Let me throw in my 2 cents, I'm a new member here, but have been riding quite some time and belong to the Concours Owners Group and the Volusia Riders Forum. As far as the gas smell and the no start situation, I would say that (since you said you had left the petcock on before this happened) one of the carbs fuel inlet needle valves had stuck open and overflowed the bowl, then gas leaked into the cylinder. Now when a cylinder has raw gas in it, the engine will not crank over because the starter motor is not any where near strong enough to compress liquid gasoline, thus the engine did not turn over and it seem as if the battery was dead. This condition is called hydrolock. With these bikes it is very important to remember to shut off the fuel petcock every time one shuts off the engine. I hope this answer has shed some light on your problem. I'm really enjoying this site and my "new to me" 1999 RSV.