I had a Suzuki Bandit with ABS and it absolutely sucked. Grab the lever and you could feel the bike pulsing the stoppers. It went from brakes to no brakes, brakes to no brakes. Needless to say this was only good for the least skilled among us. Try to trail brake with that goofy arrangement! Anyway, I have since realized that ABS is much more complicated than simply not letting the wheel stop turning while the bike is still moving. Great ABS is for the most part unnoticeable. It would catch the catastrophic rider misjudgments and otherwise leave things alone. That however, is a very complicated thing to do.
For example, stopping the front wheel from turning when you are going 2 mph is much different than stopping it when you are going 40 mph. Also, a sliding front wheel is not the end of the world when the bike is at 0 lean angle. At a 60 degree lean, even the slightest slowing of the front wheel could cause the bike to dump you. So good ABS requires the bike can monitor the speed the wheels are turning, the speed the bike is moving, the direction the bike is moving (including in the vertical direction), the lean angle, the amount/direction of G's the bike is experiencing, throttle position, and of course lever input. Then somehow the bike takes all this information and calculates what to do with the brakes.
If that sounds complicated, it is. But what it means is that ABS needs all the other electronics (IMU, ride-by-wire, etc.) working in a system to not get in your way. I think ABS got a bad name because people were riding bikes that could only look at the speed the wheels were turning and so they were just not smart enough to brake for you (or should I say as well as you can yourself). But with all of the sensors, ABS becomes magic.
These advanced ABS systems can work amazingly well. They are easy to get perfect stops out of without a lot of focus and training and best of all there aren't too many artifacts from the automatic brake controls to make you feel like the brakes are doing anything but stopping. I was a manual braking loyalist myself until I experienced the brakes on my BMW. These brakes will stop the 750 lbs monster on a dime with zero drama. In a turn leaning over, low speed or high speed they are natural feeling, powerful and confidence inspiring.
My point with all of this is that the Gen 3 Busa is DOA without modern electronics. That's going to turn a lot of Busa fans off but give it a chance. Bike electronics have come a long way.
For example, stopping the front wheel from turning when you are going 2 mph is much different than stopping it when you are going 40 mph. Also, a sliding front wheel is not the end of the world when the bike is at 0 lean angle. At a 60 degree lean, even the slightest slowing of the front wheel could cause the bike to dump you. So good ABS requires the bike can monitor the speed the wheels are turning, the speed the bike is moving, the direction the bike is moving (including in the vertical direction), the lean angle, the amount/direction of G's the bike is experiencing, throttle position, and of course lever input. Then somehow the bike takes all this information and calculates what to do with the brakes.
If that sounds complicated, it is. But what it means is that ABS needs all the other electronics (IMU, ride-by-wire, etc.) working in a system to not get in your way. I think ABS got a bad name because people were riding bikes that could only look at the speed the wheels were turning and so they were just not smart enough to brake for you (or should I say as well as you can yourself). But with all of the sensors, ABS becomes magic.
These advanced ABS systems can work amazingly well. They are easy to get perfect stops out of without a lot of focus and training and best of all there aren't too many artifacts from the automatic brake controls to make you feel like the brakes are doing anything but stopping. I was a manual braking loyalist myself until I experienced the brakes on my BMW. These brakes will stop the 750 lbs monster on a dime with zero drama. In a turn leaning over, low speed or high speed they are natural feeling, powerful and confidence inspiring.
My point with all of this is that the Gen 3 Busa is DOA without modern electronics. That's going to turn a lot of Busa fans off but give it a chance. Bike electronics have come a long way.
My first experience with ABS was in a 91 Caddy. It only pulsed when...activated.
Subsequent cars, my newest and current car, an 06, have excellent ABS and traction control. I've never experienced ABS on a bike but with such tiny (tire) contact patches they're sure to be safer for most riders especially in the wet. I don't much like the idea of linked brakes though. I'd like to decide when the rear brake is used and how much pressure to apply.
