Today I was on the first leg of my first real road trip on my new bike, a 2003 Vulcan 1500 Classic. I’ve done short rides with no issues or complaints aside from a small issue of hitting a false neutral and having the gear slip from first to neutral at long stops.

Anyways, I’m on the freeway at about 70mph when I feel a slight decrease in power, my temp light comes on and the bike backfires. It cleared up and I kept riding. It happened three more times with increasing length and intensity. The third time my bike died completely. I pulled over and couldn’t restart it. The battery was completely dead. I was able to get a jump from some friendly bikers passing by and there was no issue after that in the 20 mile ride back home.

I checked everything when I got back. Coolant levels, fuses, battery, connections...nothing was found. Can anyone offer insight into what might have happened, what steps I should take, or where I can go to find an answer?

The fuel checked out. There was nothing wrong there. I haven’t yet been able to do a long test ride to duplicate the problem, but there was a stray wire hanging over the battery. I think that might have been a factor. Hopefully I’ll have more info soon.