Thanks for the suggestions. In the last 48 hours I have had no issues repeat so it was definitely a hydro-locking problem from a poorly adjusted float. I have not had a chance to check my cylinder compression yet to see if there is damage. I have no idea why all the lights cut off when the starter is brutally stopped but that apparently happens in this situation. Or I have another problem related to the starter relay. I'm going with there must be some sort of cut off on it to prevent the overloading of the starter in a situation where it cannot turn over.
I have a new question related to this now however. My initial problem was that I was shearing off teeth on the main starter gear when my bike was not turning over. With all the battery problem responses I am curious if this is a problem that can also occur when a weak battery is used to start a bike? It seems unusual to me that a battery not able to turn over the bike would be strong enough to shear the teeth off a starter gear trying to do so. Anyway I know my battery is fine but I would be worried about trying to start my bike on a weak battery now.
Thanks again for all your suggestions. Specials thanks to Chris
for thinking about the carburetors. I feel foolish for not checking them now; it is probably the only part of the bike I did not look at trying to figure this one out.