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During a rain storm (with no place for shelter) that was more like riding with someone pouring a bathtub on me and the bike (very heavy thunder storm) the bike kept cutting out on me. I'd ride over to the side and it wouldn't start.

After several minutes maybe 5 or so it would start up. I'd let it idle for a minute or two then take off into the bath for about another mile or so and it would cut out. Always had electric power for lights and starter but no combustion. Did this once more, then finally a spot showed up to get the bike out of the water. After about 10 minutes and the storm stopped, I was able to ride the rest of the way home.

It was like someone pulled the spark plug wires but all else was fine. Any likely causes that I could do something about?

It could have either been water getting into the engine and then evaporating after a few minutes from the heat of the engine, or it could be some of your wires shorting out from the rain.

You can check your air filter to see if the inside of it is excessively wet, and if it is, that is probably what happened. The other thing you can do, is pull the bike into a dark shed or garage, or wait till night time, and start it and let it idle. Then spray some of the more exposed wires with some water to see if you can see arcing from the wires.

My sister had a piece of crap escort that would always run really crappy when it rained out. She took it to the dealership 6 times and they could never find the problem. One night we had the hood up and had it running and took a misting garden hose sprayer to the engine compartment. Two of her spark plug wires were arcing to each other and killing the spark.

Not saying this is your problem, but it could be.

I'm not familiar with how the VN500's engine is set up, but if it was possible for the plug wires to arc to the engine instead of through the spark plug, those symptoms could happen.

Slather some dielectric grease in the plug wire boot and on the top of the spark plug (where the plug wire boot fits over). That should keep the water out and make sure the electrical gnomes only go through the spark plug.