I was pulling on to one of the major interstates here in Tennessee for a quick 30 mile run in to town.Going down the on ramp hit 1st gear then to 2nd and pulled into the traffic and went for third and to my surprise no shifter..Man what a weird feeling and of course it could not have happened at a worse time,so I coasted to the shoulder and shut her down..Dame the shift linkage broke up on the front.
Sure enough while getting ready for Daytona I decided to clean, well empty the saddlebags of all the junk.So in other words nothing in the bags to do a quick fix..
Looked around on the ground for some wire or some type of trash to stick this thing back together. Cold not find a thing and then remembered my pony tail ring (as I have long hair).So I wrapped the band around the linkage so it would not slip off and it did get me down the road to town where I stopped at the shop and was able to get the correct part..Lucky Me

 

Hey Cap'n, had a similar problem to you with the "uh-oh, where the heck did my shifter go" dilemma. In my case, the rear linkage had come unscrewed while going 65 on the interstate. Now it's one more of those bolts that I check once in a while, especially since this one has no "keeper" nut on the end.
Lots of guys on here are making the case for heim joint type connectors with nuts. I may end up going that direction also.
Thank goodness for long hair, huh?

 

Been there, done that. Oh what a wonderful feeling!!!------ NOT!!