Last week I took my RK out for a spin. While idling at a stoplight, the bike started sputtering. I looked at the indicator lights under the speedo, and both the battery and engine lights were on. I turned around and nursed it back home. While making the last turn toward my house the bike died, so I pulled in the clutch and coasted to my driveway (lucky, I know). I took the seat off and checked the battery. The cable to the negative terminal was "slightly" loose, so I thought that it might be the problem. I tightened the connection, then charged the battery with my battery tender.

Yesterday, I took the RK back out for a 30mi round trip just to test it. Everything seemed fine until I was on the return part of the trip about a mile from home. I stopped at a gas station to fill up, and when I turned the ignition switch on, all lights flashed for a second then went dead - no juice whatsoever. I pushed the bike over to a parking lot and tried to start it a few times. Again, no juice, but I noticed that when I turned the ignition switch back off there was a buzzing noise coming from the gas tank (or under it) and the speedometer needle was jumping. Sounded like an electrical short so I rocked the bike back and forth (assuming maybe filling up the tank caused a problem with the fuel gauge sensor?) until the buzzing & bouncing needle stopped. I went through this process several times when attempting to start the bike. I finally gave up and called a friend who helped me load the RK into his pickup to haul it home.

Any ideas as to what the problem might be?