I rode to work just fine... came out after an day at work.  :'( Now I'm on the side of the road. It won't keep running as soon as i let go of the clutch. Any ideas? :'(

Well....since I have not had the side stand safety on my bike for a while...I forget exactly how it works.  I believe the side stand safety kills the engine if it sees that the neutral light goes out (you put it in gear)...while the sidestand is still down.  There is a safety switch that often goes bad at the sidestand...you can short circuit the connector that is located on the left side of the frame, near the battery box, behind the left side frame cover.  I don't believe it is connected to the clutch safety switch however - but to the neutral light.

I believe the clutch safety switch is tied to the starter circuit - and won't let you engage the electric starter when the bike is in gear...unless you first pull in the clutch.  "IF" you do find that the engine dies when you let out the clutch - you might be able to get home by taking the wires off the clutch switch at the handlebars, and putting a piece of wire or paper clip between the terminals...being careful not to let the wire touch the grounded handlebars (tape up any exposed wire or paper clip).

So after sitting for about an hour, I had my dad show up with his pick up truck to drag me home. I fired it up for him to hear... It started. I gave it a handful of throttle and it POPPED and SPUTTERED and backfired and then idled with the clutch released. My dad thought that maybe there was water in the carb... You guys think that could be?

It was very low on oil and I threw a quart in just to be sure...

So i have it home now. I will tear into it tomorrow after work. I hope its nothing too serious...



Any and all advice welcomed, you guys are the real experts.

So here is an update. I checked for spark by pulling out the spark plug and sitting it on the engine block while it cranked... I got spark.
I took the carb off and opened it up and cleaned it well...

It runs. It idles without holding the clutch in.
It does die when I rock it side to side. But its doing more than itwas 2 days ago...
got the petcock on prime right now but it was running in just the on position.
Thinking about draining the tank and taking out the petcock and maybe cleaning it a bit with some carb cleaner to make sure there isnt any dirt or grime blocking it...

What do you guys think?

Latest update: Runs. In neutral I can give it all the throttle I want and it sounds fine. I will run as ling as I let it.
I kick it in gear and try to ride off, it dies.

Any ideas?

Does it die just as soon is it goes into gear....while your hand is still holding the clutch all the way to the handlebar?

Have you been ignoring the advice about checking or bypassing the kick stand safety switch?  If the switch is faulty and is telling the bike that the kickstand is still down - it will kill the engine so that you don't ride off with the kickstand down.

So will the bike move under it's own power without opening the throttle?

You may have a fuel flow problem to the float bowl (did you install an inline fuel filter?). Or maybe the petcock is just not flowing enough fuel.  Have you ever tried to see how quickly fuel will flow out of the petcock or out of the float bowl drain?

If you have a carb with a drain screw on the bottom of the float bowl, you can attach a clear hose to the bottom of the carb and see where the fuel level is.  If you can connect a hose securely so it won't fall off and run gas everywhere, you might try riding it with the hose attached so you can see where the fuel level is when the bike dies.  If the bike dies and the fuel level is very low and then slowly rises once the bike is stopped...then it is a fuel flow issue.

Have you ever removed the float valve seat and cleaned the small filter that is on top of the brass seat fitting?

Your fuel level should look like this: