I think I may have jinxed myself!
I had posted a couple of days ago that I had not had any problems with my G5 except a loose wire to the fuel pump in '09, also forgot a bad low fuel sensor in '10. Now today I have a problem while riding on this beautiful 60+ degree day. On my last stop when I went to start the bike the electric start did nothing. So I folded out the kicker and it started right up on one kick. I rode around 15 or so miles, on the way home, then the engine started cutting out bad and backfired quite a bit. I was around 4 miles from home. I was able to keep going sputtering and backfiring till I made home. It seemed like it ran better at high RPMs but still cutting out and backfiring off and on all the way home. At home I turned it off then turned ignition and the kill switch on again. The MIL and fuel pump did not come on. I tried again and the MIL and fuel pump came on and shut off like normal but the electric start did nothing and couldn't start it with the kicker. I turned off the kill switch and ignition. Later I turned them both on again and neither the fuel pump nor the MIL came on. The neutral light was on but the blinkers did not work either. So I decided to wash the bike, as it was super dirty from riding through all the water from the melting snow, before I investigated more. After washing the bike the fuel pump and MIL came on but no electric start. Kick started it and it fired up sounding pretty much normal and reving pretty good. I let it idle for a bit then the idle lowered and it sputtered out. It has been the same since. I checked the starter relay by ohming the coil. Got 3.3 ohms. Then checked if the starter relay was closing by measuring the voltage across the relay switch, which was low around 9 volts. The voltage reading should have dropped to zero when the relay closed, by pushing the start button, but it did not. You can hear a faint click when the start button is pushed and the neutral light dims. Checked the battery it was low, around 9 volts. I put it on a tender and later went to check it and the tender check battery light was on. So battery is probably bad, but that doesn't explain the bike cutting out, backfiring, and now dying at idle. I haven't tried riding it. I'm thinking some sort of electrical problem. Any thoughts?
Chris