I would also suggest a Conti GP 4 Season. They are in between 4000 and Gatorskin for durability and rolling resistance, but I would trust them more in the rain which is likely touring.

I like the idea of carrying a separate set of off folding tires for off road. They could be good as a spare too if you ruin one of the road tires beyond repair.

I'd suggest getting your spare tires on the internet and taking them with you unless you want to pay twice as much when you need one and have to get it from a bike shop.

Maybe.

The guy certainly has thumbs of steel anyway.

it does look that way, but as someone who doesn't cuz I'm a slight guy, the general technique of squishing the tire into the rim as much as you can all around, to gain a few mm's of extra play for the final push, certainly helps me and my slight hands.

that said, some tire/rims combos are a bear. On the bike of a friend of mine that I tried taking off and putting on a conti touring whatever, it was just bonkers how hard it was, and was only doable by her husband with strong hands and his super strong and thick tire levers (twice as wide and strong as my old regular ones that have always worked fine)

I know you don't want to, but do try it again with some old straps, two works really well and allows the extra play to get transfered up to the end bit to get over the rim.
I would hate to have a tire rim combo from hell in the rain, in the dark, would be frustrating as heck.

My own experience with Gatorskins has been they are not nearly a good in wet condition compared to 4-Seasons. However I have to take exception that Duranos have superior wet weather handling. A few months ago I reviewed 28-406 Duranos on another website.

“I’ve been living for the last few months in a rainy area on the rainy side of the Island of Hawai’i, my Duranos are not all that great on slick roads. When riding over mud or moss they are skating on ice. Pretty much the same on sand and fine gravel. On dry roads they are great at all speeds . . .”

I should note since I got the Duranos, Schwalbe has redesign them with the DD model seemingly incorporating many of the design characteristics of the Gatorskin. If anyone is using them please chime in.

I'm a fan of many Vittoria tires and the Rubino Pro is a very popular training tire for many of the roadies but I would say that there are more flat resistant tires out there and even within the Vittoria line up. The Vittoria line up changes needlessly each year and often leaves behind some very nice tires which you can then pick up as bargains.

The gatorskin haters usually point out how hard the casing on these things are, and how they do poorly in the rain and roll slowly.

I've only touched gatorskins, never used them, but they were the least supple tires I'd ever seen

For the same price Schwalbe Marathons are better for touring. Marathon Supremes are possibly the best tire on earth if you need semi-slick, fast, almost never-flat touring tires. But they'll cost you.

and anyway, all this talk about how a tire handles brings into the mix various different riders varying bike control and riding levels.
Going around corners in real life is not like a computer game, and one person may find a given corner on a given tire at a given speed terrifying, and another rider total non plussed.
Too many variables in my opinion.

I run 32mm Gatorskins on 2 of my bikes and live in Vancouver Washington, if the tires had issues with wet roads I'd know it and they wouldn't be as popular as they are here and in Portland. I've had zero problems with them and I see them on bikes everywhere here. Haven't toured on them, but did do roughly 800 miles loaded training on a pair last spring and didn't flat.

??

I've put in ~5,000 miles on 700x32 Gatorskins, have just switched over to Marathon Pluses. Also I have maybe 1,000 miles on 26"x 2.0 Marathon Plus Tours. I cannot imagine in what universe Gatorskins are less supple in relation to these two Schwalbes.

I'm just going by hand-feel on the Gatorskins. On the other hand I've never ridden the heavy Marathon tires either.

My favorite road tires have been Rubino pros, touring Marathon Supremes

some observations-yes, the gatorskin sidewall is stiffer than super supple road tires, but at a good pressure, ie lower , they still do a good job of handling rough pavement. This summer on a supported trip with lots of rough sections and also gravel sections, running my 28s at around 80 rear/75front worked really really well taking the edge off all the rough stuff and added a lot of traction on the dirt.
I have some folding 2in supremes on 26in wheels, and boy the sidewall is super thin. You would really want to think of where you ride those, on pavement its ok, but on big chunky gravelly roads loaded, I figure the risk of sidewall damage is getting up there.

which brings us to this story about gatorskins--even with a stiffer sidewall, they can be damaged. I put a new pair of 25s on my wifes road bike, and within a short time she had (I assume) ridden off teh edge of a driveway entrance or something very parallel to the dropoff and scraped a bit of the sidewall loose. I glued it down again, but what Im getting at is that HOW you ride can make a big difference to how a tire lasts. Being spatially unaware of how your (usually) rear tire is tracking up against sharp edges or large stones or whatever is always going to be hard on a sidewall.

Using super tough tires like Marathon Pluses or Armadillos will always be a plus if you end up riding loaded down all kinds of terrain, where the chances of swiping the sidewalls against sharp stuff is a lot higher.
And or if in desert terrain where those super spikey thorns are around.

horses for courses, for my predominantly pavement touring, Gatorskins have worked really well. I am keen to try a set of 32's though when these 28s wear out.