Strange deceleration or engine retarding on 2010 VFR1200FD

Just wondering if anyone has had this happen to them and what came of it or opinions as to what you think is going on.

I bought a used 2010 1200FD with 3000km on the clock from a dealer that was selling it on consignment for an individual. When I took delivery the spare key, manual, log books, tool kit etc did not come with it and after I did finally get almost all of those items back I noticed there was no record of the first service being done at 1000km so booked it in to have it done for peace of mind.

Around that time when riding it and in manual mode downshifting and braking before pulling in to the dealership I noticed it suddenly seemed to slow down excessively. It's very difficult to describe it but it's like I was trying to cruise in too high a gear and it was about to stall and it felt like it was dragging some how. As it was slowing me down so fast and I was in traffic and still very new to the bike and using manual mode on the DCT I got a bit flustered and don't have an accurate version of events in my head of exactly what happened. As best as I can remember it I kept down changing as revs were dying and the bike was slowing down very quickly from what seemed like excessive engine braking but not the sort that comes from down changing but like an artificial throttling down of the power, almost like what you experience when you feel the 1st and 2nd gear restriction kick in when trying to accelerate hard normally. Even though I was cycling down through the gears they seemed to be having no effect on recovering from the slowing down and it would not let me accelerate or maintain control of the throttle, the bike just kept kind of shuddering to a stop and I ended up stopping short of the dealer in the middle of the road. Then just as quick as it stopped it seemed to find the right gear and come alive again and I picked up speed, rejoined the traffic then pulled in to the dealer.

I couldn't understand what had happened and even suspected that in my panic I had somehow kept my foot on the back brake throughout the whole thing and maybe the dragging was me panicking and applying more brake but couldn't see it because I was distracted by the gears and trying to work out what was happening.

I didn't want to believe that there night be a problem with the bike and put it down to something I did not a mechanical fault.

Anyway since then nothing else unusual happened for months until two days ago when I was riding with the missus. So we're on a highway doing 80km/h riding in manual mode again, it's 10 degrees celcius and the bike had been warmed up before taking off and we've been riding for about 10 minutes and covered about 10km doing speeds of between 80 and 100 km/h. We pull up at the lights then take off again in slow traffic slowly going up through the gears back to 80km/h. I get to 5th gear at about 70km/h and 'it' happens again. Same thing but instead of a rapid deceleration the bike stops accelerating, holds at 70, starts to gradually slow down as if something is being dragged behind us all of a sudden. I start down shifting but to no effect, I'm down to 2nd or 3rd, 60km/h then I switch it to auto it holds for a second, seems to find the right gear again then allows me to accelerate and ride again as normal. I switch back to manual mode and for the rest of the day don't have a problem.

I'm reluctant to drop it in to the dealer as they don't seem to have a lot of experience with the vfr1200's having once ordered the wrong part on one occasion and struggling to fit other aftermarket parts on another occasion. I'm worried they'll charge and arm and a leg in testing and still not be able to recreate the fault anyway or give me a straight answer as to what they think it is either.

Any ideas?