3 or 4 years back I was riding a 6 month old Ducati home from my parents early on a damp Sunday morning.
Slowing on a dual-carriageway approach to a roundabout I downshifted and the gearbox seized - er, completely. It locked the backwheel leaving me to slide to a nerve-racking but upright halt over 60 meters ending up 50 cms ft from the central reservation barrier and 5 meters from the roundabout.
The 'luck' part was it could have happened 5 seconds later, considerably closer to the traffic in the roundabout, it could have happened with more traffic behind me (wallop!) or it could have happened 20 minutes later where I would have been on the smooth, twisty and invitingly fast A272....in which case I wouldn't be here.
The upside is that Ducati UK didn't seem too concerned about it other than replacing the gearbox under warrenty and saying "ooh, never seen THAT before." I even had to argue with them that the tyre would be flat-spotted and they should spring for that too.
Safe travels!
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