Out-braking the ABS Myth

Can Ryan out-brake a motorcycle ABS system? In an emergency, riders have a bad habit of either slamming on just the back brake or not braking at all. Threshold braking can be learned, but is it better or worse?

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Directed and Edited by Luke McAdam

[MrSnowMen]

I laughed at 02:11 when the guy in the white van looked at your Emergancy Stop

[terbo]

I think the best piece of advice in the whole video is "go practice".

When I did the course, they suggested at the beginning of every season just take an evening and go practice some emergency maneuvers to get reacquainted with your bike. During the season when you're on your way from a ride just stop in to a quiet industrial park and do 5-10 minutes to keep yourself sharp. I think if we all did that we'd save a lot of lives.

[norrlandsvargen]

What makes ABS so useful is not only it's performance in actual braking distance, but that it enables you to steer while breaking. Since energy is needed to change direction, you need to split the friction energy between breaking the vehicle and steering. And since ABS breaks don't use all energy to break, then of course there is room to break in a more optimal way. Most of the times it is better to bypass the obstacle in front of you, than stopping before it.

[UncleWally]

At 71 years old with 50+ years riding many bikes long and hard, I’m proud to say I used yesterday’s ride to practice skills. Still crazy (and learning) after all these years.

[timothyjamieson]

When I was training at my car manufacturers school, they taught us that ABS was never about stopping quicker - it was only so you could retain steering control because the wheels haven't locked up. Lines up nicely with Ryan's brilliant piece here. EBS was, however, developed to shorten stopping distances. Thanks again Ryan!

[mrjnox]

as a bicyclist, when I need to stop I will often purposefully do a controlled panic stop to make sure I always have a good feeling for how much front brake I can safely apply for maximum stopping power. It’s definitely saved me in a lot of situations when I needed to avoid danger in front of me.

[coaltowking]

That's part of why ABS has so many levels. It's a backup safety system, not a replacement for proper training. Great video as always.

[HydraulicPressChannel]

There is a quite difference between different abs systems and settings. On track S1000RR road settings on ABS is definetly worse than human but throw that to racier setup and you are out braking most of the riders on fast group.

[Tuppoo]

The key takeaway from this video and what everyone should know about ABS is that it doesn't necessarily make your braking distance shorter, especially if you're a skilled rider. Instead, it allows you to steer your bike under braking, which may allow you to evade obstacles.

[alexugur]

Best summary on Bike ABS ever. I've become comfortable with threshold braking for some years now, but on my new bike I like to use locking the ABS on the gravelly or the wet grassy parts of my driveway, so that I can learn to feel at what levels of deceleration the grip on grass or gravel will fail. For some reason, these experiments have given me more confidence on my old non-ABS bike.

[MrMurl]

No one else makes educational content so simple and so entertaining

[ИванБорисюк-пэ]

When I started riding I was really into dominating the vehicle. It was quite fun for me to try things and push a motorcycle to some degree of a limit. I spent quite a lot of time on a bike, so it also helped entertaining myself. Sure, I fell quite a few times, but never anything serious.
Now I've heard of a progressive braking and tried it, again, in a daily riding just for the sake of entertainment and feeling good about my skill. But then that one day, I was with my then girlfriend out on a highway and that truck on the line right to me suddenly changed the line without any turning signal. Now I was going about a 100 km/h, and a right line was going around 50 which is the reason he changed the line. Just got tired of going slow, so he just went for it as a proper asshole. Obviously, being a truck, he couldn't reach the speed of a lane so I had to go into a sudden emergency braking. I had maybe like 20-30 meters to reduce my speed by half. And I didn't have ABS on my bike. Had I pushed too hard, I'd fall and the car behind me would've gone over me. Not enough and I would go under the truck. That was that one moment when I got seriously scared. The most I have ever been on a bike. Mostly because I had a very dear passenger behind. I couldn't have reacted to it, had I not practiced those emergency braking for "fun". I went straight by the book, applying progressive force on both levers, but my mind was out scared for its life. My hands did everything as if by themselves.
The point I try to make here is that you have to practise. If it's fun for you then you can do it just when you're out, having a nice daily ride. If it's not, then take some time and practise anyway. It will save your life someday and probably others, too.

[joshpodolsky]

That's why I love offroad riding/racing. It taught me to panic brake with the front brakes, lots of the time hard enough to actually lock up the front wheel on dirt and slide it for a foot or 2.

[chrisd]

It’s good to see that this reinforces something I learnt from a riding instructor.

It’s not about practicing until you can do something. It’s about practicing until you can’t not do it.

Keep your head up, apply increasing pressure on the lever until the threshold, then hold until stopped.

[ábel-baka-nagy]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the production quality and how well put together this video is? I don't ride but I'd be lying if I wasn't captivated by the whole thing.

[yannick]

As a European that had to go through a driving school to get a license I'm a little bit shocked that so few seem to use the front brakes. Emergency breaking is a dedicated topic in lessons and the final test and you have to use both brakes at the same time.

[daten]

Another very clear, well written and well edited video from this channel. Thank you Ryan and all the team behind for making such great content !

[nounorightnow]

I really, REALLY like how you started off mentioning how this is very different from a car's ABS system. Great analysis and explanation.

[atsernov]

THANK YOU! This is what I've been trying to tell anyone who's spouted the "I can stop faster than ABS" crap. Unless you are practicing threshold braking regularly, you probably won't outperform ABS on a good day, let alone in an emergency. Most riders are terrified of their front brake.

ABS is your bike inviting you to practice threshold braking cause it'll step in when you overshoot.

[sdpicturecard]

Sergeant Austin on a cloud. Your creativity never ceases to amaze and entertain. You guys are a YouTube gem.