Dropped my right side, battery cover retainer nut into the frame.

[Jlewis50]

Well I messed up. I dropped the metal retainer nut bracket into the frame. It's the rectangular shaped nut that the screw goes into for the battery cover. I looked all over, without taking the fairing apart, and couldn't find it. I was going to take it all apart and fix it right but am lazy. I just went and bought another retainer.
I’ll go on a ride tomorrow and see if it’s going to vibrate.
My luck is, it will fall through the frame and I’ll run over it .
Any thoughts....

[trophied]

I think when they did the last major service on mine there were bits hitting the floor left and right when they started stripping the bodywork off.

[Coconut]

Personally, I would want to find it before riding.

I would be concerned that the edges of the part,
and the protruding “Captive Boss” might end up being wedged somewhere,
such as against a Cable, or pipe etc, and the vibration caused when riding
could result in damage being caused.

If you go for a ride you will never know if it's still stuck in there somewhere
or has fallen out during the ride.

Check in the very bottom of the Fairing
to see if it has lodged there, and also on the foam panel
above the Radiator ( one of those extendable magnetic pick up tools
are useful for retrieving dropped parts ), but if you can't find it,
I'd recommend taking the right side Fairing panel off,
which is not that difficult to do.

Cheers 

[earthman]

I agree, don't move the bike, if you are sure that it's not on the floor already, remove that side of fairing and find it.

[cecilt]

I had exactly the same happen about four years ago. Spent hours grovelling on the floor, with torches, magnets, tried tilting, shaking and bouncing the bike, before and after rides - all to no avail. Traded it in for the last model - but that was not the reason why! The dealer seemed unconcerned....

[janfmiller]

If you THOUGHT of it going into the rear tire... It Absolutely Will.
Pull the skirts off.  Not that big of a job and nicely documented on this forum...
First time I stripped her down I found loose bits and missing bits and one of those clippy-nut-thingys floating around.... Dealers don't take time to 'do it right', all on the clock...

[dandrumheller]

Just did this on the left side a couple weeks ago, while installing USB socket in glovebox and DRLs in the turns. 

Full left side tupperware teardown, plus trip to the automotive store to get a replacement scrivet for the one I couldn't get out of the belly pan, about doubled the total time for the job!  GRRRR!

But my OCD wouldn't let me live with it in there.  In my case it was hung up on one of the ridges towards the top of the left side fairing panel.
It stayed 'attached' as I gently removed the panel.