I started winterizing Thumper Saturday, and I first did the spark plug door mod that gazab44 posted about.

That's a great mod, and now I'll never have to remove the seat and the tank ever again just to get to the spark plug! Thanks, gazab44!

Anyway, Sunday was oil change and fuel stabilizer day, and I so rode Thumper for about 20 minutes (on a very cold and rainy morning, BTW) to get the stabilized fuel into the carb and to get the oil flowing and warmed up.

So, I pull into the garage and begin draining the oil. No problems there.

But when I took off the three allen bolts to remove the crancase cover, my Suzuki brand oil filter was loose and just plopped over into the cover.

From reading my Clymer's manual and from reading several threads here, I was under the impression that I would need an oil filter wrench to take out the oil filter. Does anyone know what's up with this?

For the record, Thumper is a baby ... a 2005 model.

Thats correct, once you have removed the cover thats it.
As mornhm says be careful with the o-ring.

Not that it really matters because I'm sure you will figure it out, but the o-ring to which I was referring is the larger o-ring that seals the cover. This one is in a groove on the cover and if it gets twisted or pinched it will leak.