Daytona 676 cat glowing red

[CornishPete]

As title suggests the catalytic converter is glowing red!
I started my Daytona 675 up for the first time after winter hibernation and it fired straight up but after 5 minutes idling I noticed a burning smell and when I looked down the cat was glowing red hot.
After the usual Google search it could be multiple things ranging from blocked cat or bad plug, right up to engine knackered! It's only done 4.5k miles so hopefully the engine isn't knackered, and I never got round to riding so don't know if it was down on power or running rough but it sounded fine idling.
Anyone have a course of action for me to pursue?
FIrst would appear to go for a short ride but would that be able to solve any potential problem and if not what next?
Many thanks!

 

[Robert Weaver]

As it's stood for a while, could it be ethanol in E10 petrol coming out of solution, then that being pumped and burned rather than petrol? If the gas temperature is hot enough to cause steel to glow, surely the header pipes before the cat would be red too, so must be the exothermic reaction in the matrix.

Try sucking the fuel out, putting fresh and try again.