1976 kz 900 oops

I got out my 900 after sitting for about a year. (got an owi). battery would not take a charge so I put it on the bench on the charger and thought I would just give it a kick. low and behold it started (I stored it with airplane gas in it). so I took it for a ride. at about a mile it started running on two cylinders then died. and I cannot find the culprit. what did I kill? stator checks out ok with multi meter and so does the rectifier. but the start button does nothing and if I jump the solenoid I still have no spark.

have the battery loadtested.

battery is good. I ran it without one for a few minute and the is when everything went wrong. I heard you can burn up some parts running without a bat. is that true and what parts could be damaged.

The battery acts like a surge tank providing energy when the bikes systems need it and storing it when it's time to use the electric starter. It evens out voltage spikes and fluctuations.

You might have "cooked" the regulator/rectifier from voltage spikes or damaged the stator on the alternator,and damaged the coils. Did any lightbulbs burn out?

Yeah, I would have expected the lights to start burning out too.