Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Proper low gear throttling, small, size

Question
Hi, there.
I have question about throttling at the low gear.
At the 1st and 2nd gears, I feel that engine is blip or lurching if I release the throttle at once, engine would not go down smoothly but sudden speed down. Is this behavior expected or general? My bike is small size and single cylinder 250cc, cruiser. I wonder if bigger engine size with twin engine do similar??
Thanks in advance.


Answer
Yep, smaller bikes make this much more noticable. Larger bikes do the same thing, but because there's so much more mass, it's not as noticable.

In low gears, if you're going to snap the throttle closed, you should squeeze your clutch to mitigate the engine-brake lash you feel. You'll also want to work hard at developing very smooth and precise throttle control. Keep your right wrist in the "down" position so you don't have as much throttle-grip-travel to deal with. Also, you could try using only two or three fingers on the throttle--kind of hang your pinkie finger and maybe your ring finger off the end and only use your thumb and first two or three fingers. This can make you much smoother on the throttle.

Good luck,

Pat