Died mid-ride, no lights/starting now.

[the_Journeyman]

FYI - Let me add a couple things that may help people in the future:

When/how problem occurred:  I had ridden a few miles after having a difficult time starting a bike.  It was showing symptoms of a weak battery, so I jumped it off and it seemed ok, but didn't want to idle well.  It started back, after a couple stops, but still acted like the battery was weak.  It had also been very slow lately when starting, like it always had a weak battery, despite being on the Tender quite a bit.

Rode away from last stop, and it died when I pulled the clutch in at a stop sign not 50 feet away.  Dash lit up after a few seconds of fiddling (thinking loose connection etc) so I attempted to ride off, died again.  The relay under the seat was making strange noises, but wouldn't actually  power up the bike.   

Voltage read good on the battery, and at most 'hot' places between the battery and the ignition switch.  I cleaned the ground connection where the battery connected to the frame under the air box a couple different times.  Got battery voltage there after cleaning.  Replaced relay under the seat.  Still no power.

Made a new batter to frame ground from 8GA wire.  Took old one off, put new one one.  Dash lit up, starter super easily.  Wasn't the relay, it works with the new or old relay.  It was 100% that ground wire that had simply degraded.  I bet if I had a proper multimeter, it would show some pretty high resistance.

JM

[HotIce]

I guess ground cable are for bikes, what network cables are for networks.
Lot's of headaches, for a $5 part 

[Howie]

A quick "how To" on diagnosing this problem.  Take your voltmeter and place positive on a good engine ground like a bolt that holds the starter in place and the negative to the negative terminal on the battery.  Turn ignition on and hit the starter button.  If you read more than .5 volt you have a bad ground.  Pinpoint the problem by doing the same over each connection and wire.  Any reading over2 volts needs attention.

Doh! Should be over .2 volts.

[the_Journeyman]

Thanks for the diagnosing method Howie!

JM

[ChrisK]

A quick "how To" on diagnosing this problem.  Take your voltmeter and place positive on a good engine ground like a bolt that holds the starter in place and the negative to the negative terminal on the battery.  Turn ignition on and hit the starter button.  If you read more than .5 volt you have a bad ground.  Pinpoint the problem by doing the same over each connection and wire.  Any reading over2 volts needs attention.

Doh! Should be over .2 volts.

What setting on the multimeter? Just DC volts?

[the_Journeyman]

That's my assumption.

JM

[Speeddog]

What setting on the multimeter? Just DC volts?

Yes, DC volts.