So. While I was doing my oil change today, I took the skidplate off and while doing so, the front mounting bracket also came off
here you can see where it was mounted to the bike:
I'm thinking my options are:
1) Leave the skidplate off
2) Find someone to weld the bracket back on
3) Grind off the other brakets and install the beefier skid plate
*sigh*
as for the oil change, it went smoothly, though with the center stand deployed, I could not get my oil pan exactly under the drain hole so I got oil all over the floor *again*.
The oil looked dark to me, and there was a fair bit of sludgy stuff on the drain plug, but didn't notice any sizeable chunks. Oil strainers looked pretty much clean of debris, there may have been one or two bits of not sure what on the oil strainers, but I was unable to identify what they were. This was only my 2nd oil change at 1000 miles but I'm hoping to churn through the next 1000 miles much faster now that I am more comfortable riding.