I think we're thinking too hard - although I'm concerned about the 'smoke' you mention in the first post... a burning smell is one thing, but for smoke to appear, things have got really hot...

Was the smoke actually from the wiring (when you say cable, I'm presume you mean wiring cables/loom, not a throttle cable for example) itself, or could it have been from below like Gulgo suggests?

The problem you may have is that something caused a short and melted, but that the plastic coating on the wiring either resealed itself, or is in a position that the short is no longer happening (this happened with a friend of mine's DRZ, twice)... the bike might start/run fine now, but the danger is the exposed wires might touch again, either stopping the bike starting/running, or smoking again...

If you can be sure of where the smoke came from, that would be a start.

Jx

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