engine braking do you roll of the throttle or do you keep the throttle steady while you shift down?
It depends where in the RPM range of any given gear you are in. I will use my Ninja 1000 for instance. Anything over about 4-5k RPM, and I roll off my throttle, I will experience minor engine braking. So if I am at around 7-8k RPM? Instead of using my front/rear brake to slow down, I would just roll off throttle and I would slow down due to engine braking and lack of throttle. Now if you are in the lower range of your RPM, it is best to still roll off throttle, pull in your clutch, shift down and slowly let out the clutch to start engine braking. If you want to resume your speed, just roll on the throttle until you match the engine speed to remove the engine braking. It is all kind of a balance, and very dependent on what you are trying to achieve.
Only thing I would add is when downshifting blipping the throttle a bit as you're letting out the clutch to match RPM's can smooth out the transition to the lower gear. Also you really want to make sure you have a feel for your bike and where your shift points are. Dropping into first from the high end of second could be not fun, like say in the middle of a sharp turn. You also want to be very aware of not double shifting, so say dropping two gears from third to first and then just dropping the clutch. It's not so great on your clutch or engine, and will likely result in a quick locking of the rear tire for a short period, which while when the bike is stood up is not so bad, in a turn could prove disastrous.
Depends on how much engine braking you need at the time. Crashing down the gears while standing on the brake pedal tends to roll the throttle as you grab the front brake lever anyway. Letting off the throttle under normal driving creates only a modest amount of engine braking.
