The beast won't start

[spartacus1215]

Rode home last night no problem. Half tank of new gas. Tried to ride this AM won't start. Removed the tank, checked all the fittings, cleaned the petcock, cleaned the air filter, checked the plugs, still won't start. Tried to pop the clutch on a hill and same deal. Any tips from the crew?  I'm moving to Florida from VA in 7 days and this is a major problem.  HELP!!!

[Firefighter]

I am guessing you mean the engine turns over but will not start.  The battery has to be like new to start these bikes!  The engine will spin good but will not start. Try jumping from a car (with the car engine off). If it then spins but no start check for fuel and spark. The fuel bowls have a drain, which you can open to see if any fuel, make sure enrichment valve (choke) is sliding fully (you know about that right).
Check for spark with one of the plug wires off and grounding a spark plug. Give us info and we will help you of needed.

[..]

My smart ass question as usual is did you check the kill switch? On or off?

Lot's of us are guilty of not checking.  

[Chrisj CMA]

Just a couple things.

-"won't start" is not a good enough description.  Does it turn over. What happens when you press the start button?

-what bike, year, miles, recent work.

_cleaned the petcock?  What does that mean?

Did you try jumping to a known good battery?

You can't expect good advice if you post incomplete info

[Tfrank59]

Well in addition to what the other guys said, are you saying it's fuel-starved? Make sure it's getting fuel air and Spark haha as far as the spark part yeah the kill button and stuff like that is the first thing to check cuz it's so easy other stuff like that would be the kickstand switch neutral switch Etc

[MarkT]

A less obvious and more unusual problem is, if some valves are too tight it can be hard to start. They can get that way with miles since the last adjustment.  If that happened it would get gradually worse. Or they could be adjusted too tight as well.  Then the problem would be immediate.

[ridingron]

Checked the grounds?

Do you have lights?

Tried a known good battery? Batteries will short out internally without notice.

Looked at the starter relay connecter? The red wire will do a melt down every now and then which kills about everything electrical.