Went round to a friends place for lunch today on the bike, as I pulled into his driveway I parked infront on his Blackbird. He had a paved driveway but I did not notice all the ultra fine sand that had accumulated from his backyard redevelopment. As I stopped my left foot went down and slipped, bike was loaded with fuel and it past the point of no return rather quickly, 'FARK' I thought outloud, 'crunch' as my baby goes over. I get up and curse, then notice I almost took his bike with me, just by fluke my rear bag on the rack had caught his front wheel, but instead of knocking his bike over it cushioned the whack. Now he comes running out and helps me lift it up, fearing the worst I inspect the side fairing, not a single mark, I'm like 'wtf', exhausts are scratch free, even the mirrors are fine, no ajustment needed as well, the only slight mark is on the black plastic engine cover cap but other than that there is not a single mark on the bike... Not sure what happened, it landed on a rock hard surface but there is no marks to show... Either I just had the luckiest escape ever or Honda have designed something rather special

 

Man, that is so lucky..., I think I'd go play the Lotto or something..

 

Extremely lucky, take a lotto ticket or play at thecasino your in luck right now...

 

Phew!!! These plain red ones are rare enough without designing your own paint scheme!

Well saved old boy!

 

Well, two things: first, you WERE LUCKY [8D], and second, Honda did design the fairings to have a good protection against these kind of incidents. Notice the removable "bumper" on the middle of the side intake, and the engine plastic cover... they put them there for a reason
Something like what the frame sliders does on modern bikes.

 

How right you are! I dropped mine due to mud and linked breaks without harm except the $54US cover over the "bumper". My friend dropped his ST1100 twice with no damage due to the lower gray guards it has. Honda is the best product.

 

Well, you're right as well!

 

G'Day Mate ! Check the crankcase cover under the plastic, Coopz, you may have cracked the metal cover, and it'll spray oil - see other posts current from Gill on this. Worth a look, Mate....