How do you practise emergency braking?

[LBD]

Just like jumping from a manual to an auto & back. You only do it once.

Its only takes once in a panic situation for things to go horribly wrong...

[Road kill]

I practice changing line at the same time as braking.
I've owned a few bikes where this has come in very handy.
One bike that really stode out was a 1980 Harley FLT that had brakes that were so bad they would all but vanish totaly in the rain.
With that thing "the ability to change line while waiting for the brakes to finaly grab "a little" saved the day many times.
A few times I've gone into near panic braking mode an then changed my mind and direction at the same time.
It's a good feeling when you come to a halt just beside the thing that you would of run into at hurt speed had you not changed direction just enough to miss it.

[Hitcher]

However I am worried what it will do to my skills when I get back on a non ABS bike.

A couple of years ago I was chatting to a dude in Napier who had done exactly that. He said he usually rode a BMW thingo. I think it was a K thingo. Anyway one day he swapped with a mate who had an R1. He took a tight corner a bit hot, grabbed a handful of brake, and the rest was history. Massive stoppie, uncoordinated momentum, roadside fence, munted R1 and rider. Ouch.

[Mom]

He took a tight corner a bit hot, grabbed a handful of brake, and the rest was history. Massive stoppie, uncoordinated momentum, roadside fence, munted R1 and rider. Ouch.

I think you just highlighted for me why I am happy to have the non ABS ride. To be so out of touch with the finer points of the feel of your brakes is taking a bit of a risk as far as I am concerned.

I know I can grab up an emergency handful/foot plant of Millies brakes, her back end twitches, and the front end dips and holds No locking of wheels, just intense stopping power.

I would not want to move away from the me controlled brakes.

[LBD]

I think you just highlighted for me why I am happy to have the non ABS ride. To be so out of touch with the finer points of the feel of your brakes is taking a bit of a risk as far as I am concerned.

I know I can grab up an emergency handful/foot plant of Millies brakes, her back end twitches, and the front end dips and holds No locking of wheels, just intense stopping power.

I would not want to move away from the me controlled brakes.

The worry is setting in ...maybe I should leave the 1098 in a glass display case....Gulp

[Mom]

The worry is setting in ...maybe I should leave the 1098 in a glass display case....Gulp

Take the piss all you want, you can not practise emergency braking with ABS.

[Hitcher]

I think you just highlighted for me why I am happy to have the non ABS ride. To be so out of touch with the finer points of the feel of your brakes is taking a bit of a risk as far as I am concerned.

Until January this year I may have agreed with you, particularly having ridden some bikes (BMWs particularly) with particularly vague and pusillanimous ABS brakes. However I now own a GSX1250FA with ABS. These feel like brakes and work very predictably. After some practice, I am very confident to make them stop me quickly. I think Forrest Gump's Mum summed up nicely the rider in my earlier example when she wisely said "Stupid is as stupid does".

[LBD]

Take the piss all you want, you can not practise emergency braking with ABS.

Agree with where you are going with this...no piss taking involved....(I have both)

Although you can practice emergency braking both with and without ABS, it is the non ABS that requires more rider skill to to get right and there fore it is more important to practice emergency braking if you ride a non ABS bike.

My point was, after getting accustomed to (Read that as Lazy) an ABS equiped bike, am I increasing the chance of getting it wrong when I jump on the non ABS bike?.

[BMWST?]

Take the piss all you want, you can not practise emergency braking with ABS.

of course you can..and should.
You should be familiar with how the bike feels with the abs working.My car has abs .You need to practise to appreciate how much control you have.Otherwise you just slam on the brakes and hope.With abs you can manouvere the car(and bike) but you need to try it regularly to keep the mind open to all possibilities

[supa.m]

Is it possible for any of these ABS systems to fail/fault while the bike is in use? They must have some form of fail safe, right?

[Mom]

My point was, after getting accustomed to (Read that as Lazy) an ABS equiped bike, am I increasing the chance of getting it wrong when I jump on the non ABS bike?.

I think you might be in danger of that. I dont as a rule make use of emergency braking, I tend to be far too conservative for my own good mostly. The odd time I NEED to stop/slow down in a very large hurry not only reminds me it is good to be alive, but also reinforces the need to have good progressive braking in your repitoire.

Any fool can lock up and slide/skid to a stop, sometimes it is quite good fun to exhibit that skill too...

I think ABS will lead to unskilled riders, who when their ABS fails (heaven forbid) have no progressive braking skills to fall back on. Just saying.

[Mom]

of course you can..and should.
You should be familiar with how the bike feels with the abs working.My car has abs .You need to practise to appreciate how much control you have.Otherwise you just slam on the brakes and hope.With abs you can manouvere the car(and bike) but you need to try it regularly to keep the mind open to all possibilities

I hear what you are saying, but surely the bottom line is you should be able to "know" how to stop safely regardless if you have ABS or not?

[James Deuce]

I hear what you are saying, but surely the bottom line is you should be able to "know" how to stop safely regardless if you have ABS or not?

You're not going to be able to buy a bike without ABS within the next 5 years. I think it will rapidly become a moot point and things like stability control and anti-wheely technology are going to become widely adopted as well, even on "cheap" commuters.

[St_Gabriel]

I think you might be in danger of that. I dont as a rule make use of emergency braking, I tend to be far too conservative for my own good mostly. The odd time I NEED to stop/slow down in a very large hurry not only reminds me it is good to be alive, but also reinforces the need to have good progressive braking in your repitoire.


I think ABS will lead to unskilled riders, who when their ABS fails (heaven forbid) have no progressive braking skills to fall back on. Just saying.

So you use progressive braking and rarely use your braking to a "ABS Kicks in" level and appreciate your skill level etc etc.
People who ride with ABS all the time, im sure dont activate it at every stop, just like you they would use the progressive braking, but when they have an "Oh shit" moment and they happen to overbrake it should stop them skidding and save their arse.
I sure wish I had ABS on my GV250 as it may have saved me when, as a newbie, I had an emergency braking situation and locked the front tyre. I have used ABS only once in an emergency (in a cage) and it saved me a dent that day.

[BMWST?]

I hear what you are saying, but surely the bottom line is you should be able to "know" how to stop safely regardless if you have ABS or not?

of course and to accomplish that surely there is nothing wrong with practise