Daveson,
Currently the switch does nothing but take up space. it was one of the "upgrades" the previous owner started and never followed through with, there are not even any wires connected to it.
I will keep messing with that connection and keep an eye out for a decent priced ignition module, i would like to have the bike as factory-functional as possible for the sake of being able to know what is going on with it at any given time.
your suggestion of grounding through the ICU instead of gear box, do you mean cutting the new wire into the old one? it is a possibility but I got good continuity through that wire so i didn't see any reason to think there was a broken connection there.
The multimeter was used with the following method; meter set to Ohms (200), black terminal touched to ground (same engine ground the wire is connected to now), with the red terminal touched to the 85 terminal, and the 9.85V reading came when the ignition button on the handlebars was pressed.
The bike is going in for an oil change, fuel injector cleaning, and drive shaft oil change in the next week or two anyway, so hopefully there will be no ill effects between then and now.
Let me know if i can elaborate on anything else, i was definitely flying by the seat of my pants through most of this.