Help! Ill running 'hawk (again).
 

I'd left for work on the bike yesterday and just a mile into the ride I suddely lost power and the bike seemed to stutter a bit. I pulled in the clutch, pulled over, the idle dropped and it died. I can start it but it'll die if I don't give it some throttle. I have to get to work so I've no time to play with it but all fluid levels are good and I detect no obvious damage. Sounds like it's running on one cylinder? I'm at a loss off the top of my head so if y'all have any suggestions so I can get at the bike when I get off work I'd appreciate it.

The above is a copy of my post from May of last year. And the EXACT same thing happened again. Last May I didn't get to do anything to the bike 'till the next morning and I popped the fuel filler and it started and ran fine. I assumed I'd gotten fuel in the vacuum lines. THIS time, however, I've got 65 miles on the tank and that wasn't the problem. I haven't had a spare minute to do anything other than give the bike a cursory glance but I'd SWEAR it feels like one cylinder is dead. When I limped back home the bike would occasionally surge as if the (maybe) dead cylinder was momentarily getting spark. The exhaust smelled strongly of unburnt fuel. Has anybody else experienced this? I won't have a chance to do anything untli tomorrow and I'd like to have an idea of what the issue(s) is(may be) before I dig in.

It could still be a vapor lock problem. There is a small vacuum line that connects underneath the tank and runs to the bottom of the bike that could be clogged or pinch. Riding in the rain or through water can do it too.

I quickly determined that I AM running on only the forward cylinder. Didn't have time to do anything other than fire it up and feel the head pipes. Now I just have to figure out WHY.

checked for spark?
checked for fuel?