I rode the bike to work this morning and it ran fine. Went to start it to go home and all the lights came on, little engine light came on when I switched to run, everything seemed fine. Hit the start button and it clicked and everything died. So I am stranded, even though I was suppose to have free roadside assistance through the AMA. Bottom line, they lie don't join. Anyway my bike is still at work and I am here working on it. Sometimes when I jiggle the positive cables the lights will come on but still when I hit the start button it will just click. Sometimes I have to do nothing and the lights will come on. There seems to be no consistency at all. Some times moving one cable will get it and sometimes the other and sometimes nothing at all. I have taken the cables off and cleaned them, although there was nothing to clean. They are tight and the battery is about 2 months old. Even if it was dead the lights would at least stay on, it wouldn't go from being dead to alive randomly. Any ideas? There is a cable that goes form the battery to the maxi fuse, then a wire that comes out of the fuse and into the cable harness. What is it? Think that could be it? Oh the starter cable is tight at the starter and the ground is tight as well. The only consistent thing with this is that it won't even attempt to turn over. I even push started it and it ran like **** and then died. The only sound that I am hearing is the speedo, it seems to be getting juice but it is doing nothing either, it's like the battery isn't even in the bike but it is.
So in summary, I turn the key on and nothing no lights. Flip the run switch nothing. Jiggle some wires or sometimes just turn the key off and on and the lights will come on like normal. Hit the start button and nothing. Once it clicks everything dies again. It acts nothing like a dead battery. It just kills everything when it clicks.

 

Pull your fuses and clean them good, especially the two big ones (one is a starter relay and the other is a system relay). Often, that can be a problem. Good luck.

 

Check your ground wire where it's grounded to the frame. If your bike is fuel injected you need at least 12 volts to power the fuel pump, so kick starting is out of the question.

 

The ground at the frame was also my first thought. Check that out.

 

If you jiggle the wires and get lights, then you have a short or bad connection. Go back over those wires, check the ground on both ends. Jump the bike if you got to. try to wiggle just one wire without moving the other and narrow down wich one makes the lights come on and you will find the problem.

 

Do you have a test light? Check power at your h-bar switch. Check connection to relay switch. Follow and check the three wires coming out your ign.switch. Even check voltage loss from h-bar switch and battery capacity.

 

I have checked the ground and still nothing. I can jump the bike but it won't stay running. It's like the throttle has no impact on the bike. It just runs like **** and won't run for long. I have tried and tried to narrow it down to one wire but it seems that just comes to life whenever it wants to. I will check all the relays and see if I can find one that is screwed. Why would a relay have an affect when the movement of the cables, at least sometimes, causes the lights to come on? Again the bike has no lights sometimes and sometimes does. If the bike has lights then it won't start. The start button just causes one click and then everything goes off again. It's only a few wires so I am wondering where the hell a short could be. I'll get it home and pull everything out. But please keep the ideas coming.

 

Sounds like the battery is dead. It may start but it still needs a charge in the battery to run. take it home, charge the battery over night and try it in the morning

 

I got the bike home,(no thanks to the AMA) and have the battery on the charger. I'll put it in later and see if it fires. If the battery is dead then what the hell could cause a damn near new battery to die?

 

Experienced something similar. In my case it was a loose ground wire plus a corroded relay. Sounds like you have crossed off the ground wire.

Do you have a volt meter? Sounds like it would help you run this down.