this sounds like what happened to me when my R/R went bad. I was accelerating hard in first, hit second, back on the throttle and nothing. Bike was dead. I pulled over, checked the kill switch and the key. Nothing. the bike had no power, so I checked the fuse. Sure enough it was blow. I put in another fuse and it blew instantly. So I got the bike home and began looking around, I notice the harness to the R/R was melted. So I bought another R/R and fixed the harness, and no problems since. BTW, I have heard that the R/R going bad can destroy a battery, so that could be your battery problem.

good info. i've got an RR on order right now. I'll let you guys know what happens.

bustedf2 hit the nail right on the nose as far as i can tell. i threw in another R/R, changed the main fuse, and bam, started up. no problems thus far. an interesting note: the R/R tested bad with the volt meter and when I took it off, it looked like it was leaking or something. Anyway, I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the help!