ABS--what are your thoughts?

[kdehkordi]

I bring this up because I'm unclear about how much, if at all ABS makes riding motorcycles safer. I'm in a position to buy a new bike and after my crash last week I feel I really need to rethink about techno-wizardry.

Not a big fan of gadgets, or electronics (just more stuff to brake, cost you $ and time w/ur bike), but if it means I'm safer I would be willing to consider it.

After analizing my 2 crashes, I've made a list of things that went wrong causing the crash.

First one :-) After a long day of riding, I was tired. Not wanting to stop & rest I pushed on. The scenery was really beautiful and I got distracted for a split sec, looked back at the road and saw a curve, panicked and hit both brakes, front slowed nicely but I locked up the rear and highsided. Speed was not high and road conditions were fine.

That woke me up and I began to take riding 100x more seriously. I did track/CLASS days, read Codes' book etc... and as a result my riding improved100x Not only was I safer, but I was faster as well. Speed was as a result of better control, not taking more risks or being macho.

Second one ;-) I lost the front on some gravel, while braking into a turn (locking-up the front), low-sided and totaled my bike. It was cold, my tires were cold and there was gravel on the high elevation mountain road. Speed was fine, my friends made the turn no problem. I was riding agresively but not recklessly. I was out for a spirited ride, but not more so than I've done countless times before.

Typically when accidents happen it's because many things go wrong leading to a crash. Thats what I feel happened to me, but if I could reverse time, and put myself back on that same bike, now equipped with ABS, I feel I wouldn't have crashed. I strongly feel this way. But since I've been wrong before, maybe you can give me some input.

I was honest above. I got distracted, cold tires, stomping on the rear brake, using poor judgment etc... The list goes on and on. We're all guilty of making these mistakes when riding simply b/c it's impossible to be 100% perfect 100% of the time.

My core question, what I asked myself is this: Considering these circumstances, should my next bike have ABS? Should ALL bikes being manufactured have ABS as standard (assuming you could turn it off--I hate nanny systems like a badly set-up DTC)

I'm focusing on street riding, not tracking ur bike, where the best riders could stop faster w/o ABS. I feel I'm a safe rider, but for the mileage I do (this year 20k mi) its inevitable that I have a few pucker moments.

Second part of question is: what are your thougts on the diff ABS systems out there (Duc vs BMW vs....) and have you had any malfunctions w/ur ABS systems?


Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Wonway]

Jesus....Are we trying to have a most posted thread contest or something? Why didn't you just post about the plastic tank issue or what you would like to tell the president of DNA while giving a reach around or something?

[davy.j]

First one: panicked and hit both brakes, front slowed nicely but I locked up the rear and highsided

Second one: I lost the front on some gravel, while braking into a turn (locking-up the front)

I & 2 = rider error
No amount of electronic intervention is going to correct that issue.
Don't panic, don't brake into corners on gravel.

.
Training wheels sound like a viable option

[C-simian]

The way my ABS acts (relatively transparent but not infallible), I don't think it would have helped in the front-end washout, but it might have aided in not locking up your rear brake.

My sense is that you will appreciate the ABS systems Ducati uses, but it won't keep your bike on the road if grievous errors happen again. I was not happy with the way my Duc handled on gravel last July, but I didn't lose it and stayed away from the front brake, only using the rear lightly as necessary to keep from going to fast. I hate gravel on a dedicated street machine.

And, no, requiring ABS on every bike won't keep the fools from turning in front of you, or you from doing something irresponsible at a critical moment.

Ron

[Chuckracer]

My take on ABS (after I got done snickering at Wonway's answer): If you'd have had ABS, it would have cycled it's little heart out and may have kept you upright through the gravel, only so you could have hit whatever came after it. A crash is a crash, no matter when in the event it finally happens.

[DuckMan]

Situation 1 should have been avoided by riding just about any Ducati since the back brakes don't work. Yes ABS probably would have helped you there.

Situation 2, in my experience no, it would not have helped. If you are already leaning into the turn, braking and hit gravel you are going to loose it. I've done this a couple of times. Most recently a few months ago in Colorado on a freshly paved road with loose "chip-seal". I didn't crash but the only way to save it was to get off the front brake (wasn't using the back) and wait for the tire to recover.

[ncgt1000]

"After a long day of riding, I was tired." There's the problem. No help from ABS with this.

"I lost the front on some gravel, while braking into a turn. . . " At least on my '95 R1100RS, the ABS does not function when the bike is leaned over. No help from ABS with this.


Honestly, I bought the RS new and I've tested both front and rear maybe 4 times over the years. By tested, I mean purposely slammed on the binders just to see what it feels like and/or if they still work! I can't tell you that I've ever heard them cycle in a hard braking situation. So, as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out. YMMV.

[Jonny DeWog]

It's impossible to decide whether ABS would have been useful in the instances the OP decribes since -

1) none of us are experts on ABS technology.

2) nor are we accident investigators at the instances described.

What we do know is that ABS is a proven technology that increases bike "safety" and reduces rider injury...so much so that the Victorian State government here in Oz is likely to mandate that compulsory ABS be fitted to all new bikes by 2015 ( they are simply basing this on YTD accident data; the stats in favour of ABS-equipped bikes don't lie)

jdw

[Sport999]

I've only had ABS experience while driving a car. On wet pavement its really great! I've also only seen ABS tests done with motorcycles on wet pavement, no gravel, sand etc, and never while leaned over. On wet pavement in a straight line on a motorcycle the results also seemed great. I don't like linked brakes though with or without ABS. There are times (most times) when I should decide if I want brake pressure to both wheels or just one. ABS yes, linked brakes, no.

[Scblacksunshine]

ABS is a must for me. Some might argue that it's unnecessary and gets in the way of real riding. The way I see it, it's just another insurance policy, it won't eliminate crashes 100% of the time but even if it reduce it by 5-10% that small percentage can mean stopping in time to avoid a major accident or locking up the wheel and lose control. Now, if I have MotoGP riding skills then maybe ABS is an annoyance but I don't lie to myself and articles like below help convince me that ABS is one of those better than save than sorry thing. Now if someone can show me ABS actually cause more accidents then I'll be the first one protesting it.

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