ABS: Lack of it on modern motorcycles is AMAZING...?

Question

My friend last weekend crashed his bike...classic set-up, idiot pulls in front of him, and he slams on his brakes, the front locks up, and he is down.

My other roomate stated inexperience was at fault, but, really, who among us is Rossi, and can just "modulate" the braking system in a panic situation of life preservation?

BMW since the late 80's has been offering bikes with ABS, and I personally think it is an abomination that it is not standard on EVERY bike sold, at a minimum the front brakes.

The arguments I hear in response to people who don't want ABS...my God, are we really that stupid as a people, as a nation?!

Seat-belts were once considered "chicken-belts" by the macho-men, and ABS lets one STILL control the path of the bike...But after it locks up, it's GAME over baby!!

Answer 1

I guess it would be okay on some bikes for inexperienced riders. Do race cars have ABS...I rest my case.

Answer 2

I am sorry to hear your friend has crashed his bike, and it is my hope he is doing well.

However, no ABS system will help a rider when another vehicle pulls out in front of him a few feet away taking the riders safety cushion away suddenly. Motorcycles can stop incredibly fast, but they still require distance to stop.
ABS systems do not reduce the total distance needed only keep the wheels from locking up, and in many cases increases that needed distance.

You have not stated the your friend's level of experience or what, if any, training he has had so I will not nit pick on that topic. However, I will say that in most motorcycle/car crashes that there are multiple things that led up to the crash by both parties.

Again, I hope your friend is doing well and recovers soon.
Ride Safe

P.S. Honda, likewise, offers ABS on there large scooters.

Answer 3

No, ABS does not increase safety on MC, nor do airbags, cages, or any of the other ridiculousness that is being mandated.

BMW ABS also links front to rear, and significantly removes control from the rider.

Your roommate may or may not be a good rider, but I doubt magical ABS would have saved him.

An experienced rider *not Rossi, just any experienced rider" CAN modulate the brakes, as well as balance braking amount from front to rear to effectively stop


By the way, your statement of "once the front is locked it is over" is 100% incorrect.

Most dirt riders will regularly slow the bike by sliding both wheels under braking, "locked" as you say.


Sorry about your roommate, but there is no magical "cure in a can" that will save people from themselves.

Answer 4

I wouldn't want ABS on a bike because of the obvious, it increases braking distance as has been said and it is certainly more subject to vibration and the elements on a motorcycle than in a car or truck and much more likely to fail.

Most riders do not utilize their rear brake as they should, especially on hard stops. That dependence on the front brakes leads to tipover accidents. As does failing to slide the bike into a crash rather than freezing on the brake handle.

I am not going to criticize your friend because I didn't witness the accident, but don't think for a minute ABS systems prevent close in accidents like the one you described. They do improve skidding characteristics and improve control on hard braking, but they will not improve panic braking situations wherein there are only seconds to impact.

Answer 5

Harley Police bikes have ABS. Nobody can say if the accident was operator error, but I can tell you there is no way that a car can outbrake a bike. My triumph has dual Brembo 4 piston brakes in front, and dual piston in the rear. No production car has that setup.
There are bikes like the Gold wing that have integrated modular brakes. If you step on the rear brake pedal, or grip the front lever it actually powers both brakes at the same time

Answer 6

First off, I don't believe that ABS is the be-all and end-all of brakes not locking up. I ride a motorcycle and don't believe I would want them on there. There is more to stopping a bike than depending on ABS such as balance, experience, downshifting, etc.

I had a wreck last week in my pickup with ABS...guess what? The brakes locked up anyway and I slid into the rear of a van. ABS did nothing to stop that and we were only going 15 mph!

Answer 7

The lesson as I see it is that your friend was:
1. Going too fast.
2. Not paying attention to what was going on.
3. Not familiar with the bike.

This is a prime example of the need for a Rider safety course. Your friend would have learned how to modulate the brakes. He would have learned that you must anticipate all situations ahead of you. Including the one where the idiot pulls out in front of you.

You have to ride a motorcycle like you are invisable, because to a good share of the drivers on the road you are.

Answer 8

I can only speak for myself, but I don't want any GD computers on my bike. KISS, ABS is just one more thing to fail.

Apart from that, anybody who rides a motorcycle (or drives a car for that matter) should practice panic stops & maximum effort braking so as to be familiar with how their vehicle will handle in such a situation. This includes how to recover from a locked front brake! As long as you release it right away, it's certainly not a foregone conclusion that you're going down. I agree with your other roommate.

Answer 9

You do realize that ABS increases braking distance, right?

With braking distance as bad as it is on bikes in the first place, I don't want something making it worse. I also don't want the added complexity, expense, and weight of ABS on my bike.

You are supposed to PRACTICE emergency stops for a reason. If you wait until you're in a life or death situation, you will lock wheels, or not brake as hard as your bike can take.

Answer 10

It would be like looking for armadillos in the chimp section of the zoo. The fossils in the Jurassic layer were made when a herd of dinosaurs were covered in The Flood of Noah. They want you to believe that this happened to the dinosaurs, 200 -65 million years ago and that the bones are 11,000 feet deep but they uncover them all over the earth, on top of the ground. It turns out the Jurassic layer isn't really a layer that is 11,000 feet deep or 200 millions years old (they can't age rock), it's a section of rock that contains dinosaurs. The fossils in the Cambrian layer were made when the trilobytes were covered in The Flood of Noah, too. They want you to believe that this happened to the trilobytes, 550 million years ago and that the trilobyte fossils are 14,000 feet deep but they uncover them all over the earth, on top of the ground. It turns out the Cambrian layer isn't really a layer that is 14,000 feet deep or 550 millions years old (they can't age rock), it's a section of rock that contains trilobytes. If you think about it, you would not expect to see a cat in a dinosaur field although they have found cat tracks in the same layer with dinosaur tracks unless they were hunting the dinosaur. Most cats prefer to live around other cats and when the flood came they would have been covered in mud and fossilized in the cat layer. As it turns out, Creationists and even Evolutionists (Mary Leaky) have found human tracks amongst the dinosaur tracks and we have proof that people have lived among the dinosaurs in the past 1,000 years. And, if you can find where a cat or dog has been buried in a flood, encased with mud and become fossilized, you will find them at the same level of depth in the rock as the dinosaurs and the trilobytes. So, I don't believe that I will have to account for the lack of modern animals in The Morrison Formation because I believe there are fossils of all the animals in The Morrison Formation, at the same depths.

Answer 11

The statement is both true. I have ridden bikes w/ both and the size weight of the bike will dictate the ABS option. For big BMW cruiser's and sport tourer's ABS is useful in the type of riding typically done. I would never own or even ride a full sport ride w/ ABS. It would be death sentence.