To all, thanks for the feed back. Sorry for going dark on this but I was on a business trip.
100mph.... afraid I could not afford the speeding fines rtofimovich. But good luck.
Bike is a 2006 XB12ss with 35,000 miles. But I suspect that this happens to a lot of XBs.
The fix is all taped up so I cannot show the splice. But here is what I can do..... Attachment 10241
Here you can see the black wire exiting the harness and bolted to the negative battery post. Now that is a ground. And yes, that is an old sponge wedged under the rubber battery strap to keep the seat from bumping the computer terminals. Makes closing the seat a bit harder (have to put some weight on it) but it works and did not cost me anything.IMG_20180804_125758.jpg
From the shop manual (image attached above), you can see that this is the common ground for the ignition and the computer (system ground B). As it goes to a ground, I figured the negative battery post would be as good as it gets. I except that I need to be super cautious with this when I change a battery. Wrong post here means fried computer even if the bike is off! So...... Do this if you are 100% sure you can keep this straight.
Interestingly, I tried the open loop idea by disconnecting the O2. Talked to IDS and was told that disconnecting the O2 forces open look but you get the engine light saying no O2. Running that way did not fix the issue but it may have been slightly better or slightly less crappy. I think lunaticfringe has the issue nailed down. Cannot seem to keep a good ground so everything malfunctions.
As a side note, I did run a very large hose clamp under the battery tray length wise on the bike. Cut up an old rubber mat, put the rubber between the top of the battery and the clamp and tightened. Now the battery is constrained laterally (the OEM rubber strap) and longitudinally (the hose clamp). Did nothing for the ignition issue I had, but does keep the battery post bolts from shaking out so easily.
I'll keep checking this for a while. Leave feed back or send a PM if you have a similar issue and want more details on this saga....
now its time to go for a ride.