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Im sure glad i had my abs brakes yester day

3K views 27 replies 9 participants last post by  rcannon409 
#1 · (Edited)
Me and the wife went to north carolina for the weekend, late yesterday evening we was comming from maggie valley nc to our cabin in bryson city. We was on us 74 i was running around 70 mph right before dark i was in the right lane, all of a sudden 3 large hunting dogs come out of the mountains 2 in my lane and the other went to the left lane, no where to dodge them i reached and grabbed a handfull of brakes and slowed ta about 50, the 2 dogs in my lane seperated about 3 ft so i steered for the gap between them which was taking me towards the shoulder of the road, when they seen me they panicked and the fartherst dog in my lane turned and was running right in my only path. Luckily he froze and i parted the 2 dogs hair then i hit the rumble strips on the shoulder and kept the bike on the shoulder right before the ditch line and woods, needless to say my wife was in panic mode the rest of the weekend and i wasnt to happy about what just happened, i believe the abs brakes let me cut some speed without locking the tires up so i could turn in the gap which was about a 45 degree angle towards the ditch, it didnt help none that the dogs were so big i thought they was deer at first. We drove to the tail of the dragon today and i kept hereing people complaining about other bikes crossing into there lane, i seen 3 harleys with some mighty tall ape bars gun it at the entrance of the dragon and one about lost it, i told the wife screw it im not going to drive it with the idiots out there today, i told her we survived the near crash with the dogs so we went and loaded are stuff and drove the 3 hrs home getting baked by the heat on the way back lol
 
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#2 ·
A wise decision to turn back. Seeing that the goofballs are demonstrating how not to ride, you would kick your own arses if you went into the nest of them and had an incident. It's only so often we see signs of things to come. Learn to listen to those feelings that something is wrong. Don't wait for the problem to jump out and slap you in the face.

BTW, nice work avoiding the dogs. Locking up the tire with a passenger on the back would suck superlatively. Sounds like it gave you just enough control to get the bike pointed away from disaster. Nice that we can chuckle about it now. The alternative would suck superlatively.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Did you feel the abs kick in? You would be surprised at how hard we can brake before it kicks in. Front abs activation is noisy. You will hear the tire screaming. When they mean "anti lock" it means just barely spinning, and the noise will be there.

Thats one big reason why I dont want a thing to do with vintage bikes. Modern brakes are powerful.

Learn from this. Nighttime and open areas mean animals will be active. To not expect something is a bit of a mistake, and I'm glad to be reminded.
 
#6 ·
Mark, here's why I asked on the abs issue. I activated my c14 on a brand new piece of white concrete. I did it at 80.....ok, 110mph...well, maybe 120mph.

I went back and looked at my tire tracks, after the activation. It was so loud, I thought the system failed. Squealing. LOUD! S your pants loud.

I could identify the tread left on the ground as a pr2.
 
#11 ·
Lol, and you made a great point.

That's where practice on this would be a good idea. Tough to do up front.

The reason I mention it is based on the noise I heard, my brain said, " release brake pressure NOW!, or we have trouble. The other side of the brain is saying, "abs, we are ok"
 
#9 ·
I have not had my ABS engage on my NK1. But I do have a Ducati Diavel and when I was making an emergency stop- full grab with the front brake, the ABS worked perfectly and my wheels did not lock up.

I think ABS is the best safety feature a bike can have. It can keep you from locking the front tire which in many cases means you are going down.

I will always have ABS on any bike that I own.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Yes i did hear the abs kick in, that stretch of highway is old and deteriorating with alot of loose stuff over next to the shoulder, it actually kicked in twice once on the straight interstate and the next time on the rumble strips when i was running out of road shoulder, the ditch and trees didnt look to promising, thats one reason i purchased this bike is because i had to hit the brakes on my cbr one time at about 45 mph and that sucker locked up and scared the crap out of me, no doubt if i was on it we would of bought the farm at 70 mph, i guess thats why i leave it in the garage. It was definately and eye opener for me it only takes a second for things to go bad wrong, and especially when you have woods or thick cover you cant see if anything is about to jump in front of you, but on that stretch of road you got to go because all the cars are flying, im just thankful it worked out and we did not go down, i try to be extra careful when my wife is on back but some things are out of our control, so call it abs brakes a little luck and the man upstairs watching out for us ill take all 3, and yes thats the last thing i expected is for 3 dogs to come out of the side of the mountain, but the dangers you dont see its hard to anticipate when your right on top of it running 70 mph, ive drove that road many of times at all times of the day and night and have never seen not even a squirrel, usually the mountains in that area dont hold much wildlife like deer because there is not that much to eat and the bear hunters have run there dogs all winter and usually have everything run out unless your by some crops or green fields. If that incident did not happen there is no doubt i would of chanced the dragon knowing the crazies were out but after that close call i went into save my *** mode.
 
#12 ·
Nice save. Dogs can be just as bad as deer. They both run out at the last second, and will double back with zero warning.

I view ABS as more of a controlled skid. The ABS on these bikes is quite impressive. I've only had it activate in an empty parking lot when I was testing and getting a feel for the brakes shortly after I got it(getting abs to kick in on purpose). I was very impressed with how much you can brake before it'll kick in. I'm sure at some point a deer will cause an activation, lol. Only a matter of time.
 
#19 ·
Exp, your post reminded me of something important.

I think that people here on the forum are into the motorcycle enough to want to learn about it, or share what they know. Hopefully interested enough to understand the various safety devices.

But, start talking to other people in your household about a car equipped with abs.

Ask them this. "Whats do you do when your in your car, using the brakes, and you hear that noise from the brakes." The abs activation sound.

Most will say, "release the brake pedal"

Its a topic worth talking about.

As a society, we dont have time to talk about abs brakes because we are too busy telling people "click it or ticket".
 
#24 ·
Ask them this. "Whats do you do when your in your car, using the brakes, and you hear that noise from the brakes." The abs activation sound.

Most will say, "release the brake pedal"
Don't release them !
It's a clear sign they didn't expect the limit of grip to be there, so they shouldn't try to outperform the ABS ... they won't be able to, not when it already kicked in.
 
#22 ·
The day hit mine hard to avoid the dogs it was 95 degrees f on old asphalt
 
#27 ·
The tendency to lift off the brakes when ABS kicks in is less of an issue now that they are common on almost every vehicle sold in USA/Canada, and I assume Europe. Back in the mid 1980's, and early 1990's the new pulsing brake pedal and corresponding sound (like a power chisel) freaked everyone out. People would bring their cars back to the dealer claiming the brakes were defective and dangerous. They were half right, they scared the drivers, inducing them to do stupid things like lift off the brakes.

Back in 1990 I drove my new car through 2 inches of standing water and stood on the brakes...just to let me know what I paid for. ABS was a new, somewhat premium feature back then. Two cars since then and I never felt the need to test it. But it was there on ski trip last December for sure.

The bike is new to me in every way. So I'm definitely going to carefully test this out. But I will try not to do a stoppie :D
 
#28 ·
I get to cheat with car abs. We always have winters with snow and ice, so "testing" is part of going to work.

My newest car is a 2010, but the abs system is amazing. TC is , too.

Abs still sucks if you charge into a turn with a washboard surface. It cannot quite figure that situation out.

Ishi, many drivers have never driven without abs, and I'm old.
 
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