Starter Button Problem?

[Lincoln Highway Bullitt]

Just recently my starter button would not engage the starter while the bike is in neutral. It does work when I pull the clutch in though. The neutral light works. Then after I go for a ride everything works fine. Let it sit overnight and back to pulling the clutch in. I never encountered this before on any other bikes. Any ideas?

[Re-run]

Does the starter sound slow when first used? The only things I can think of would be either the neutral switch, or battery voltage. After a ride, the batter is good and it works fine. Maybe after sitting a while, the voltage goes down some. A slow starter could point to this.
Honestly, this is something I have never heard before.

[TOOLS1]

I am going to say your neutral safety switch is bad.
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[Lincoln Highway Bullitt]

It is a new battery at the beginning of this year. It almost seems like a ground issue. But the starter button shouldn't need a ground. I was thinking the starter is the problem. Not grounding well and the starter button does not provide ground but when the clutch is pulled it bypasses the neutral switch and finds a ground elsewhere. I don't know. It may show itself in future rides. Until then I'll just pull the clutch in.

[TOOLS1]

Actually the starter button does ground the circuit. It has a constant voltage to it, and when pressed it grounds to complete the circuit. The control is supposed to be grounded to the bike through a green wire, but I have seen these fail. However since yours does crank, I would not suspect the starter button. Most likely the  neutral safety switch, or the little switch in the clutch perch.
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[Maz]

I think I'm right in saying that the wire from the neutral switch splits 2 ways - One goes to the Neutral light and the other goes to the starter safety circuit (not sure where this wire actually splits into 2 though!). My guess is that there is a problem with the connection of the wire that goes to the starter circuit. It should be a green/red wire which connects to ground when neutral is selected.

Maz

[Lincoln Highway Bullitt]

Well the problem has gotten worse so I decided to tear into it. I removed the starter and battery which was new at the beginning of this riding season. I took them to my local electrical rebuild shop. He checked the starter and said it worked fine but the brushes were wore. I had him rebuild it anyway. He checked the battery and said that was the culprit. Broken plate in the battery. I broke down and bought a gel filled one this time for high vibration. Glad it's fixed. $108 dollars. $24 for the rebuild $84 for the battery.

[shinyribs]

Lincoln Highway Bullitt wrote

 He checked the battery and said that was the culprit.

I hate to be this guy, but I'm skeptical. Your bike had enough battery power to crank= battery-check.. It would start by the button= starter button-check. It would start by pulling in the clutch lever,too= clutch switch-check. It would start= starter motor-check.

 The only thing keeping it from starting, according to what I read, was being in neutral. Even then, it was in intermittent issue. Sound like N safety switch is on it's way out.