Safety First - Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) for Bikes

With the water getting more and more mearky for bikers these days and with the launch of more and more performance bikes on the Indian roads these days, the question that becomes more and more loud is "What safety features my bike has in order to protect my life?"

Okay in my P200, Bajaj has taken care of Oil Cooling, lower handlebar allignment for more sporty stance and better manuvering control, power-full head lamps for better visibility, fatter rear tyre for better grip, tube-less front and rear tyres for low-maintenance and better grip. But then what!!!!! What about the safety that matters the most - The safety that's attatched with the Speed the monster can build up ...... the safety that's required to brake that speed ...... the safety of the Braking Mechanism in the Bike.

Majority of the bike accidents happen on the highway because of panic braking, just because while the bike was building up high speeds, the biker had to apply the brakes in a frezy, either to avoid a collision or to save a "jack ass pedel cycler (who takes it forgranted that the speeding guy would do everything to save him)". So, when I grab the brakes hard, why do I crash?? I crash because when I grab the rear brake, the rear wheels locks up and starts skidding. With the roads all the more unforgiving with stone chips and boulders spread arround, a skidding rear wheel is all what you need to allow hell brake loose on you. When I grab the front brake, all the weight of the bike comes infront on your hands, on the handlebar, and the bike nose dives and you find yourself blood stained on the tarmac and your bike damaged, lying besides you.

If not 50% atleast 10% of the bike crashes can be avoided by having proper braking security features installed on our bikes. Last evening I was having some discussions with a friend of mine Ashish Pareek, who works in the design department of Maruti Udyog. From him I cam to know about the mechanism of Anti-Lock Braking System, more popularly known as the ABS. The first thing which ran in my mind that if cars can have it then why not bikes.

The ABS Technique - We do it, but getting it done my a micro-chip makes the process a lot more efficient. What ABS does is simple grab and leave the wheel arround 24-25 times a second when it microprocessor senses loss of traction during heavy breaking. This approach prevents the machine from skidding as it prevents the wheels from getting locked.

The Triumph Sprint ST - 2006

Many of the manufacturers like BMW, Honda, Ducati and Triumph are already using it in their Tourer ranges and even in some Cruisers also. Specially in Indian conditions and if I'm spare for considering Gurgaon as an ideal track where performance bikes can be tested to their guts, I guess ABS equipped machines are a neccesity and not luxary.

The bike above, the Trium Sprint ST - 2006 comes with ABS (of course it's optional). So, if the major foregin players can go for it, then why not the Indian players like Bajaj et al.

I really hope that the Indian bike manufacturers are already doing something in this regards, and hopefully should see something fruitfull in the Auto Expo 2008.