Thats very true. Its becasue the tq is so much lower at those speeds / gears, it seems more controlled. +/- 20% throttle on a 600 hardly pivots the bike. Same thing in 1st on a geared bike in a lot and your on your ass!
Also a tip, for higherspeed, lower tq bikes. Sumo’s more than sports. If you can roll out in 2nd, clutch it and get it up there, but find yourself chasing the wheelie running out of revs… kick 3rd & back off the throttle all in one action juuuust as the wheelie hits the ballance point. no clutch just back it off enough to unload the gear and kick it up clutchless. Then you have alot less tq to make mistakes with too much throttle input to loop out, and you now have a longer gear to chase it a bit if you need to, then feather the rear brake at or past the BP, to slow down and get the revs lower again keeping the BP and getting to safer slower speeds.
That was the only way I could get my old KTM to come up at highway speeds screwing around when i shouldnt be. 30mph, clutch it up in 2nd, kick 3rd at the bp and just sit there and ride it out for ever. you could twist the throttle a ton and the bike didnt have enough tq VS gear ratio to do a whole lot so you have a ton of wiggle room for error. Half throttle in 3rd on that bike was around 50-55. Heck I could even go right from a light, dead stop, clutch up 1st instantly, clutchless 2nd, 3rd and never drop the tire… sit back at 50 and go for miles.
Same with the DRZ. 2nd was too slow, 3rd was too high and not enough power for me to clutch it up. had to bounce and clutch it up in 3rd, click 4th and you could go for miles.