Unbelievable!!!!!!!
 

Friday 9th April.....

Had a bit of business to do other side of town mid afternoon. Knowing what Good Friday traffic might be like on by-pass decided to take bike.

Disconnected trickle charger, got her out of garage, started her up, in process of fitting battery side panel when I get sidetracked by admiring comments from Contractors we've got working in garden at moment. Anyway get kitted up and off I go on my merry way marvelling at the great sound of the Termis.

10mins later there I am doing 75+ on outside lane of dual-carriageway nose-to tail when something catches my eye at low level on the nearside. The almost sickening realisation is immediate. Battery panel has flown off!
:(

In two minds: do I stop and look to retrieve it and risk the wrath of the car/lorry drivers which surely have been thrown into complete mayhem behind me trying to dodge the red frisbee-like missile or do I keep going in the certain knowledge that on impact, whether that be with another vehicle or the road surface, the panel will have shattered into a thousand pieces or even if it didn't hit something mid-flight it surely will have been flattened under the wheels of an 18 wheeler!:o

Well, in the absence of any screeching brakes, parping horns, crunching metal and explosions curiosity gets the better of me. I stop about quarter of a mile or so up the road and park up on the grass verge. The long walk back towards where I recall last seeing panel as it flashed past my left knee is frought with danger. Only 18inches or so between me, the Armco on one side and the wheels of the murderous traffic on the other, fruitlessly scanning the road surface for those tell-tale shards of red plastic. No sign of it on the road nor even on the central reservation. I'm well beyond where I thought it had come off with thougts of how much and more particularly how long it would take to get a replacement part when lo and behold what's that nestling on the grass verge under the Armco?

I can't believe my eyes! I'm certain that when I get to it and pick it up it'll have a big crack in it or be hideously deformed!

Not so! Apart from a few minor hairline scratches on the leading edge and a small chip on top side the panel is intact. RESULT!

Get back to bike, refit panel and without the previous distracting admiring onlookers I remember to secure the 'D' fastener at front of panel!

How lucky was I? Obviously living up to my name!

:lol:

Well thats certainly living up to your board name.

Some years ago I was riding my BMW R90/S from the dealers in Sandwich to my (then) girlfriends home in Canterbury having just had it custom painted Green/Silver Smoke by BMW GB when unbeknown to me one of the side pannels came off. I retraced my journey but found nothing. About 2 weeks later I was talking to my next door neighbour in Ashford when his son-in-law who was visiting him from Deal said "You ride a BMW do you know anyone that this would be of any use to?" Yes lo and behold there was my side pannel which he had seen laying in the road whilst on patrol in his police car. A few days back at BMW GB (Then in Dover) and it was like new.
I'm glad you had the same luck as me

Hee,hee!
I have a similar story when I owned a Yamaha RD400.(White with red "speed" blocks)
I had to retrieve a side panel from the hedge bottom after it flew off on the way to the pub.I waited for the return journey to pick it up.Folks must have wondered what this half cut,giggling motorcyclist was doing grovelling around on all fours under a hedge.:roll:
Well it was funny at the time.

No, can't quite see the "living up to my name" thing. Unless you change your name to 'Luckyredpanel'

I can't really see the local travellers sending out their woman with baskets of ducati spares to approah people in the street with cries of "Lucky Red Pannel Mister?":lol:

Ooooh! You lucky chuffer!!!!!:D

OK Jools, let it be known that henceforth I wish to be addressed as 'Luckyredpanel'.

Nahhh, perhaps not, as Rocker rightly points out it doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

Hey, Kwikbitch, in my neck of the woods
'chuffer' has I hope what will be a different
meaning to yours!

PS. What are you doing straying onto the MS section anyway? Perhaps like me you'll do the 750ss-996 route to motorcycling heaven, that is THE Multistrada!

PPS. note that you cleverly drafted your post so as to avoid having to use the dreaded 'apostrophe'!:lol: