The "French guy's" name came to me this morning: Hubert (Sorry Hubert, no disrespect intended) . Anyway, my main intention in starting this thread was to point out that 4 guys travelled 2 up with gear on two stock 350 cc Iron Barrel Bullets (175 cc each) travelled around the world (ie far away from any local network of support in India for repairs etc) in extremes of climate over undoubtedly bad to non existent roads over 100,000 kms. in one year . That's a feat . That's the kind of endurance other brands dream of advertising. And this happened in the early 1970s well before "Adventure Touring" had become the "thing to do" These four guys just hopped on their bikes and went. They trusted their machines that much.
Now, modern manufacturer's seem to want to tell us that we need ABS, global positioning, water cooling, high tech multivalued overhead cam engines with special high tech telelever forks , self checking tire inflation and 1200 cc of displacement to do what these 4 intrepid characters did on the humble Bullet 350.
The mere fact that this happened and is not part of the advertising for RE (so far as I know) is a testament in itself to the brand. And if they did it on less sophisticated higher maintenance Iron Barrels with only 350 cc two up , what could a solo rider on 500 cc UCE accomplish. Again, I come back to saying that to me , the unsung strength of the reincarnated Bullet is none other than its role as a rugged reliable long distance hauler. It is absolutely perfect for this. (Doesn't mean you can't monkey around with it to get a little more performance mind you, though you absolutely don't need to to do this job. ) and if it can do that, I think it will fill most of our ordinary commuting needs.