As a seller I would ignore a lot of questions. I take many pics and know exactly where the bikes I have for sale came from. I think only two people ever left without buying one a being thumb sucker, and the other paying $75 for a perfect mountain bike thought it was cheap. It sold for $75 in a week, and needed nothing but a rider. (Boy I dealt with a couple goofballs on that bike) can't remember the brand/model.

Fair point, and I certainly did not mean to impugn all unhelpful and uninformative sellers as being bike thieves. Rather I was simply agreeing with the OP that the fact that this seller was helpful and informative makes it far less likely that the seller was also a bike thief.

Good move!

I was out riding a different (from my touring bike) bike (Bianchi Grizzly mtn bike) yesterday that also has a set of Big Ben's on it and again was taken with how easy and fast the tires were. They fly.

Riding your current setup some more and then mount the Big Bens..I'd be curious to know what you think about the difference in ride.

and of course there are all kinds of great tires suited for touring in much narrower widths, lighter etc that will make the bike faster and feel more nimble.

If you'll all forgive a contrary question:

My perception of "long rail trails" is that they're rather limited. The Katy Trail and the Mickelson Trail, along with the GAP (plus C&O, but that's not really a Rail trail) are trips of about a week of riding. Ditto the Erie Canal Trail. So a longer tour, say 2-4 weeks, is going to have to include quite a bit of road riding. Similarly, the route across Washington state, though mapped, is still 25% roads.

Now I'd expect the Ogre would be a perfectly fine MTB for touring, perhaps better than some MTBs because of the tire width. Forest Service roads should be easily accessible, for instance. I wouldn't mind trying the Great Divide route on an Ogre, except perhaps for the weight, but it'd be a different kind of riding than rail trails.

Am I totally off base?

I can't answer as I don't know, but I see several world tourers using a Surly Ogre for everything. If I know I'm going to be on a lot of roads for a trip, I can change tires, right? Will the ride be different otherwise?

Congrats! I assume you have a good floor pump and are familiar with changing tires. Have fun. Don’t worry about through axles. For kicks and giggles take the fenders and racks off. Fiddle around with seat and bar position. Have a shop check the wheels and spoke tension. Ride, ride, ride. Play w different tires. And then add tourimg stuff little by little.

I do have a good floor pump and I do know how to change tires. But you all who take things on and off bikes are way more energetic than I am. I DETEST taking things on and off the bike - like racks and such. I now have a nice selection of bikes - one for grocery shopping and tooling about town, one to throw in the trunk of the car or on a train, one for the trainer, and one for doing rail trail and eventually touring for trips (3-10 days).

Thank goodness my partner who barely rides (and didn't learn to ride a bike until he was 18) understands that not one bike can do it all very well!

ETA - but I did just realize it will be the first time I will ever use a Presta valve tire!

Presta valves are very simple. I think Park makes the best you tube videos on bike maintenance stuff.

But some pumps do not use a lever like the Park pump, just press on and pull off. And some pumps like the Lezyne Micro Floor Drive thread onto the valve.

I’m 20 yrs behind the times even though I toured, raced and owned a bike shop 40 yrs ago. Re. prestas, make sure the little valve tip is screwed down after inflating and if you use the knurled nut on the valve stem check that its snug after inflating the tire.

The reason for removing the racks/fenders is that it’s not uncommon for those bolts to loosen if you’ve never installed and snugged them down to begin with. When I had my shop a lot of the repairs I did was from bolts and spokes never being torqued correctly from day one or checked over time so the person got accustomed to rattles and squeaks as being normal and then when something failed they were surprised. “it’s never done that before!” and I’m thinking “it’s been doing it all along and you ignored it until it broke”.
Anyway your front rack is wonderfully heavy and appropriate for heavy loads at 3 lbs. If you aren’t regularly loading up the front with big loads you coukd experiment with other combos. I’m envious.

The Schwalbe tires you just bought are fine road tires and will also work just as well on rail trails or forest roads.

Completely true.

There's a lot of good tires out there. The problem that presents itself to those that haven't researched tires extensively (or spent hundreds of dollars trying different tires, or toured for decades which offers time to try different tires or learned which tires to purchase directly from other touring people)...is there are A LOT of tires available. Which ones to choose from a sea of potential tires? Add in the additional variables within a tire model of extra flat resistance(the "plus" versions adding tons of weight and significantly degrading performance) or widths and a person could easily buy the wrong tire.

Reminds me of the adage, "Many people know what needs to be done, significantly fewer know what needs to be done....next."

I know you're well versed on good tires to use in various applications. I'm guessing the OP is not so well versed. Few people are interested in spending hundreds of dollars on multiple sets of tires to find out what will work well in their use. Surprisingly few cyclists I run into realize the difference tires make(hard-core roadies aside). So people replying "..there's lots of good tires out there.." is useful, but offers no help in "..what to do next". Knowing there's good tires to be had can't get you to buying one set of the right tires the first time and moving on to other things.

It would be helpful if folks suggested a specific tire(make, model and size/width) and why they think the tires would be good in the application. That's something a person can consider and act on.