ABS not bad

[terbang]

Talking about brakes and wheel lockups, I thought I might recall an incident I had a long time ago on an old GSX1100. I was rattling along a south Island road with a bunch of my mates, enjoying the scenery and dreaming about the stuff that only 21 year old males can do. Returning from wondrous oblivion I suddenly discovered the road had narrowed to a one lane bridge and the array of brake lights ahead revealed the boys ahead to have been slowing for some time. Not too bad (I think, I hope) as I wasn't going too fast (heart flutter) but perhaps a little too close so I needed a fairly aggressive brake application. During the braking the rear wheel locked up and the back end swung out to the right. "Fark this" as I went into survival reaction (SR) and incorrectly put my right foot back where it came from, off the brake pedal! I likened the next sensation to being like one of those bits of chewed up pieces of paper that has just been launched across a classroom off the end of some troublesome schoolboys 12" ruler. Flick and I was flying down the road while my bike was dismantling itself in a series of cartwheels behind me and I narrowly missed having 260 KG of bike landing back on top of me. "Shit I just got highsided on a straight piece of road"! I walked away from that one with a big question mark above my head.

Time, experience and a bit of study has given me some answers.
A skidding tyre has less friction or traction than a rolling tyre, hence the invention of anti-skid technology such as ABS. With this knowledge in mind I can now easily spot my mistake in the above.
Obviously my sleeping on the job played a big part as I had left the braking a bit too late and had to apply it aggressively. As the bike scrubbed off speed, it rocked forward on it's spindly 80's suspension and the weight on the rear wheel reduced causing it to skid. It now had less traction and decided to overtake the front wheel. Now the direction it chose to go, left or right, seemed to be purely random and could easily have been a result of the road surface, my poor alignment skills or the position of the planets. Perhaps the planets. However what is important is that I was now going sideways with a rear wheel lockup and the situation was getting exponentially worse by the second. My SR of releasing the back brake pedal instantly turned the rear wheel back into a rolling state giving it all its grip back! It now became the perfect fulcrum to catapult a bike and rider, that were seconds before sliding sideways, resulting in a very expensive and potentially dangerous high-side.
So I did it wrong and that's just part of being human you could say. So what else could I have done to have prevented it?
I could have had my brain in gear in the first place! But hey I was 21, had a nice girlfriend, a great job and was riding a superbike (as they called them then) so what could go wrong.
Once the rear wheel went out and past a certain point, I reckon I was farked, I was committed to going down so my choices were: Remove the rear brake application and high-side or keep it there and low-side. Hindsight tells me that the low-side is a far more comfortable option, so keeping the rear brake on and riding the slide to the bitter end with the small possibility of regaining control, makes more sense above the strong human startle urge of 'this looks bad so lets put it back where it came from'.
I was originally taught the old 75/25 Front/Rear braking technique and 25 years ago it was fairly applicable to the technology available. Looking at modern sports bikes I notice massive front end braking capacity compared to meagre rear wheel brake design and build. A message from the makers that has me thinking that on such bikes the 75/25 ratio should be revised and the rear brake used only for carparks and perhaps stability in controlled corner entries.
The bottom line is, that rear brake can get you into an awful lot of trouble even on a straight road and practise braking is an essential part of any riders toolbox.

[Hitcher]

The two bikes I've ridden with ABS (both BMWs) have left me uninspired. There was none of the "feel" I'm used to. I found the ABS braking experience vague and uninspiring. When I get my Concours test ride I'll know whether Kawasaki-san can do it better than the Bavarians.