Loose black and white wire near battery, bike wont start

[martal]

Hi!

One day, my new-to-me ~05 Suzuki GS500 wouldn't start. Perhaps foolishly, I immediately jumped to replacing the battery. After I had replaced it,  I noticed there was this loose black and white wire. With the battery hooked up, the oil light comes on, but the bike still wont start. With this wire touched to the negative terminal, the bike does start. Also the indicators work (they didnt work before with just the battery hooked up).

When I touch it to the black part of the frame, the bike also wont start. There is a part of the frame where the black stuff (paint? Some kind of plastic?) is missing. If I touch the wire to the metal frame there, the bike does start.

Also, in my testing the wire got a bit warm at points. And when I touch it to the frame/negative terminal, there was very light sparks/smoke. In case it is relevant, the battery wires themselves weren't very well connected (just kind of left the clamps on the terminals to test things out).

I assume this wire is some kind of ground. Can I connect it to the negative terminal on the battery? A bit worried due to the sparks and the fact that it got hot. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[Armandorf]

Makes sense.
Black/wire is ground for low power circuit, lights, dash, etc.
Check the ground wire from engine(frame) to negative terminal on battery.This is critical for starting.

Get the wiring diagram

[DarkCyDE]

its spose to go to ground terminal