Yes, your plugs are shot. Probably, you drained the battery down from starting it a few times without letting the bike run long enough to recharge the battery. Also, the bike needs to run around 2,000 rpms before it even begins to charge. So if it was just idling, thats your issue. It slowly discharged the battery and the bike cranked over too slow to start, thus fouling the plugs. These bikes require a good battery as they need to crank over pretty fast to start, if you dont have that, the engine cranks over slow, introduces gas, but its not fast enough for the spark to catch on all 4 cylinders and then plugs foul.

The sputtering and backfiring is exactly the sign of fouled plugs. I would just replace them with new ones. You can try to dry them out and reuse them, but more than likely, you will end up replacing them.

 

Thanks for all your help folks! Looks like it was the spark plugs. I replaced them and she started on the first try! looks like Im back in business.

THANKS