96 suddenly not running.

I've had my vfr for about a month, been doing some cosmetic repairs, changed coolant/oil.  The previous owner had dropped it twice and then it sat for about two years. Added some fresh gas and used a little carb/injector cleaner, cleaned it right up and was running again. Yesterday I had it running for about 20 minutes, idling to see if my coolant gauge was actually working, which it was.  The thing was running just fine and warmed up like it should.  Then today all of a sudden it doesn't want to start. It turns over an sputters like it wants to run but it just dies soon after, regardless of how much I choke.  This really sucks because I just got it back together and was ready to go for my first ride on the thing.  Any ideas?  I don't understand what it could be considering it was running like a top over the past few weeks. I'd like some input before I have to tear it all apart again to check the plugs or clean the carbs, which would suck.

Download  a manual from the downloads section, and start some troubleshooting. If you were to give a few more details, i'd be able to help a little more. My ECU just died on me, my symptoms were that the bike would crank, but would not start, no spark to all 4 plugs.

Whats the condition of your electronics?  Try charging your battery overnight, and then giving it a go.  If it starts, then you either have a bad battery/stator/RR.

Gunk in the carbs man.

Fuel filter??

Something gunky could have broke loose and clogged it.

One thing to try is to make sure the petcock isn't clogged.  If there is a suction 'whoosh' when you open gas cap after trying to start it means that the fuel pump can't deliver the fuel because of vacuum in the tank.
If it's gunk in the carbs some people have had good success with Seafoam.  I haven't ever used it so I can't comment on it's usefulness

Battery

Your bikes sounds a lot like mine, previous owner dropped it then let it sit for 2 years.  I was not as lucky, mine would not start at all, so I rebuilt the carbs.  The one thing that made mine act like yours was the small passages in the carb for the choke function were clogged.  If I got the bike running, it ran and idled fine, but once it was cool and I tried to start it again, no luck.  I had a heck of a time getting them all cleaned out, had to order some super small wire to keep tapping with until it finally poked through, I had to order a few feet of it, so I have plenty to give away.  Try some of the other suggestions first, but if you get to the point of pulling the carbs, send me a note and I will send you some of the wire.

Something interesting happened yesterday, when I attempted to start it up the entire dash would black out or the lights would flicker and blip for a bit. At this point the bike wouldn't even crank, so I checked the fuses and voltage (1.3 V).  Bought a new battery, prepped it, charged for 30 min and the thing fired right back up. Awesome! Thanks for the help everyone.

Bingo