Most of you would have heard of ABS, a safety feature that is increasingly becoming common on the pricier motorcycles. ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System. No, it’s not an anti-braking system, like some people often confuse it to be. Basically, ABS is an important feature that helps save lives. Don’t believe it? Here are as many as five real-life incidents from the Indian roads that prove our point.
The uploader of the below video shows as many as four incidents where ABS prevents a major mishap. In the first incident, the Dominar rider is seen doing decent speeds on an expressway. Suddenly, a motorcyclist decides to change lanes and come right in front of the Dominar. Of course, the Dominar, which is going much faster than the other motorcycle, needs to shed a lot of speed under hard braking. It’s only because of the ABS that the wheels don’t lock up. Any non-ABS-equipped motorcycle could have skidded and crashed. In the second incident, you can see how an Ertiga suddenly decides to turn towards the right. Here, again, the ABS of the Dominar prevents the motorcycle from skidding under hard braking.
The third incident shows a KTM Duke sharing road space with a Dominar on a rainy day. Suddenly, the Pulsar skids and crashes. The Dominar, which is right behind the crashed Pulsar, manages to avoid crashing under hard braking due to the ABS. In the last incident, you can see an ABS-equipped Honda CBR250R that avoids crashing into a tempo at a high speed only due to the ABS. As you can see in the above video, ABS totally saves the day for the motorcyclists. Things would have been a lot different on a motorcycle without ABS as it would have certainly led to a skid and probably crashing, too. Here are as many as four more videos that show ABS saving the day –
Looking at the videos, it becomes very clear that ABS is very important on all motorcycles. Fortunately, the authorities have finally acknowledged this and plan to soon make ABS mandatory on all the new two-wheelers with a 125cc or a larger engine. Even the existing 125cc+ motorcycles will have to be fitted with ABS. Other motorcycles will have to offer a combi-brake system, which is another safety feature that comes in handy in events of panic braking. In CBS, on pressing a single brake lever, both the front and the rear brakes get activated. This reduces the chances of skidding. That said, the CBS is not as effective as the ABS.
How does ABS work?
While the ABS prevents the wheel from locking, thereby preventing the motorcycle from skidding under hard braking, it’s a slightly complex system that involves various components. ABS works through wheel-mounted sensors that constantly take note of the wheel speed and the braking pressure. Under hard braking conditions, the ABS works by relaxing the braking pressure by small margins to avoid the wheel from locking up. By doing so, ABS can prevent skids in panic/emergency braking situations. This system is also very useful on wet roads, where a two-wheeler can easily skid even during moderate braking.
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