Dumb question

[Blind spot]

Bit of a dumb arse question but i am not very mechanical savvy.
With bikes that have ABS brakes do you still apply front and rear like normal brakes
or do you just jump on the rear and glide to a halt??
What happens in gravel.

[MSTRS:Me]

Bit of a dumb arse question but i am not very mechanical savvy.
With bikes that have ABS brakes do you still apply front and rear like normal brakes
or do you just jump on the rear and glide to a halt??
What happens in gravel.

Can you afford to 'experiment'?
Not sure if you mean ABS or Linked. Either way, front is still 70%+ of your stopping power.

[James Deuce]

ABS doesn't make you stop any quicker, it just prevents avoidable lock ups that have worse consequences for bikes than cars. ABS on gravel is the proverbial pain in the arse, and most big trailies with ABS let you turn it off. ABS won't save you if you are well leant over.

I agree with MSTRS, except I'd go further than 70% and rate percentage of available stopping power as 90% front, 10% rear on most modern bikes.

[MSTRS:Me]

I agree with MSTRS, except I'd go further than 70% and rate percentage of available stopping power as 90% front, 10% rear on most modern bikes.

You are probly right. I'm recalling facts from the days of drumbrakes.

[Pwalo]

Bit of a dumb arse question but i am not very mechanical savvy.
With bikes that have ABS brakes do you still apply front and rear like normal brakes
or do you just jump on the rear and glide to a halt??
What happens in gravel.

You'll probably fall off. As the lads have said ABS is designed to stop lock up. It's not necessarily going to make you stop faster, and I wouldn't be relying on it to do so on a bike.

Which bikes have ABS? I know Honda have linked brakes, so I guess it'd be some Beemers.

[FROSTY:Me]

for me the jury is out on ABS --Ive ridden a fj1200 with ABS and diddnt really notice it --I had a venture royalle with linked brakes and frigging hated them

[Lou Girardin]

In theory ABS doesn't make you stop quicker. But in practice, being able to grab a big handful without fear of lock up will make you stop much quicker. In the wet, there's no comparison.

[Blackbird]

And ABS Brakes aren't infallible! A mate of mine put his BMW R1100RS over a bank on The Thames-Coromandel road when he grabbed a handful and he didn't know that the ABS had failed electronically. Front end let go just like a normal bike and down he went....

[Motu]

In theory ABS doesn't make you stop quicker. But in practice, being able to grab a big handful without fear of lock up will make you stop much quicker. In the wet, there's no comparison.

In my WoF road tests for cars,on a wet road an ABS car ALWAYS has a lower effiency than a non ABS car,some only just make the pass grade.These are low speed panic stops at 30kph,at higher speeds it would be a different story of course.

[Ixion]

Bit of a dumb arse question but i am not very mechanical savvy.
With bikes that have ABS brakes do you still apply front and rear like normal brakes
or do you just jump on the rear and glide to a halt??
What happens in gravel.

As far as ABS itself goes , you use the brakes separately, as usual, except that the wheels won't lock up. Some bikes (Hondas I know of, maybe others) have linked brakes, applying one also applies the other - without ABS. The latest BMWs have bboth ABS and linked.

I reckon ABS is the cat's pyjamas m'self.

Gravel, it works just the same, won't lock the wheel , but in gravel you may WANT to lock the wheel, so you can turn it off. Your call as to when and where you do

[XP@]

Don't all bikes have ABS?
with practice my abs computer (located between my ears) works just fine. But it does require practice and remembering to turn it on.