Rory Wilson, architect, Mid Wales
Having been saved by ABS a couple of times I have vowed not to have a bike without it. That's my personal preference of course, but it did quite literally save me from disaster on a massive diesel spill, which would have slid me straight into a busy main road. Quick evaluation led me to believe that if I touched the brakes on a non-ABS bike I'd have been straight down and sliding, but thinking “ah well, ABS, let’s see what happens - no choice anyway,” I braked.
There was loads of pulsing by
the ABS and still a bit of slithering from the rear, but I did actually stop. There was literally nowhere to go, as the whole width of the road was covered in diesel. It was a downhill minor road approach to a busy A-road. Most recently while not travelling particularly quickly I rounded a bend on a 'B' road only to find a stationary tractor right in front of me. I was a little leaned over and had no choice but to jam the brakes on as a car was coming the other way. The ABS brakes on the Bandit were pulsing away, but I stopped sharpish. Despite years of riding experience I know I could not have stopped that quickly without the ABS, and probably would have locked the wheels and low- sided the bike, sliding under the tractor or the on-coming car in all likelihood. It’s all very well people telling you to ride so you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear but around here that means you'd be doing 20mph
half the time!
I should add that I am not of such a frame of mind that I rely on the ABS. It is a last resort. I never trust technology 100% to work when needed.
Fergus O’Connell, Production planner, Lincolnshire I have a 2002 BMW R1100S with ABS and an old BMW K100 which I ride most of the time. To be honest I prefer the brakes on the old ‘K’. They have much more feel to them and appear more efficient than the ones on the ‘S’, even though in reality they cannot be, this is how they feel to me. The ‘S’ has servo assisted ABS and will obviously stop on a sixpence. However under heavy braking, it never quite feels as though the bike is going to stop, though of course it always does. The ‘K’ actually does stop on a sixpence and I have every confidence in the old girl. I would hate to see compulsory ABS on bikes, because of this loss of feel under braking. I believe it takes a vital piece of control away from the rider, albeit not completely. The people proposing such a move have obviously never ridden a bike, what may be better on a car does not necessarily follow for motorcycles. Mind you I would not like to go back to cable operated drums.
Chris Peston Double R Motorcycles, London I’m certainly not keen on linked brakes. When I squeeze the front brake I like that one to come on and when I stamp on the back brake I like that one to come on.
Having said that, linked and or ABS might well be better for most people.
Scott Grimsdall, BMW UK Press Officer We provide ABS as an option on all our bikes except the G450X which is a purpose-built off-road bike. Most customers opt for it despite the fact that typically the ABS represents about 10% of the total cost of the bike. We sold a total of 2,240 of the GS and GS Adventure 1200s in 2010 and over 90% of the customers that bought them, ordered the ABS-equipped option which costs them £965 extra. For some riders there is an issue with ABS when riding off road as the more vigorous riders want to be able to lock their wheels to deliberately skid the bikes on gravel in some situations. Personally I don’t think about having ABS when I’m riding but I wouldn’t want a bike without it now.
Craig Bounds, Black Desert Training (off road), Wales You don’t get the feel with ABS that is critical in off-road riding. The danger is that you squeeze too hard and overbrake with ABS. All the people on my courses disconnect their ABS when they go off-road. For on-road use ABS is good but from my point of view, having an on/off option is the answer. The older riders on my courses who’ve been riding for a long time tend to find ABS confusing but many of the newer riders buying the GS bikes tend to go for it as they tend to be into gadgets and want everything that’s going.
Craig Bounds
Rory Wilson
Fergus O’Connell
Chris Peston How does it work?
There are many variations of assisted braking systems. One of the simpler systems works as follows:
1 The controller monitors the speed sensors at all times. It is looking for decelerations in the wheel that are out of the ordinary. Right before a wheel locks up, it will experience a rapid deceleration. If left unchecked, the wheel would stop much more quickly than any bike could. It might take a motorcycle five seconds to stop from 60 mph under ideal conditions, but a wheel that locks up could stop spinning in less than a second.
2 The ABS controller knows that such a rapid deceleration is impossible, so it reduces the pressure to that brake until
it sees an acceleration, then it increases the pressure until it sees the deceleration again. It can do this very quickly, before the tyre can significantly change speed. The result is that the tyre slows down at the same rate as the vehicle, with the brakes keeping the tyres very near the point at which they will start to lock up. This gives the system maximum braking power.
3 When the ABS system is in operation, the rider will feel a pulsing in the brake controls; this comes from the rapid opening and closing of the valves. This pulsing also tells the rider that the ABS has been triggered. Some ABS systems can cycle up to 15 times per second. Itʼs clever stuff.
The ROAD 47
RIDERS VIEWS
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