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100% disagree. Unless you're a track veteran or a dirt fiend, 95% of riders aren't gonna beat ABS. Not a chance.
Learning tyre limit is something people dedicate a lot of time to. Most people aren't simply gonna do that.@lynx Yes. ABS is better than the majority of us. Unless you spend weekends replicating Toprak, you're not better than ABS. This is a not even open for contention. The limit is NOT skill. The limit day to day riding is attention span. When shit comes out at you out of nowhere, the limiting factor is your reaction. Is ABS likely to save you more so than your skill and reaction time day to day? I'd say 100%
Chak-
Learning tyre limit is something people dedicate a lot of time to.
Gotta say learning what a front tyre skid feels like and then learning to consistently control it has to be one of the most difficult parts of dirt riding. You just never want to lose traction when braking, and on the green lanes it’s a constant.
I still haven’t done a track day, but I have felt the rear step out enough times on the road to keep me honest. Massive respect for people who can control that and exploit it.
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@chak - Absolutely, 100%. Could not agree more. Most riders don't scratch the capabilities of their bikes.
Improving requires confidence, because innate fear of crashing is a limit on learning experience. Getting better requires a series of little leaps of faith, with the knowledge that at some point you're going to fall off. Even when you fall, it's important to understand why, and recognise where you went wrong. It's always your fault, but as you reach the limit of the bike, the margin between fall / not fall goes towards zero.
Finding the real limit, be it threshold braking, trail braking, lean, acceleration off the corner involves scads of practice, in the hundreds of hours and a lot of falling off. The benefit is you're far less likely to bin it because you panic that you've gone into a corner too quick and go straight or grab a brake and crash. That's the single largest cause of single vehicle mobike crashes in these parts.
There is, I agree, a use it or loose it, or at least get fucking rusty element too.
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I should have clarified what I meant by skilled rider, maybe pro-racer would have been a better phrase.
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I personally hate ABS on a bike but Ive rode MX and stuff for years also over that time ive learned to ride within my limits
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We are just talking, I don't like abs on cars or bikes. Have never set abs off when braking on the road, in a car when needed. Have set off abs when there has been a road surface issue. Having had the brake pedal pulse unexpectedly did more damage to my leg muscles. Note I'm the same person that provokes over steer in cars for fun. This was before drift was a thing.
As for abs on bikes, I like locking/slowing the rear wheel to kick the rear out and help me corner. Did not like abs on telelever BMW. With no transfer of weight to the front as a normal bike. ABS made that process hard to guage as I got it to kick in once, at box hill, and managed to let go of the brake as the pulsing was so unexpected.
Also I think that the stats were that the biggest killer of motorcyclists involved no other road users. Usually hitting road furniture. So how would abs help?
pdlouche
Jung
Ramsaye
konastab01
lynx
Yes, fantastic idea for everyday use.
Not on track and it’s good to learn the limits of braking without abs. But then it’s also good to learn the limits of braking with abs too. Basically we should all practice braking hard more.
A skilled rider can normally out brake ABS but an average rider in a panic will benefit from it in most situations.
Panic braking mid corner because you ran out of judgement, skill or conviction is the only major exception.