ABS?

Madnorton said:

One of the bikes may well exist, as I have seen anex-TRL bike in the UK.

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Must be tough filtering through traffic

Agreed, seems a proper setup would include a disable feature. But, since vast majority of ABS systems were developed with the sole purpose of four wheel passenger cars on the roads, these additional features are only now making it onto bikes that are more likely to need off-road capability. Many bikes with even slight off-road intentions I have seen have a disable on both ABS & traction control and/or road/sport/wet/off-road modes. Perhaps it had to wait until more throttle-by-wire models appeared?

ABS might be good if you are riding on greasy bitumen roads in the rain and you had not been bitten enough to maintain the connection between your brain and the rear tyre contact patch.

Wonder who has the taxed bike - there were 3 used by the TRL.

Tornado said:

It's quite amazing these were being developed in the '70s, before we had the ubiquitous integrated circuits for microchip processors we take for granted now.
We are only now seeing wide spread adoption of ABS for motorcycles...Triumph now has it on (nearly?) all models as of a year or two ago.

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You are right I had pretty much forgotten that the FJ1200 system had a computing box under the seat tail!

But there are several car systems that are purely electro-mechanical!

MexicoMike said:

I think ABS is great UNLESS you are in the dirt or ice/snow. Then it essentially ensures you have no brakes! At least that was my experience when I had my first ABS car (Porsche 911) and encountered iced roads in a NY winter. My BMW R9T (ABS) on dirt roads in Mexico is similar - no brakes to speak of. The bike doesn't come with ABS disable capability but after my first ride that included some dirt roads, I installed a hidden switch so I could disable the ABS.

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I would not want ABS on a bike in the dirt, but with 4 wheels I am going to have to disagree with you.

First experience with a company pool car. I was rolling at say 65mph early one morning I came over the brow of a hill to find the road full of broken truck and heard ice build up under the tyres as I started braking. As we came to rest behind the truck my somewhat shaken colleague said, well the ASB worked fine, no I said that was me cadence braking, do these have ABS?....yes...but I had defeated it by not letting the wheels actually lock!

So a few weeks later I took another one to a customer site and it snowed out in the countryside. So I took a couple of hours driving local lanes and playing until I cracked it. Natural tendency for an experienced driver is to back out of the brakes in these conditions. Don't do that. Press harder, and then some, to really make the ABS work for you, and it will.
Personally, I think ABS works best for the inexperienced! They don't fight it and tend to overbrake in difficult conditions without knowing that.

This was early '98 ish, I am older now and don't play so much .

(In '96 I took a Ford Escort 1600 pushrod rally car to a stage win in 6" of snow in a Yorkshire forest, and led the rally by 4 seconds when we pulled in for service at midway, and our first tarmac stage. My point is only that I was fairly familiar with going as quick as I could in snow (and gravel) conditions in those days, but unfamiliar with ABS.

International Historic Rally Brittania, 200 cars, highlight for me was that stage, Crofton Forest, where despite being balked by the guys who entered the stage 30 seconds in front of us, and going off into a drift of snow on the longest straight section, we took 50 seconds out the nearest runner in our age category who had 250hp more than us! and 10 seconds out of eventual winner Jimmy McRae, former British Champion and the late World Champion Colin's dad. Jimmy was driving a Porsche 911 with a little more horsepower, a lot more traction and much more experience and one of my rally heroes. Of course, due to having much less power than most we dropped time on the tarmac stages and inevitably enthusiasm got the better of me when we went back into the forests trying to get all of the lost time back in one short stage! I have to thank you for giving an opportunity to regale that tale on a totally unrelated forum! )

acotrel said:

ABS might be good if you are riding on greasy bitumen roads in the rain and you had not been bitten enough to maintain the connection between your brain and the rear tyre contact patch.

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It is the front tyre contact patch I worry about!

SteveA said:

It is the front tyre contact patch I worry about!

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Like wise, anyone used the steel belted radials on the Commando yet? Apparently the classic attacks have this, how the contact patch grows under braking with central steel belt is not something I find convincing, other than 'they work' from the distributor.

madnorton
I,m using 18" Conti Road Attack 3 radials on appropriate rims and they handle superbly on my bike. I,m not a demon braker but hard brake tests on a good dry surface just slow the bike down progressively, in a straight line and under full control with no drama.
Replaced similar performing Pirelli Angel GT,s but the Contis have more tread and better turn in, especially at tight low speed corners, which is a big improvement with clip ons and lazy Mk3 geometry.
Ace tyres and would imagine the 19" Classic Attack radials are well worth a try although minimum wheel width is 2.50". Would be an idea to check if the standard 2.15" is OK otherwise wheel change required.

https://newatlas.com/continental-conti-road-attack-3-review/52239/