On a nice, leisurely ride about 50 miles from home, I pull off the highway and start shifting down for the red light, but something isn't right. The normal satisfying 'clunk' that accompanies each gear change is conspicuously absent. I look down, and my shifter is flopping around. Oh crap. I think I'm in fifth, and as the light turns green, I gun the engine, make like the Moto GP guys, pushing off with my feet, and slowwwly let the clutch out. It's not pretty, but I manage to limp my bike to a parking lot to inspect the damage. I see... this.
I punch 'hardware store' into my phone and come up with a Lowe's less than a mile away. I limp my poor bike to Lowe's, and after a couple of trips to the metric bolts bin, I come up with this:
It was ugly, but after wrenching the shifter back and forth several times, I was (relatively) confident it would get me back home, which it did. Anyway, if this happens to you, you can use a 7x40mm bolt and a bunch of 7mm washers to hold that thing on while you get your butt home. Not sure if 7mm is really the "right" size, but it seemed to go in there without feeling like I was rethreading the hole. If I discover otherwise, I'll edit this thread.
Also, I really really wish I had read this before today!
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74042