Screens 1 - Engines 0.

After fitting the new double bubble screen I rode it in to work on Tuesday and the wind now pops either over my helmet when I'm tucked down, or onto the helmet if I'm not (which isn't as annoying as it sounds). Vast improvement on the stock screen so money well spent.. and it looks pretty sharp into the bargain :)

Leaving work in the evening however I got as far as the first right turn (stationary at lights) and noticed no indicators on the dashboard or the lights themselves. I cancelled them, reapplied, tried left and right but nothing. With a straight road all the way home I figured I could just ride it home not overtaking anything and fix it there. I made the turn, got on to the slip road to join the main road, got it up to about 70mph to join the traffic, and the engine cut out, all the lights on the dash went out, and I had engine braking to get me into traffic. Luckily my bowels held out and a hand signal got me into the margin of the slip road safely out of the traffic. After checking side stand (down-up-down-up... yes it's definitely up), engine cutoff (yep.. not that), I looked at the ignition key which was in the OFF position. All I can guess is that if you turn the key to ON (but it's not quite locked in place) it can move back to OFF, in this case at the worst place it could have.

Once I'd calmed down and managed to stop saying a word that rhymes with duck, I turned the key to the much better position of ON, fired up at the first attempt, and spanked the arse off the bike to get up to speed on the remaining 100 yards of the slip road before joining the main drag.

One to watch out for in future, but at least no harm came of it this time, other than to people with delicate sensibilities who may have been within earshot of me at the time.