I had a KZ1000 split circumferentially the output shaft bearing, many years ago (30+). I was about to hop onto I-95 in south FL and was about 1/4 mile from the intersection. I hadn't been racing, I hadn't been running it to redline. It was in an early morning fog. The rear end locked-up, and I'm lucky I didn't get rear-ended, or dump the bike.
After I tore the bike down, I saved the bearing for many years, and finally pitched it. I rebuilt it, a friend who had more-experience with them did the assembly, mostly, I did the disassembly and re-mounting the engine. No further issues, until I sold it to buy a KZ1000J which was no nose fairing, but otherwise, looked like an ELR. Man, I loved the sound of the Kerker 4/1 on that, just beautiful.
Yes, I would say this guy was lucky not to have it end worse for him.
