Signal generator pick up coil!!!

Hi all

First post here as I would like to thank all the technical bods for the untold amount of information they post on this site. I use this place occasionally for the odd bit of advice (lurking!). Thanks guys. Anyway, this may be of interest or even help someone out, I'll try and keep it brief.......

Third lane on the A2 just south of the tunnel, about 60mph, and the power dies! Intermittently firing on one cylinder so manage to sort of coast to a concrete apron where there would normally be a hard shoulder (exciting!!!). Could do nothing on the side of the road so AA relayed home.

Fed up so went to pub. Fired the bike the following day, only one cylinder and hell, do they sound agricultural on the one pot. So, changed the rear ignition coil pack and lead, now it won't fire at all, just a dirty great backfire. Change the front coil pack and lead, backfire. Change the starter relay unit, backfire. This is obviously a timing issue so rocker covers off and look at the cam chains, all seems fine. Right then, signal generator pick up coil? Took the impedance reading, 190 ohms, well within tolerance but not making any voltage when engine being turned over. Luckily I had a spare pick up due to a previous burnt generator coil and lo and behold, it is cured!

What surprised me was the way the coil broke down, I would have expected some previous poor running, and certainly not the way it lost the cylinders seperately. That really threw me with the attempted fault diagnosis, so, a big thankyou to the people in this place for their information that pointed me in the right direction. Lots of money saved and no more sitting in London traffic.

As an aside, thank god it didn't occur in the tunnel, anyone here who is familiar with London will know what a nightmare that would have been!!!

Al