service and see what they can do for you in terms of gearing options. Most likely they will re-direct your request to Peter.