Electricical Issue...I think
 

The SH sat for about a week without being driven and the other day I went to start it and it acted like the battery was dead. Lights came on, but when I hit the starter everything dimmed and it would half crank then click click click. I tried charging the battery to no avail so I bought new one. Bike cranked right up, I drove it about 12 miles to a friends house and it sat for about an hour. I came back out and again, with a fesh new fully charged battery it wouldn't start.
So I clutch started and started back home. I made it about 10 miles and came to a stop light and noticed gauges looked really dim (it was dark). Then I took off from the light, acceleration was fine for about another mile then it began to spit and sputter like I was only hitting on one cylinder. I tried to throttle up and got no response. Then she died and I coasted to a stop....

Obviously not the battery at this point. Am I looking at an electrical issue? Possibly the stator, or maybe a bad coil??

Edit: 1998 Superhawk

r/r is the first place I would check.

Did you check the regulator\rectifier when the first battery died? It is the most likely problem but also check all the grounds and make sure all the connections are clean.

I have experience with this one. It is absolutely the Regulator/Rectifier.

There are no less than 10 threads on this bulleting board about just this. However, I'm in a good mood on this chilly Thursday morning, so I'll give you the short and skinny.

You can go on Ebay and buy a Chinese factory replacement. You can go to Honda and buy a stock replacement. You can go through CircuitBrnr on this board and buy his racing replacement (www.motovoltage.com). You can visit Easter Beaver (Eastern Beaver) and get the connectors to make ANY R/R fit.

YES, I said ANY R/R. I currently have a Kawasaki R/R in my SH. I made a small wiring harness to connect it. Wires to the stator, battery and a ground.

I used one out of an 700 raptor, only took 10 minutes to wire in and I was done

I picked up a new r/r off ebay for a pretty good price, hope that works.

Ok I got the new R/R and put it on today, having trouble still getting it to run without jumper cables hooked up...I guess my battery is just that dead? I can crank it up to about 3k and it will stay running but as soon as I unhook battery cables the tach dies.

Measure voltage on the battery at rest, at load and figure it out... Most likely a charge will bring the battery back to some sort of afterlife... Might not last you very long, but should give you a rideable bike for now...