Okay DoD'ers, here's a goddamn mystery for ya !

Today I was turning a 90 degree corner just like on any other day, but there
was a slight difference-  a rough spot right in my path caused the suspension
to compress in mid corner and some part of the bike hit the ground with a very
tangible "thunk".  I pulled over at first opportunity to sus out the damage. 
My bike is a Kawasaki GPX250R with footpegs that are hinged and sprung such
that they fold upward and backward on contact with ground etc., and on the
lower extreme corner of each peg there is mounted a "bank-follower", or a
little stud that theoretically is the first bit to hit the ground in a
100%-banked turn.  The stud is mounted on the footpeg by a threaded bit about 7
mm long, which screws into a threaded hole in the footpeg.  Now for the
mystery.

The stud on the side of the bike that clunked when I turned was absent.  I'm
fairly sure it was there before the event.  There was no damage to the end of
the footpeg where the stud would ordinarily have been.  In fact, the thread in
the hole in the footpeg was perfectly intact, with no evidence of something
having been forcefully ripped out of it only moments previously.  

Okay all you engineering types, how the f**k do you explain this ?  How can you
rip a tightly fitting steel thread out of a threaded hole (in alloy) without
damaging the thread in the hole ?  Is this some sort of hi-tech design thingo
that Kawasaki never mentioned, like that the end of the footpeg suddenly
changes phase on impact, to let the stud rip out, then changes back to a solid
?  I'm quite amazed at how this could have happened.  In the meantime, life
goes on, without a left-hand bank-follower.