bit annoyed / very lucky

Well it all started wednesday, loomies bike night , due to work this was the first Wednesday I've had off in a long time, so decided to meet up with a few mates up portsdown hill,stood there chatting and both said there not sure if they'll make it all the way. we then preceded towards wickham, riding like a knob we made a good pace down the round about 5 miles along my mate dean slows down and waves me past so he can chase me , all is going well until 1.5 miles later I hear beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeppppppp , I look in the mirror and dean is waving and motioning for us to pull over , I stopped in the layby and he pulled up beside me, and there's a really horrid burning smell ,dean what's up with your bike ??? Ain't mine bud it's yours !!!! Turns out my oil filter had split , so called the AA , told them iI need recovery so send a lorry , the reply sorry we will have to send a patrol, 30 mins later they turn up , he had a look and said "sorry mate can't fix it as we don't carry motorcycle spares I'll get a lorry out to recover you it'll be here within two hours" took an hour to show up , the lucky part came when I looked and my rear tyre and the large splashes of oil around the edges, if I had tried to corner I would have been in a lot of trouble . So oil and filter change , step one remove left fairing , sounds easy apart from the bottom 3 screws in the v sized , had to undo whole lot have a jiggle and slide it out as one piece , took an hour, ended up scratching the left panel a bit so not happy , then me filter removal socket just stripped the rusty edges and got nowhere, finally got the tools required today and undid thefilter so first thing tomorrow iI will change it and attempt to put the fairings back on.

Damned AA - they won't take your word for it that it can't be fixed at the roadside. Yes, they get to you in half-an-hour, but that's just the van that can't do anything for you. He then summons the truck and that can take several hours, particularly on a busy day (I imagine if it was today you might still be waiting).

Anyway, glad you caught it in time before it did any damage to you or the bike.

Btw, what make was the filter? And how long had it been on?

Hiflo and less than 12 months , but was used all winter and not cleaned very offer

That's useful information.

There's a lesson there for anyone else - maybe a quick rinse and a squirt of Scottoil 365 (which you put on while the bike's still wet) every now and again is a good idea.