been thru most of the threads on this but having issues wrapping my hands around it and knowing exactly where to start

history: went out yesterday for a ride no issues at all, stopped and restarted several times, never any issues with a no start other then when battery needed replaced, last night the wife and i and some friends headed out for dinner had the bike at the end of drive, had it running not 20 minutes prior to let it warm back up, I got on wife got on, hit the button and CLICK, sounded like a short, wife got off, I wiggled the bike a little CLICK so we ripped the seat off checked connections nothing, when it CLICKED it took the battery all the way down (bad battery?) and then would come back up, charged battery last night but nothing this morning, in fact it seemed weaker then last night. so in order what should I be checking

Battery?
Connections?
Starter Relay?
where to go from here?

On edit, anyone have issues removing the side plate to get to the fuses? seems like the nuts inside have come loose and the socket head cap screw is just spinning, how can I get this loose? destroy the side panel? desparate, want to get back on the road asap

 

Been there. It sounds like your battery for sure.

 

You haven't bothered to tell us what bike you have. And it sounds like you also haven't bothered to read your owners manual.

The cover on my '09 just pulls off--no wrenching required. Sounds like you have loose/dirty connections. Who maintains your bike? Did you just wash it?

 

The fuse panel just pulls off. No need to unscrew anything. You should pull the battery and charge it fully then have it load tested. Might be a bad battery. Also check the battery cables at both ends to ensure proper electrical connection.

 

+1 what he said. Isolate that battery by removing it, charge it, check it.

 

Sure sounds like a battery to me.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, had the same issue on the g/f's Fatboy. Turned out to be corrosion on the hot lead to the starter, at the starter end.

Click like that generally means one of three things - bad battery, bad starter, or bad connection.