He said he wants to go to East-Europe, I reckon he'll turn off the main road to see at least the real face of that part of the world.

Go try to ride with a fully stock 2-up loaded sports-tourer some small trails in East-Europe, endless gravel in the Baltics, dirt in Romania and Bulgaria, everything combined in the Balkans, then come and tell me about not needing any modifications for a fully loaded bike

The bike will be riding like a weak-legged cow (especially the conventional forked front with soft stock springs) that bottoms out all the time and that simply explodes its plastic and radiators into 1000 bits once you go off into the rocks wanting to chase that nice remote area with nice scenery to camp with your wife or g/f.

But I guess it's pretty normal for West-Europeans to consider the word "Europe" a nice-smooth-road place where you only need a stocky (sport-) touring bike for the best ride, since less developed far East-Europe is already considered Asia for them

At least for me, that's the definition of East-Europe:

And we ride 2-up in the same mood, my wife was taking pic.

True, you CAN make East-Europe on more-or-less smooth tar as well, but you don't get even a glimpse of the real experience if you don't take the small secondary roads through the atmospheric countryside.

Margus