Played with ABS a bit today. Over the last couple of days, I've had the rear engage on me a couple of times unintentionally, it's pretty sensitive. Today, I wanted to do some quick stops to the point of engaging the front. It's wet here, and leaves are everywhere, so I did some playing. Things work as expected, it takes quite a bit to get the front end to break loose, even in the wet. I'm a big guy, 280lbs, 6'4", the fork dive on a hard stop is pretty impressive, especially after riding mostly BMW duolever/telever suspensions for the last five years. ABS may help in a curve, but if you lose your line and end up in a pile of leaves like these while leaned and brake, you are likely in trouble: I did some stops on wet pavement, it's trivial to engage the rear, the front is more challenging. In all cases, I was unable to skid, the system worked as expected. Disengaging ABS is as simple as coming to a stop, finding neutral, and pushing the button for about three seconds. The ABS light comes on solid, and you are on your own. I slid around a bit with the rear, but didn't tempt fate by skidding the front. Turn off the bike, ABS stays disengaged as long as you leave the key on. Turn off they key and it defaults back to on. If you've disabled ABS, and want to enable it, just stop, hit neutral, and hold the button for about three seconds. The ABS light blinks, indicating it's ready to calibrate as you pull away, the same as on a regular cold start. I'm a big fan of ABS, and have had ABS on several BMWs and an 09 vstrom. The Strada ABS works well, I'm glad I have it. It doesn't come into play often, but every once in a while it's been a good thing to have.
aqlways a good idea..saves your butt once... We thankfully have ABS option on the Terra in Oz.. Yep it works. Locking wheels on wet,slippery hard stuff can hurt a lot. Would be nice for traction control ..switchable of course. On my R1200R ran over some freshly laid liquid cattle crap...like oil. (never know whats around a corner!) ABS and Traction control stopped me hitting the deck....The Ducati in front of me didnt fair so well No ABS or ASC...Two years on the rider is no where near getting back on a bike..........................
Without stopping, if you just hit the kill switch momentarily to kill the engine and then flick it back on again, will that re-enable the abs without necessitating a stop? If not, turning the key from the run position to the off position momentarily and back again while in motion would probably re-initialise ABS without necessitating stopping and running through the whole ritual.
This is my first ABS bike, had 7-8 in the last 15 years. I was on a long trip last summer, doing 75mph on the highway. A semi in the right lane didn't see the little mitsubishi two cars in front of me and merged right into it. The mitsubishi just broke apart into a million pieces, the driver was miraculously ok though. Needless to say traffic came to an abrupt halt. My ABS saved my bacon because people were switching lanes and braking hard. It allowed me to stop quickly and still steer a bit. I was able to avoid the car in front of me and not be sandwhiched with the car behind me--there was absolutely no room for me to exist between the two cars once they finally stopped. Won't ever own another bike without ABS, just be sure to turn it off on the trail That can be pretty hair-raising too.
I never really mess with turning it off, but where did you come up with the must be stopped and in neutral to engage/disengage it? I don't recall ever seeing that. Edit: I went back and looked in the manual, and nothing at all is mentioned of coming to a stop and putting it in neutral to turn it on or off. And thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I have turned it on and off while going down the road to play with it.
No idea, but it works! I'll play with it again. Maybe that's the way it worked on some other bike I've owned. I'll give it a shot next time I'm on the bike. It would be sweet if you could just turn it off on the fly. I typically only turn it off when off road with lots of descents. Otherwise the rear brake quickly becomes a non participant.
Had a chance to check this today. You must be stopped to engage or disengage using the ABS button. The bike DOES NOT have to be in neutral. And, as nev... mentions, turning the key off and on while in flight allows you to engage. I didn't try just the kill switch, next time. :-)
