the mechanic checked everything through and realized that it was the gas. the bike wouldn't idle on MY tank of gas but when he switched it to an external supply, it worked. so he drained the gas out, put new gas in, and voila, it started running again.
this is our first year and we did research the winterizing process. i have to say, it's a little frustrating because it seems only after the problem ocurred and we posted on a few forums about it, we discovered people had problems with Stabil. actually some replies were kind of rude...a very "why the heck would you do that?!" kind of attittude.
but before we winterized, everything we read and receive in response was to use Stabil.
oh well! i guess it's a YMMV kinda thing.