11-16-2016, 10:25 PM
(11-16-2016, 06:22 PM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: I wonder, Ulvetanna, if you are, as my father might have said, trailing your coat? If so, I'm going to tread on it.
What is your point? Of course Suzuki and other manufacturers will include strongly worded disclaimers with their ABS-equipped bikes. They'd be crazy not to. No reasonable person will argue that ABS can save anyone who has to brake hard in every situation. Even if the circumstances are right for ABS to operate at its best, it may well be that the punter simply doesn't have room to stop and ... well ... whammo. Good night nurse. The disclaimer will make it harder for some clown to waste a court's time arguing that the manufacturer implied ABS would save them.
Could I outperform ABS in optimal circumstances? No way. Would I have it on the bike if I could? Too bloody right, as we say in the antipodes. If it gives me the tiniest edge in an emergency, I'm for it. That doesn't mean I think it will make me bulletproof. Nor do I think it means I shouldn't practice breaking techniques. I have ABS on my car and I don't hurtle round the place slamming in the brakes at the last minute confident that it will magically stop me. But it has pulled me up at least once in circumstances where, without it, I would not have been able to stop in the same distance.
Continuing to spruik the inference that ABS is poor technology is a little like asserting Pratchett's Diskworld is round. Buy bikes without it if you want. But hang on to them because I'm willing to bet it will not be long before it's mandated for motorcycles in any number of countries. Even the US of A. Why? Because it will give a few more suckers an even break (pun intended) and that's not altogether a bad thing.
If you can stop your bike better without ABS than with it, full marks to you. I'm willing to bet you're an exception rather than the rule. Meanwhile, let the rest of us admire your extraordinary skill and take what comfort we can from improved technology.
Well said Cormanus. I agree 100%.
