Honda foreman 500 HELP

was using it today lightly in 3rd gear and it just quit. after it quit, I had lost all electric everything, could not shift out of 3rd, lights wouldn't work, winch wouldn't work, dash thing between the handle bars will come on and that is it. visually checked the fuses and they seemed good, jump across the post on the solenoid and it would turn over, but not start. what is there to check that I'm missing? could the solenoid be bad? will be going back tomorrow with some testers and tools to check more. thanks for any help!

Battery may be bad

It's not going to start if it's in gear. You have to manually shift it into neutral. Mine would loose all power sometimes, I'd let it sit for a while then restart it and all would be fine. Even does it with new batteries. They get a glitch, it happens. While doing your check, pull apart all the electrical connections you can find and clean them out with the aerosol electrical cleaner, and then use electrical grease. This keeps them clean and dry for years to come.

Don't do what I did last weekend, bump the kill switch without realizing it.
They refuse to start until you figure out what you did.

think big pig might have nailed it. I was driving through duck ponds as I was draining. water was up to about the foot board, but water/mud could've splashed up into a connection somewhere. about to go back out and tinker with it.

Actually most of them will start in gear if you hold the right hand break down while starting. My Rubicon use to get stuck in gear all the time and the only way to start it would be to hold down the right hand break while pressing the start button. Works on the newer Ranchers as well.

lots of useful info here !