What does a higher idle promote?

[Kal]

Super Dave, I misspoke...it was your transition into the busstop.  I was watching several guys downshifting into the busstop and their bikes were wallowing back and forth and the blipping and the chattering was going on.  Your bike was very smooth and now I understand why.  I wanted to know the secret of smooth downshifting wthout getting tennis elbow.

[Super Dave]

S bikes were wallowing back and forth and the blipping and the chattering was going on

Hmm, those might be Suzuki's?  They seem to have a weight bias problem so they tend to have those kind of issues.

[Steviebee]

yea, i was doing everything perfect, its just my bike that wasnt listnening to me !!!

[TeamProBono]

In addition to what's been mentioned, the simpler reason a lot of racers use a high idle setting is for bikes that have a rough or abrupt transition from idle speed to rolling on the throttle, regardless of the riders' smoothness, helping to eliminate the resultant upsetting of the chasis.  Some bikes, no matter what you do with the jetting or EFI, there's just no smoothing out the transition from off to on throttle.

FYI for those unfamiliar with two-stroke GP bikes: why are they always blipping the throttle or holding the throttle when warming up and waiting to go on the track?  The throttles don't have an idle position and the engine would otherwise die, leading to frantic attempts to push start the bike NOW!  Well, at least a few years ago.  Now, with all of the extra electronics, who knows?  Maybe they do have an electronic idle circuit on the newest GP bikes.

[Super Dave]

Even some carbed 4 stoke race bikes didn't have idle circuits.

The blipping on two strokes is usually related to the plugs loading up.  Old four stroke race bikes, we're talking 60's here, apparently used some different kind of valve seat material, so I'm told, that needed more loading to keep the valves loaded into the seats.

Electronics has evolved to the point where the "box" can do the blipping.