Originally Posted by MaximusPrime

Do you lose power only when you hit the starter button?
Here's how I solved my non-starting issue, which was salt water corroding plugs and blowing my main fuse(obviously a little different than your problem).
My process started at the back where I thought the problem was and kept moving forward looking for the issue.
I ended up doing the whole bike on the side of the road. Luckily I had just tossed a pack of 25 20A fuses in the tank bag. I think I used 8 until I solved all the problems. It's also just a good maintenance practice for a bike that lives in a climate with massive temp swings around the dew point.
Make sure your battery leads are tight.
Check the plug connectors at the solenoid.
Clean all your grounds and plugs, making sure they're plugged in completely, before and after inspection.
Dielectric grease all plugs.

Have you tested the battery? It's acting kind of like a bike with a bad battery.

Originally Posted by taxonomy

Before the bike is running

Battery>Solenoid>Everything else.

The solenoid is the choke point. In this case it's really two relays, one switched by the key, to deliver power to all systems that are not the starter. These would include the coil, lights, gauges and whatnot and the starter. There is a second relay switched by the starter button to deliver power to the starter. I think both relays share a common ground, so this could be it, but I really do not know.

So, yes, it will cause everthing to sut down, dash included. My tail light also flickers.

Once the bike is running power come from the stator>regulator>everything else.

So, as the bike behaves normally when running, and starts normally if you bypass the solenoid I think it's the solenoid.

Try jumping the solenoid by taking a 15mm wrench and touching both screws. My guess is that it cuts out due to faulting in some way. Next try jumping the solenoid by passing a heavy wire directly from the battery + terminal to where the wire from the relay connects to the starter motor. It's easy to do with by connecting a jumper cable to the + terminal and then clamping the other end of the cable to a screwdriver and touching the post with that. You will have to move the little boot atop the starter motor.

My guess is it starts and runs normal.

Originally Posted by rgmr250

It's probably been mentioned already, but I've heard of this happening before when the battery was weak. I see you have a new(er) lithium battery - so in theory this shouldn't be a problem, but maybe it's a bad battery?

Originally Posted by Dash8

I wish it was that easy! It happened last year with the old battery so I got the new lithium. It's only 2 months old, checks out on charger and cranks like a ****.

Originally Posted by Lferg01

Same thing was happening to me the starter sounded weak I got a used relay for $10 and took some sand paper to clean up the ground. Now works every time no problems since.