ABS off road

[Ford Prefect]

I looked around here, but I could not find anything about ABS off road. I only recently read that it was 'really bad' but with no explanation (they wanted you to pay for their course to learn why). I could not find anything on here, sorry if it is there, but I could not find it. SO I found a good one on the reasons not to use ABS offroad over at advrider.

Oh the advrider thread is...
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=580662

I just thought I would post this for a public reference to anyone who does not know. I feel I learned from the read.

Cheers
Brian

[Tacoma4life]

From my experience owning a 2003 F650GS for 3 years, I agree that ABS sucks offroad. Often when braking on loose ground the wheels will slip just a bit activating the ABS and lengthing your stop substantially. When braking offroad, you want your tires to bite into the ground and build a wall of resistense in front of them. With ABS the wheel cannot lock and therefore cannot do this.

Most bikes intended to take offroad that have ABS also have a switch to turn it off. My BMW did anyway...

[NeverEnough]

Nothing like hearing your ABS go kachunk kachunk as you navigate on either side of the 5mph engage threshold. And real men insist on braking slides with 500lb bikes!

[chp-sk8]

Good lord, if you are in the dirt and it has not been turned off...sucks to be you! The newer bikes can turn it off at idle or a stop.

[liftedlimo]

My first experience with forgetting to turn my ABS off was sliding 200 feet past where I wanted to stop on a steeper gravel forest service road. Had there been a turn, I would of possible been bear food. Yes I might of laid it down first though.

In many off-road situations you want your back wheel to slide to a stop. This can dig the wheel below the soft surface into a harder surface and allow you to stop. Gravel, for example, is soft loose surface on top of harder dirt. So allowing your back wheel to slide and dig in under the gravel means you will stop!

[chp-sk8]

It is nice to have ABS but it is part of the ck list when I get on gravel. I am glad you made the stop.What were you on?

[HiLift Jack]

BMW riders school proved to me that ABS in the gravel stopped you quicker i.e. shorter distance. Lock down that front brake handle. I was skeptical but full lock on the front and back wheels in the dirt is more trouble than ABS.

Juan

[NeverEnough]

BMW riders school proved to me that ABS in the gravel stopped you quicker i.e. shorter distance. Lock down that front brake handle. I was skeptical but full lock on the front and back wheels in the dirt is more trouble than ABS.

Juan

Shorter stopping distance, regardless of surface, is a well-documented fact of ABS, and I also got to test it first hand "at school." But when I'm off the pavement with my big bike, I'm rarely in situations where I have to slam on the brakes because I'm carrying too much speed (I didn't say never, just rarely). But I do end up navigating loose surfaces at very low speeds, especially going down steep trails, all the time. That's when I prefer to have ABS turned off. But don't listen to me because I crash all the time, like, a lot.