How hard to brake to activate ABS

[the Ferret]

Ulve.. If you are talking to me, I haven't skidded a tire in years, not since I came around a curve and skidded my way in between 4 deer standing in the middle of the road on my old 750 Nighthawk with drum rear brake. Suprised all of us! However coming from a motocross background I just let up pressure on the rear while counter sterering into the direction of skid and went straight thru them. Could have touched one on each side. Could clearly hear their hooves on the asphalt as they tried scrambling off the roadway. Fun time.

Btw while taking the ferry across the river with my son on our ride yesterday I asked him about the ABS on his new FJ-09, and explained my situation. He said he came around a curve last week and a deer was darting across the road as he exited the turn and he also applied the brakes very hard without his ABS kicking in when he thought maybe it should have. So maybe the article is on to something about the new ABS systems. This is my first bike with ABS so I learned all my braking technique PRE-ABS therefor don't know what to expect lol

It's good to know how to brake hard here in the country with all the deer we have out morning, noon and night.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Ulve.. If you are talking to me, I haven't skidded a tire in years, not since I came around a curve and skidded my way in between 4 deer standing in the middle of the road on my old 750 Nighthawk with drum rear brake. Suprised all of us! However coming from a motocross background I just let up pressure on the rear while counter sterering into the direction of skid and went straight thru them. Could have touched one on each side. Could clearly hear their hooves on the asphalt as they tried scrambling off the roadway. Fun time.

Btw while taking the ferry across the river with my son on our ride yesterday I asked him about the ABS on his new FJ-09, and explained my situation. He said he came around a curve last week and a deer was darting across the road as he exited the turn and he also applied the brakes very hard without his ABS kicking in when he thought maybe it should have. So maybe the article is on to something about the new ABS systems. This is my first bike with ABS so I learned all my braking technique PRE-ABS therefor don't know what to expect lol

It's good to know how to brake hard here in the country with all the deer we have out morning, noon and night.

Yes, I went through the same learning curve. My F800GS has ABS, and I wanted to find out where it kicked in. It came into play much sooner than I expected on pavement. I also jumped onto some smooth dirt and got it to kick in a few times. It's very disconcerting. The rapid pulsation, more like a grinding, at the lever really does cause one to release it. I actually disconnected the ABS so it is always off. It can be turned off but that needs to be done with every ignition cycle, and sometimes I forget.

A couple of times I forgot to turn it off and it kicked in unexpectedly. The rear especially does this when the weight is transferred to the front under hard braking if one is trailing the rear, which I always do on the street. It's just the way these things are programmed.

I know you raced MX so I am not very worried about your good judgment (lol) but I'd be interested to hear of anyone's experience of trying the brakes on loose surfaces, if anyone's done so.

However, please don't go out and do it just to add comments to this thread unless you are darn sure about yourself...already had enough threads about guys throwing these things down the road in the last couple of days.

Personally I think you are just good on the brakes; I am quite certain the CB1100 does not have the "brake by wire" system offered by Honda in the EU. It just has the old-fashioned kind.

Ulve.. If you are talking to me, I haven't skidded a tire in years, not since I came around a curve and skidded my way in between 4 deer standing in the middle of the road on my old 750 Nighthawk with drum rear brake. Suprised all of us! However coming from a motocross background I just let up pressure on the rear while counter sterering into the direction of skid and went straight thru them. Could have touched one on each side. Could clearly hear their hooves on the asphalt as they tried scrambling off the roadway. Fun time.

Btw while taking the ferry across the river with my son on our ride yesterday I asked him about the ABS on his new FJ-09, and explained my situation. He said he came around a curve last week and a deer was darting across the road as he exited the turn and he also applied the brakes very hard without his ABS kicking in when he thought maybe it should have. So maybe the article is on to something about the new ABS systems. This is my first bike with ABS so I learned all my braking technique PRE-ABS therefor don't know what to expect lol

It's good to know how to brake hard here in the country with all the deer we have out morning, noon and night.

I don't recommend this but as I mentioned a while back, I regularly practice braking on the pavement until the front tire howls and the rear skids slightly. Occasionally the front will lock, but only for a few milliseconds until I release the lever (this is on non-ABS bikes). I have yet to get the CB1100 (non ABS) to the point of anything beyond the front tire howling. The rear will not skid unless the front is carrying almost 100 percent of the weight, which is hard to do on that bike because of the very long wheelbase and weight.

The front tire really compresses under braking and the contact patch expands dramatically, and if you consider that along with the far greater grip that tires have now, hard braking without skidding is much more likely even without ABS for a skilled rider (which I am sure both you and your son are).

Maybe if someone took the bike onto a patch of smooth dirt and stomped the rear brake...? I know a few members have taken their bikes "off pavement" and at least one fitted knobbies. Let's hear it from the CB1100 ADV crowd here.

[the Ferret]

I know on my last Honda car, a Civic 5 speed with ABS the system a tivated pretty easily and the pedal would go up and down, it would make terrible grinding noises off and on, I hated hearing and feeling it, but was happy it was doing its job. Thought it would feel somewhat the same on the bike.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

I know on my last Honda car, a Civic 5 speed with ABS the system a tivated pretty easily and the pedal would go up and down, it would make terrible grinding noises off and on, I hated hearing and feeling it, but was happy it was doing its job. Thought it would feel somewhat the same on the bike.

You are just that good, my man!

[ChipBeck_imp]

Mick,

Braking hard will not activate an ABS system. Only impending wheel lock up will activate it and depending on the road surface that could be very light braking. The system is constantly comparing front and rear wheel speeds and rate of rotational change. Braking really hard doesn't come into play. If you were driving on an ice covered road and applied very light braking your ABS would activate the moment one of your two wheels started to slide.

My CB doesn't have ABS but Charley's Ducati does and on a dry paved road I can brake to the point of lifting the rear wheel off the ground without the ABS coming into play. But on a loose dirt road it comes on under light braking as soon as I lock a wheel. It took several tries for me to get up the nerve to try to lock the front wheel on a dirt road at about 15 mph. I had both feet off the pegs to try to catch myself if I started to go down. But I finally did it and the ABS worked as advertised. Very notisable pulsing and the front tire would not lock. Same with the rear. Unless you lock a wheel which is really hard to do on dry pavement your ABS will not activate. And FWIW, if it did you would have hit that deer as ABS works by releasing the brake at very short intervals (several times a second) which increases stopping distance.

Many drivers and riders think that ABS will shorten stopping distance but that's not the case and it's not what ABS is for. The function of ABS it to prevent the loss of control that occurs when a wheel locks. Cheers.

Chip

[LongRanger_imp]

Yep, Chip is exactly correct. Good stuff.

[the Ferret]

I would have liked to seen Chip, riding Charley's Ducati with legs splayed like outriggers thinking, " OK...I'm going to do this! " lol

[Cormanus]

Nah, Ferret, this is a man who has been bungy jumping.

[redbirds_imp]

Pamela's V-strom has ABS and I have felt it work at the rear brake riding out on our dirt road. She recalls having made a few hard stops on pavement but ABS never engaged.

What really matters is not how hard you brake but the traction afforded by the surface you're riding on.

[the Ferret]

Nah, Ferret, this is a man who has been bungy jumping.

actually if you know about Chip...testing ABS and bungie jumping are WAY down the list of dangerous stuff he does. You should watch some of his plane videos sometime.