An ABS story

**devnull** · 5th October 2007, 22:56

Spotted this on concours14.com.... Wonder if Santa will bring me one for Xmas

I picked up my brand-new C14-abs Sunday morning in Little Falls MN and started heading south, home to Houston. Rain and plenty of it, but I was expecting it, had to get home and had the gear to deal with it. I played around with the abs within the first 25 miles so I’d know what to expect if I needed it. Nice I thought, seemed to work well with a soft and unobtrusive feel to it. What I didn’t plan on was pulling the biggest bonehead, brain dead screw-up I’ve ever made on a motorcycle. Ok, to be honest, one of the biggest.
So like I said, lots of rain. I had ridden less than 200 miles and I had to make an exit. I may have been somewhat mesmerized by the rain and the road but for some reason I looked down at the gauges as I started onto the ramp and somehow managed to stick my head up my ass. When I pulled out and looked up I was much too straight up and fast to make the curve and I went straight off the ramp at maybe 45 mph. There I discovered a long fairly steep downhill slope covered with foot long wet grass. Well at this point I was pretty freaked and I’m sure my ass was trying to swallow the seat. I hit the front brake hard putting all faith in the abs. I’m not sure that I touched the rear brake at all. Then I saw a big rock right in my path and was thinking “shit, I don’t wanna turn right now”. But I did and cleared the rock. It seemed to take forever for the bike to stop but I just kept thinking, well you’re still up, still up, still up. And I WAS up all the way, finally stopping about 200 ft. off the road and down the hill. With a lot of adrenalin pumping I managed to get her turned around and carefully and immediately back up the hill. I was impressed! And I’ll bet the guy in the car behind me that stopped to watch was too. First impressed with the fact that I didn’t go down. Then with the realization that I never felt the wheel slide at all. I’m pretty sure that would have been the last thing I felt before the thud. I never even felt the abs working and I’m pretty sure I had a death grip on the brake lever.
To sum it up, the abs works well. I hope I never use it again.