Strange Surging On My 2001

Went out for a quick ride this morning, everything was good until after accelerating hard coming out of a turn, the bike lost a lot of power. It felt like it was only running on 2 or 3 cylinders. The exhaust sound was strange, and wouldn't accelerate like it should. As I kept riding, the bike would start surging, like it would start and stop firing on all 4 cylinders. After about 2 miles of this it just started working fine again, like there was no problem. Any thoughts?

I would guess that a defective plug wire or a the plug itself would be a likely culprit.

I just put new plugs in about 700 miles ago. I topped off ( a little over half a tank) with some premium to see if that would help. I just went out and rode about 50 miles with no problems. Not sure what to think.... Makes me nervous though.

I once got a great deal on a Honda 350 that experienced intermittent surging and dropping of one cylinder.  It had new spark plugs one of which was a factory failure.

Infant mortality on any new product can happen.  Try new plugs.

I put new plugs in my 2001 last fall. Within 200 miles I developed a miss. One of the new plugs were bad. Ended up changing the oil too because it smelled like gas (from the cylinder not firing).

If it were a bad plug, would it run good again after the stumble?

It could, check your plug wires to ensure they are secure.  Could be getting intermittent connection or arcing at your plug terminal.

Mine was intermittent and got more frequent over about 100 miles. Sometimes up a hill (under load) but not always.

Accelerating fast can move stuff on your bike.

I'd start with having a look at the battery and terminals.

Clean em up, tighten the leads down.

I ended up cushioning mine with flat bubble wrap on the base and side.

Might have had a little condensation in the gas or just plain old contamination. On our return from the trip to Co/Az/Ut and New Mexico in 06 the four of us filled up at the Shell station on the west side of Guymon in the Ok panhandle. All four bikes ran crappy until we got to Woodward where fresh gas mostly fixed the problem. Rough running and low on power. Sound familiar?