It was fine. Bit heavy, but no worse than having a pillion. I did 2,500 miles of reasonably fast UK/French/Spanish roads like that.
That's carrying one and a half people's worth of stuff, and going for a holiday rather than an overland expedition, so as I said, there's a fair bit more than just the 'essentials' in there.
My point was just that I don't think you need to worry about the "is it man enough" question.
