Bike intermittent loss of power

[Randyjh]

I have an issue that keeps showing up on my 1980 1100. 90 percent of the time
it runs great. but on occasion it will just lose power... as if one or two cylinders just quit ... 9 out of 10 times when I this happens if I just let go of the throttle
and let the bike coast for a second or two it will back fire and then run great
for sometimes 10 miles .. or sometimes just 1/4 mile... then some days it doesn't act up at all and I can put 200 miles on it with no problems..
Just wondering if anyone has dealt with a problem like this...
Thanks!!

[Bergman16]

Might be electrical--kill switch?

This happened to me and I've opened up and cleaned the kill switch contacts. I think vibration was the culprit and dirty contacts. Hasn't happened since. Also an 80 SG.

[motoman]

As stated, kill switch can be suspect area that surely is in need of cleaning internally, or least soon will.
The more likely culprit is an internally broken pick-up coil wire. While having the left side ignition cover off to pull every inch of wires looking for a stretching in the insulating sheaving that indicates the tiny wires have broken internally, also make sure the advance assembly rotates freely with no resistance.

[Randyjh]

Thanks!! I'll check those out

[Randyjh]

Found a broken pick up coil wire... repaired it, seems to have taken care of the problem... also cleaned the kill switch just because.. Thanks again for the help.