Glad I kept my kicker on my 77

Been doing some mods to my scoot, new paint new leather on the seat, removed the dash panel and fabbed a new one. Will post pics in a couple days in the projects section. But to the problem at hand. Looked at some previous posts about starters not disengaging. Got good connections everywhere with an in-line fuse for my starter button. Replaced the solenoid last year and didn't have any probs til today. I hit th starter button and the starter would not disengage, wires were hot enough to melt. Got the main wire off and it stopped. Sucked the life outta my battery too. Borrowed a battery outta my son-in-law's bike disconnected all the wires on the starter except the ground and kick-started the bike. Took about ten kicks but it started. Could there be an underlying problem to the solenoid not disengaging. Got my battery on a tender tonight in hopes that it didn't kill my battery cause they aint cheap.As always comments and suggestions are appreciated.:witsend:

sticking relay or start switch is what i have found normally on eq along with the problems chuck mentioned, and if you can install a small master disconect, that will help from discharge, an emergency disconnect, and security,

I put a starter relay on it, reconnected the starter button on the forward control and now it starts on the first push. Gettin' just over 14V when it's runnin' so the battery and charging system are good. Went from the battery to the relay and from the relay to the solenoid and starter(trigger) wire to the relay. Works and sounds like a dream