Hi chaps, some of you will know me from the other FZS1000 forum, but it's a bit quiet over there these days so I thought I'd post here.

Got a bit of bother with the old faithful. (Gen 1, 2004, 31,000ish miles)
I rode down to Germany recently with absolutely no issues, parked the bike up in the garage and haven't ridden it for a couple of weeks. Went to start it the other day and all I got was the starter motor whirring away but nothing from the engine at all.

It sounds to my (untrained) ears as if the starter clutch might be sticking/knackered. I don't remember ever reading about anyone else having this though. Seems unusual but I'm a bit worried it's going to have me off the road for a bit as it sounds like it's probably an expensive thing to fix. Anyone know anything about this?

Many thanks for any constructive replies! Worried this might bankrupt me.

***EDIT***

I might be wrong about this. Just tried again and I got a big backfire, so I checked and it seems that vapours are coming out of the exhaust when I turn it over. But it seems to turn over quite easily with no spark. Might not be the starter clutch. Tried bump starting it. In 1st there's loads of compression, in 2nd it turns over well enough but still seems as if there's no spark. I've checked the little fuse box but they all seem ok. The plug caps are all properly seated and all the other electrics seem to work OK. Got a full tank of fuel. Carb is probably flooded now from me trying.

Any ideas what I need to try next?