Here's my issue:

Today I ride my 2010 Street Bob for 2 hours and come home. Go in for a bit, then come back out and try to crank the bike. the red key light comes on, and the bike turns over, then goes dead. display shuts off, nothing happens. I flip the ignition off/on/off to reset and turn it on again. Nothing, no instrument display at all.

So now I'm freaking out. I open it up. Check all wiring under the seat. Nothing is loose or crimped that I can see. I disconnect the battery and notice that it looks like the screw that goes into the negative housing is a weird color. almost purple. red screw is fine. I try to turn the negative screw and nothing is happening. I have to get a socket to get it out. I t looks like the screw has melted into the battery housing on the negative side. Red positive side is like new.

I reconnect the battery and turn the key. Life again. Bike starts with no problem.

Here are the weird things I have noticed.
1. the melted screw on the negative battery housing. why would this happen?
2. on the way home, the bike seemed like it would "surge" rev high and then drop revs before returning to normal. Throttle was constant during these "surges"

I must say the only thing I have done to the bike is add the quick detach sissy bar and turn signal relocation. That being said, I have not put the rear turn signals back on because I want to put them on the bottom of the swingarm and haven't had time. Instead, I duct taped them to the inside of my fender. Could this be my problem?

 

UPDATE

So after missing out on a 5 man ride I was pretty pissed over this. I went through the wiring on the back of the back of the bike and discovered one of my shrink wraps had come loose and the wire was against the fender. So I've shrink wrapped and crimped it back.

By the way, while doing this a black piece fell out from underneath the tail light. I have a picture. I'm guessing this holds the wiring inside the light.

Anyway, I'm hoping the problem with the bike was that the wire had come loose. Too late to crank it now, don't want to wake the baby. I will try putting the battery back in and starting it tomorrow.

Has anyone else had this issue? And does anyone think my problem may be something different?

 

Positive touching negative melted your screw, be careful your battery may be damaged.

 

Loose battery connection causes a high amp condition and at the connection and virtually melted the bolt. Sounds like the turn signal wire was shorting out against the fender and you had electrons going all over the place. I would do a voltage test and crank load test on the battery prior to install, maybe that will tell how healthy the battery is. Battery post looks mighty impressive.

 

Many new bikes have suffered from loose battery connections. if your negative was loose, it was cause an arcing condition which delivers high heat... as 'senior' said.... it melted it.