Time to look for another bike...

Blast from the past:

As I was sorting some pics of bikes I no longer own, I came across this debacle from 9/1/2013. First, let me say that I really did enjoy owning this Ducati S2R1000. It was far from the most performance oriented bike I have had, but ticked the boxes for being exotic and sporty and was a blast to toss around. 

A few of us went south to Middleburgh on the weekly ride that Sunday. I had the trail postion in line on the way back. Somewhere below the escarpment, after putting on 110 miles, I'm watching the line ahead bend around a 100 degree right turn.

I downshift a gear to start setup for the approaching corner, let the clutch out and immediately hear a metallic clatter that sounds, well, pretty bad. I reflexively pull in the clutch lever and listen. I let it back out again (sort of like hitting the side of an old TV in the 70's) and same result. I pull the clutch, hard on the brakes, coast around the corner and come to a stop along the side of the road. I watch the riders ahead of me disappear around the next corner.

I look down expecting to see a blown out case where the transmission used to be, or something similar from all of the noises, and I catch a glimpse of my chain hanging low. Okay, not so bad, I'm thinking my chain snapped, but I can't really see well with the helmet on. I get off and look and this is what I notice after a full second:

Um, that can't be right...

Like you, I was thinking "Hey…." or something like that. I bet it took another 5 seconds before I fully realized what I was looking at. Is that the axle?... Then, where is the sprocket? And how did that get out from under the chain under tension? Next thought was holy crap, that could have been reeeeeealy bad if the chain wrapped as I was entering the corner.

Everything is gone. I walk back along the road a bit and never find anything. I have a mental image of the sprocket coming off while I was doing about 70mph, now sticking in a tree like a Chinese throwing star. And I'm thinking there are at least 3 other parts which are supposed to be what prevents that. The more I consider all of this the angrier I am getting. The other riders come back looking for me and we all stand there repeating "I have never seen anything like that happen before."

So we leave the bike in some guy's driveway (after asking…) (I personally wanted to push it back closer to the corner exit and leave the bike along the shoulder of the road at that point, hoping one of the occasionally passing dump trucks would paste it and I could just cash out) and Scott rides me back to his house, where another guy meets us after going home to get his truck. We drive 30 miles back to the bike, load it, and leave it at Scott's house. I get a ride to my house, then head to a family party, very late.

So, turns out that Sunday was a good day not to die. I'm quite thankful about that. Laying in bed that night I'm thinking that for lack of a $1.89 clip, the entire carrier/sprocket/cushbearings/cover/wheelnut assembly was allowed to fall off of a $10K bike, at speed. That my friends, is a design flaw. It's also a very sobering thought. I went further to think that the wheel was off a few hundred miles earlier to have new tires put on and what if <dealer long out of business due to massive mismanagement> rushed reassembly? Would not be the first thing they f'd up. Not pointing fingers, but either something wasn't tight, the clip wasn't there or had to break? It didn't just fall off.

So I ordered up $300 worth of parts, most of it used off eBay, which saved me about 200%. Took all of that, a bunch of beer and phone number for the local pizza place back to Scott's where a group of guys with experience assembling all of this, did so. I rode the bike down the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and into the back of my truck. When I got home I put about 10 miles on it and declared it repaired. Never rode that bike again. 

What it should look like. And yes, this is a totally different bike

My plan that summer had been to trade this one in the following year if possible and this event had done nothing to lessen that desire. Traded it in the next spring for a 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000. If I were you, and have the same swing arm setup, I'd go safety wire that clip...