ABS and MotorCycles, The Jury is still out?

[Popeye the Sailor]

That video is kind of bullshit.

Yeah, jam on your brakes as hard as you can and you'll do the same thing. He intentionally locked the wheels for the demo.
However, you can do proper panic brakeing (aka knowing how to ride a motorcycle, right.) and you can still panic stop in the wet.

Spend the $500 - $1000 on training and you'll be a better rider all around, not just in stopping.

I've read about any number of accidents on this board and TOB where riders locked up the front and went down.


Panic stops tend not to be rational things, and.....IMO, it's one thing to practice braking hard. It's another thing to practice unexpectedly   braking hard-how does one even do that? Hire a friend to randomly pull out in front of you on your commute?

[mitt]

Why on earth would anyone desire to lock up the front wheel?  That would serve no purpose except to eliminate the ability to steer and to keep the wheels under the bike, both of which would assure a spill in short order. 

I wasn't clear in my post - kind of hard to explain.  But, IMO, you have to work pretty hard at locking up the front wheel or doing an endo - a lot of room for levels of brake intensity and good feedback for the rider.  Therefore, ABS isn't needed in the same way it is for a car that is on ice.  Also, in my experience with other riders, a lot who want ABS on a moto want to prevent the rear from locking up - and on a monster, that is hard to do.

mitt

[wbeck257]

I've read about any number of accidents on this board and TOB where riders locked up the front and went down.


Panic stops tend not to be rational things, and.....IMO, it's one thing to practice braking hard. It's another thing to practice unexpectedly   braking hard-how does one even do that? Hire a friend to randomly pull out in front of you on your commute?

You practice hard braking so that you don't have to think about what you need to do to a panic stop.
You ride with high awareness of what is happening, and expect shit to happen like that.
And you practice, practice, and practice. Eventually it becomes muscle memory.

It is like shooting in self defense. If you have to think about it, you are dead.

[CairnsDuc]

I think a lot of people think of ABS as the be all and end all of of braking safety, to me it's just another tool to assist you, it won't stop you crashing, it won't help you if you grab a handful of brake while leaned over on a wet road.

It has been shown, with practice, that the ABS systems can be out braked, pro riders can also out brake the ABS systems, again, I'm not claiming them to be the be all and end all of braking systems.

But, I think it will assist some/most riders:
* Don't have access to better training, Rider training is very limited in Australia, if you live in a Capital city, your OK, but in my case for me to get better training I have to go 2500 km's to my nearest capital to get to a rider training course.

* Riders who commute, most of my km's each year are racked up in the daily grind of to and fro to work, I have to ride in less than Ideal conditions, rain, cold, whatever is out there, I have to ride in it, I then have to allow for the Idiots in there cages with a death wish all around me, I'd swear some of these Morons want to kill you!

* The car that pulls out in front of you, the child running across the road, there are so many scenarios where there is just no time to get the bike into it's best position for maximum braking power EG: Gently squeeze the lever, wait for the weight to transfer and suspension to compress, feed in more braking power.
For us mere Mortals sometimes the instincts just take over and we grab a handful of lever and a foot full of rear brake, Oh Bugger! wheel(s) locks and down we go.

I think ABS is just another tool to assist you in staying upright, it can not replace good training and a healthy attitude to your road craft, and there are times where it may be unsuitable (off road for example) I agree, make it switchable, although for a bike like a CBR1000RR, A switchable system will most likely never be switched off, (It's very rare someone will take a bike like a CBR1000RR off road, it does happen, but it is very rare)

I also think if your stupid enough to go out and ride stupid in slippery conditions with a false sense of security that ABS will save you in all circumstances, then your an Idiot and a Darwin award nominee.

But an Interesting discussion thus far 

[bluemoco]

Here's an interesting ABS demo video that was put out by H-D.  It shows some of the advantages of ABS on slippery patches.

[please don't turn this into another H-D bashing festival.  video is posted for illustrative purposes.]

[TiAvenger]

A touring bike, or a cruiser, sure, why not? 

A sport bike, no thank you.

[JEFF_H]

I would want it on a touring (or sport-touring) bike.
more likely to be riding in wet weather where it would really help.

A few years back wife and I were riding to vegas...me on a 900SS, her on a borrowed F650GS with ABS.
traffic stopped suddenly on the freeway ahead of us...we both grabbed brakes, she stopped much shorter distance than me....and without the pucker factor.
(could be i suck at braking too... )

[TiAvenger]

(could be i suck at braking too... )

[Popeye the Sailor]

You practice hard braking so that you don't have to think about what you need to do to a panic stop.
You ride with high awareness of what is happening, and expect shit to happen like that.
And you practice, practice, and practice. Eventually it becomes muscle memory.

It is like shooting in self defense. If you have to think about it, you are dead.

I've regularly gone to the local empty parking lot and practiced emergency braking.



This does *not* mean I'll necessarily do it right in a real live emergency.

[swampduc]

But you DO have the option, as the SV650 has optional ABS

http://www.suzukicycles.com/Products/SV650AK8

It looks like the option adds $600 to the sticker price, but as others have pointed out if it saves you then it will repay the $600 on the first avoided accident.

I do now, but didn't in 2004. I think, as others have suggested, that ABS might be most useful on sport-tourers and the like. On any bike, it's not a substitute for skill and technique, but it could be a useful augment. As MrInc said, practicing in controlled conditions, no matter how much muscle memory, doesn't guarantee that you'll execute in a panic situation. I go out to empty parking lots too, and I've locked up the rear wheel on my 696 several times. Hope I don't do that to the front in an emergency.