'03 M620 won't start...???

[CharliesAngel]

Hi All:
I'm posting today because I just sold my M620 to a friend who just got his M1 license - yay!  This bike is now with its 3rd first time rider (the 1st being me) so it knows the ropes... Only thing is that it wouldn't start this evening.  I'm totally perplexed because I brought it down to my local shop in SF for a once-over, Desmoto, and they told me a couple of things that needed to be taken care of but nothing related to this.  We are wondering if it's just something totally silly that we have overlooked and are hoping to get some technical feedback from the Board here.   

As far as I understand from my friend (and he's signing up on this Board as I am posting this new thread so he can correct me if I'm wrong here), this is what happened:

He wanted to move the bike from one side of the street to the other. It started, he moved it to the other side of the street. He wanted to start it again to adjust the parking angle but it wouldn't start. The bike can't find Neutral.  Tried the kill switch but all lights stay on no matter what direction the kill switch is switched to??? (not sure if this has anything to do with the bike not starting). Anyway, I got on it, kickstands are up, hand clutch is in, but the bike won't start. Some people say that on the Monster, it has to be in Neutral in order for it to start.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Neutral position no matter how much I toggled the bike back and forth.

Any suggestions before it gets towed to the Shop? 

[pzarand]

To add a little more details.

1) The bike seem to be in neutral - it can me be moved back an forth
2) The green light showing that it is in neutral does not come on
3) when i start the bike all lights come on for a sec, then only the red one (low heat) stays on.
4) the stand is down
5) clutch is pulled

[Michael Moore]

It's in a false neutral. Just keep tapping the shift lever down (you may need to rock the bike a bit to get it into the next lower gear) until you get to first. Then kick it up into neutral. If you don't see the green light you're not really in neutral.

[claude512]

I agree about the false neutral... get it into 1st, then into a real neutral

Stand down? that will prevent it from starting, no matter if neutral or not (I think that was changed in 2004? On the 2002 the system is still the old one, where it won't start (or gets turned off) if the kickstand is down, no matter if in neutral or not)