Stalled in 2nd gear - Now running bad

Hi-
I am asking this question for my boss, he has a 1981 KZ750 which he purchased new, it now has 24K. Yesterday when he was riding home, he tried to launch in 2nd gear, and killed it. It started back up right way, but is running very sluggish. He said it will run ok for a few seconds, then run bad again. Any ideas on what this may be? Timing off?

Thanks!
Dallas
2003 Honda Shadow Spirit 750

hmmmm...
Did he check the connections on the coils. sometimes they work their way loose and/or jar loose. That has happened to me before, and it will run fine for just a moment and then start running bad because the connection is only "on" part of the time.( So, the bike would be running on 2 cyl. only, or running on 4 then 2 because of the connection.)

A vaccum leak to the petcock (If that bike is set up that way?) would cause issues, as well as grit in the carbs.
Seems that a timing issue would have been around for a while and he would have noticed. I think that if it were the timing then it would be a cam chain issue. Even valves and/or rings could have the same effect, but would wear out over time.
It's hard to tell really from the details that you gave. If you can define "sluggish" and let us know more about the issues the bike is having, I'm sure we can figure out the prob.

anyone else has had this happen to them before?

hope they get it fixed

Dallas, Tell your boss there is not way to diagnose a problem like this without a bit of detail from him. Has the bike been tuned up recently? Sounds like the problem is mechanical rather than electrical if it was running OK and now is acting up after "launching" it (whatever that means). It sounds like he may have had the cam chain jump timing due to lack of maintenance but that is only a guess since I know nothing about the history of the bike.

Could it be something stupid like a plug kicked the bucket?
a plug the fouled out would make it do something like that.