Well, thanks to everyone's input (esp. Yau-Man who provided the exact coil
checking method I was looking for), I traced my troubles to a bad coil,
replaced the offending part, and am now back on the road.  One last
question, though...am I treating a symptom of a greater problem?  In other
words, why would the coil go bad?  I realize the bad coil covered a lot of
miles, but coils seem like the kind of part that goes bad generally for
reasons other than mechanical failure.  Any ideas...???

Seth B.
'84 Westy