Get home from work, fixin to go for an evening ride.
Put the key in the ignition turn to on, nothing. Bike is DEAD.
Absolutely no power at all. I pull the battery, hook it up to a charger. The Schauer tender reads the batt as full. Back on the bike it goes, I manage to push start it down the driveway, but it sounds wrong. Something is off, the engine sound 'light' for lack of a better words. Now I have it idling, the lights are flickering, the horn doesnt have enough juice to sound.
After idling a while, the lights brighten up, maybe the battery is dead. I ride it to the corner and back in 1st. keeping revs @7-8k. 1mile round trip. Now has enough for the horn to make a half harted stuttering beep. Back at the house I kill the power and try to start it normaly. Bike is DEAD. Absolutely no power at all. Push start down the driveway again. Not enough juice for the horn. Pack it in for the night, dont trust to ride any further than the corner. Theres a shop few miles from me, gonna call in the AM, see if they will take it. What am I looking at here, what can I check before I give them money to fix it for me.
BTW: if anyone is local (Orange Co NY) want to meet up and tinker with it. We can work something out.

Thanks
Vin

New battery. Clean the contacts. If the voltage regulator is killing it, the new battery will still have a warranty that lets you exchange it for another one.... If that does not help, I'd have the shop look at the voltage regulator. This is not a GS500 specific malady, just in general motorcycle VR's blow up when people jump start them. Then it does things like set the bike on fire, kill batteries, etc.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=38480.0

good info wreckhog
gonna try that in the morning.

Have you pulled the caps and checked the water level in the battery?If it's a stock replacement it is a flooded lead acid battery and requires maintence.

Thanks all for the replys. Guess it was the battery after all. Picked up a new one this morning. fired right up. Now I need to test the charging system, time to dig out the multimeter.