It may be fine for some, I find it very intrusive and easily engaged. A friend of my sons with a new Aprillia 660 ended up off in the dirt and then on the ground on a canyon turn because heavy braking triggered and he ended up blowing the turn. He had slowed a lot but he was still on the ground. He tried pulling the ABS fuse on the Aprillia and the speedometer shut off. I found pulling the ABS Solenoid fuse on the R7 causes the ABS light to go on because it is inoperable, but there has been no negative or other affect.
ABS is too intrusive, for me.
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I've had a close call due to ABS. If you really hate ABS and don't plan on switching back, run new brake lines directly from master cylinder to calipers. I did that on my Zero and even snipped the wires at the sensors to tidy things up a bit. I plan on removing the whole system one of these days.
That is the plan! There is a place close that makes custom braided hoses for cheap, while you wait. About $40ea for front lines, you can pick the color sheathing. The rear line won't even be a foot long going from the master to the caliper. The place makes all kinds of aircraft and wheeled vehicle hoses etc., brake, hydraulic, water, etc. If it's not too much trouble I'll uninstall the ABS related hardware and lines that I can.
index in Ontario CA the place.
gandjaircraft dot net
The link says index but that is where it brings you. Or type it in.
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The ABS was too sensitive so when it sensed the front wheel was moving slightly slower than the rear, it released the front brake enough to make me have to swerve between cars. The ABS didn't have a lean angle sensor so I think it assumed a worst case scenario instead of knowing I was braking in a straight line in dry conditions. Had I been leaned or on a wet road, I would've kept a greater following distance and going slower. That's when it would've performed correctly.
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No, this is pretty much how all modern ABS systems work, and they work really well. Even with technology a couple years ago, there were only TINY perceptible differences in performance between a professionally trained racer on traditional brakes and someone just grabbing a handful of brakes on an ABS bike. ABS-equipped bikes do intervene in extreme braking scenarios, particularly on track, which some folks don't like but it's not a huge impact on actual braking performance. The reason most of us despise ABS systems is that they result in a really mushy, crummy feel at the brake lever due to all of the extra hose and ABS unit involved between the lever and the caliper.
OK, thanks for that explanation.
So what do you think happened with EDS' story?
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Well I don't know EDS and I wasn't there, but what he's describing doesn't make any sense. If you're braking hard enough on the street to engage the ABS (i.e. incredibly hard braking if he was straight up and down and the asphalt was dry) and then still have time to "Swerve between cars"...it just doesn't make any sense. And it's not like ABS suddenly stops braking - you're still braking, and doing so heavily, the system just interrupts to prevent the wheel locking completely. A tiny fraction of riders can out brake modern ABS - literally only top level professional racers (do some googling) and even they can only beat it by a small margin.
Look at comments by myself, Vansmack, or other racers - ABS is literally only engaging at the end of the heaviest braking zones on track and sometimes not even then. I don't want to get rid of ABS because it's somehow dangerous or holding me back, I want to get rid of it because I hate the mushy, inconsistent lever feel and I don't want the surprise pulsing through the lever at the end of heavy braking zones when there's already a shitload of things going on during corner entry.
All that being said - I wouldn't even ride a bike on the street WITHOUT an ABS system these days. It's an incredible safety feature that makes riding motorcycles a million times safer than they used to be. Both for new riders who have a habit of panic braking and locking the front as well as ALL OTHER riders who can't control surface conditions on the street. Oil, gravel, manhole covers, painted crosswalks - ABS can save your bacon in all these scenarios where you'd otherwise go down regardless of how good of a rider you are. Getting rid of a ABS on a street bike is just dumb, IMO. Track riding is another story, of course.
That's my 2 cents, and no offense intended towards EDS or anyone else.
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What doesn't make sense? The ABS intervened for a fraction of a second which increased my stopping distance an extra 10' so my choice was to hit the car in front of me or swerve around it. It never had a mushy feel from being too long as it had braided stainless lines. After switching to a smaller front rim, the ABS only kicked in on the rear and way too early.
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Yeah I mean I wasn't there and I don't want an argument. But here's another interpretation - ABS worked as intended. If you were that hard on the brakes and ABS was really engaged for that long, it probably just means you would have locked the front without it and crashed. Sounds to me like ABS probably just saved your butt in this case.
Not sure I understand your front rim comment, did you put a smaller front wheel on your bike?
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What bike did you think I was talking about? 'Twasn't a "street bike" or used a very sophisticated system (no Cornering ABS) which was known to kick in early. It's a pure street bike now and after 45 years of riding 30+ different pure street bikes in all kinds of weather conditions, I've had no emergency braking problems with non ABS. Having the rear hand brake gives it great feedback so I've been using the rear more than I normally would with a foot operated pedal.
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