Thank you for your responses.
I posted this also in another forum, along with the most recent update, which i will crosspost here rather than recomposing the whole thing.

In answer to the questions about the battery - the dealer i bought it from said it was a fairly new battery, and it is caged into the bike with a bolted bar going across it.
Some photos are below.
I will get to the multimeter tests again soon.

"I bought a new battery on Saturday November 3rd, cleaned terminal connections, and checked several of the fuses on the bike with an inexpensive fuse tester that came with a few fuses from Kragen Auto Parts supposedly for motorcycles.

Using the little tester that has two tiny metal adjustable points to contact fuses and it has green light that goes on if fuses are good.
But the fuses seem to be rather different than the ones in the bike, and i cant even see how to get the fuses out of their whitish plastic housing to replace them even if the fuses i just bought were the same size / shape as the ones in the bike. i thought they would be simply able to be pulled out, but they seem to be joined as part of the white plastic housing they are in and join together with the other white plastic housing connections going to various parts of the cycle.

so i bought a wet cell battery from a battery store in oakland, ca. which they were nice enough to fill with electrolyte and charge up for me before i came to pay for it.
So i took it home, installed it in the nighthawk and after a few seconds of fussing it started up stronger than it has other then the first day i looked at it from the dealer, with choke on 3/4 to full to start and tapering off after a few minutes.

i took it on a ride on city streets to the freeway to help the battery acclimate to its new life and feel how the bike will respond now.
Its mostly been running fine now, although there is still a bit of sluggishness a few times where it felt like it was about to die out when taking off from a paused position at traffic lights a few times. And when i pulled up into a gas station to refill it, as i pulled to a stop the bike sounded like it was going to die before i actually hit the off switch.
And it was backfiring a few times as well.

So though it is starting and running so far with the new battery, still feels tempermental. Like more needs addressing. Perhaps related in part to the being jetted too rich as a mechanic mentioned last month?

Question? - Are all the fuses in the white plastic fuse boxes on the motorcyle live, active fuses with current in them? Because there was one or two fuse ends that did not light up with the fuse tester when i contacted them. Although they were in fuse container next to two ends that did light up as working correctly.
A few photos of the fuses on my bike are here -

[img]i178.photobucket.com/albums/...pg[/img]

[img]i178.photobucket.com/albums/...pg[/img]

[img]i178.photobucket.com/albums/...pg[/img]

One of the fuse types, the bottom photo just above this line of text, where the fuse tester says the 2 fuse ends with the gap between them light up as good, but the row of 3 in same fuse container did not light up, signifying they are broken or not working (?) or do they not matter, are some kind of spares? How do i actually replace these types of fuses? They are not the kind Kragen sold me as being useable for my bike, unless Im really not seeing them correctly?

These are the fuses Kragen sold me -
[img]i178.photobucket.com/albums/...pg[/img]


I also noticed today after putting new battery in, when i came back and looked closer at the spark plugs that the rubber condom looking cover that snaps over them was not fit all the way down to the bottom of them as far as it could go. Unfortunately the spark plug farther back in the crevice was too cramped too reach with my fingers and i tried using a pair of needle nose pliers which made a tear in the soft rubber condom fitting over that spark plug. Though it seems to mostly come back together rather than leaving a gaping hole.
I cant figure out how to get that back spark plug completely covered by the condom rubber joining piece without ripping it more.? Any advice on that? And how far down the rubber condom piece should snap over and come down over the spark plugs? There seem to be a few circular ribs at the bottom of the condom rubber cap that fits over the spark plugs, and i think that it has had more room to snap down over the plugs since ive had the bike.? I took a photo of it after my ride today, the one with the black condomy cover still over it toward the back is covered as completely & incompletely as i think it has been since i bought the bike and have been riding it.? They were both like that actually.
Here is a photo of the spark plugs -

[img]i178.photobucket.com/albums/...pg[/img]

Could that be causing / contributing to some of the not starting, backfiring
dying and poor acceleration issues aside from the battery?"

I started the bike again this morning, but it was not easy. Tried using half then full choke still only turning over but not starting. Then i tried using throttle, while choke was still on about half way and adjusting according to sounds of bike, on a whim ( which before would kill it outright at first start ) and that actually brought the bike to life and started it! Not sure why the change from throttle killing it to throttle helping to start it first off?

The bike was able to be started again this way, and with some nursing it seemed to be staying running, revved up then after 4 minutes or so at same choke level it began to seemingly stablize and on its own quiet down the rpms yet stay running. Then i turned the bike off and came in here to write this.