...after hearing stories of other having the same problem at one time or another over the years...it finally happened to me...the chain let go!!!
Luckly I was only doing about 40-50 on a local road, but was only in my armoured paddock jacket having just been to the gym and on my way to the Foxes Diner meet.
Fortunately, the chain just ejected itself clean out the back of the bike. Initially I thought the bike had jumped out of gear, as the engine revs suddenly jumped up and the bike lost drive. Carefully I tried to knick it up back into gear...but nothing...now I start getting images of the gearbox slowly eating itself from the inside, so I keep the clutch pulled in a coast to a stop. I try to bang the gear lever back through to 1st...and no problem, try to pull away...and still no drive!!!
Quick glance down to the left rear of the bike...that don't look right
Look back up the road and see my chain lying in the middle of the road!
Very very lucky I guess having seen many reports of serious damage to the crackcases, swingarms etc due to a flayling chain. As for why it failed? I'm going to go back tomorrow to try and find it and look for answers! It was tensioned correctly, is regularly cleaned (WD40 + light oil on the o'rings) and inspected for any obvious signs of damage??? It was looking a little on the tired side, with some surface discolouration, but was by no means in need of replacement as far as I could tell.
One nice thing, was during the first 10 mnutes of me pushing my bike to the nearest phone box, 6 (six) people stopped and asked if I needed help. Ahhhhh, the draw of a nice shiney Ducati!!
The last guy actually lived backing onto the road, and he was out cleaning one of his many bikes when he heard me coming by and said that he was enjoying the sound of the termis approaching from afar when it sounded like either my chain had come off or I had! He decided to jump in his car and drive around to make sure all was OK. I pushed the bike to his house, he gave me a lift home (about 10 miles away), and I returned with my trailer to collect the stranded beast.
I guess its an excuse to fit a nice new bling bling chain...now where's that credit card!