GS won't start - possible electrical/battery problem

[epoxy.guy]

For the past few years, my gs500 has started every morning, even when my battery wasn't so good last year.   Today, I could hear the engine turning, lights were on the display but nothing was happening .   At first I thought I might be out of gas but my tank was half full.   I switched to reserve, then to prime but after several attempts, I gave up and drove my car to work .

I got home this evening to start my diagnostics .   The battery read 12.17 (considerably low) since usually 12.5 is a regular reading so I put my trickle charger on it which took 3 hours to get up to 14.5 before it went solid green and back to around 13.5

The battery is less than a year old... I put it on the trickle charger over the winter and has been working great for the past few weeks since I've started my riding season.     So what would cause the battery to get such a low reading in just 1 day?   It was a little colder this morning but not enough to freeze water.

I've taken the battery off the trickle charger for the evening and will check the voltage in the morning.    Hopefully the voltage won't drop below 12.5 but I'll have to wait and see.

I was able to get the bike to start this evening even though it was a little flooded with fuel .

[birdhandler]

regulator rectifier, altenator, poor connection in this system
There are heaps of threads on this topic so search away 
Cheers

[Paulcet]

Battery voltage low?

after several attempts,

That'll do it!

[epoxy.guy]

I checked the voltage this morning, it was 12.35.   I was able to start without any problems and the voltage ran as high was 13 volts while I had the choke on.    After my ride into work, I checked the voltage again and it was down to 12.27 (which I thought would have been higher since the battery should be charging as I'm riding).

I'm noticing a strange smell.. like burnt plastic from under the seat so I'm suspecting maybe I have an electrical issue.   Any suggestions on how to diagnose this one?

[adidasguy]

Use your nose. Go for the smell. Also feel all of the wires - noting anything brittle or sticky. Probably a loose connection overheating or something has worn insulation and is shorting to ground. A partially cut wire will also get hot at the cut spot.
You need to trace wires with your nose, eyes and hands.

[epoxy.guy]

Okay, I've been checking the battery voltage throughout the day and it's steady at 12.43 therefore there must be something causing the battery drain when the bike is running.   I'll check it over in the daylight when I get home.. looking for anything which might be causing the issue.

[adidasguy]

Battery drain while bike running: either a short somewhere OR your charging circuit is fried ergo it uses battery power to run the bike but can't generate any electricity ergo ergo battery gets drained running the bike.