Motorcycle Repair: Dead Buell XB9R Firebolt, buell xb9r, jumper cable

Question
Hi Mark,  I washed my Buell last week,  being careful not to get water around the fuse and relay boxes.  After completion I took it for a cruise to dry any excess water off.  It sputtered a few time's in unison with my guages dieing ( electrical ).  Now,  if I try to start it I get nothing, dead.  If I jump start it, it starts and runs fine until I remove the jumper cable then it dies immediately.  On a car I would guess alternator,  but my buddies are telling me bikes are different in this regard.  What do you think ?

Answer
try looking into your battery connections, then look into your ground connections, lastly if these fail to correct the issue, look into the ground on the voltage regulator itself or the wires which connect the regulator to the coil...Sounds just like whats going on. Seems you may have bumped the wires that run the bike when its charging the battery..

Hope this helps!

~Mark