One good thing about this site is the sharing of experiences, both good and bad. Here's a bad one you can learn from:  Keep a length of mechanics wire somewhere on your bike in case of emergency. I was riding home from work on the highway when I heard a loud scraping noise. My first thought was "man, that car next to me has a bad exhaust rattle."  As I passed the car and the noise kept up I realized the noise was coming from my bike. I made a B-line for the nearest exit and pulled off.  Turns out the center stand spring on my old CB250 had snapped and the stand was just dragging down the highway.  Unfortunately I didn't have any safety wire on me so I improvised with the lace from my boot to get home. I will have some mechanics wire with me in the future     Later

-Jessie

A couple zipties don't hurt either

Center stand...we don't need no stinking center stand.

Actually good advice.  Thanks.

I guess if anyone asks you how it happenned, you could tell them that it must have broke when you scraped it on a turn.

-Porkchop

Kay told me this story yesterday at the gym. That must have been embarassing. 

More scary than embarrassing.  I'm just lucky it didn't catch on anything, I was on 83 South coming through that bridge construction onto 695 East.  And as has been my past experience, nobody stops to see if you are ok...

-Jessie

Good quick thinking!!!

I read this article and thought about this thread.

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=1093084&topart=passenger

-Porkchop