Crikey!...never thought I'd thank Suzu for ABS!

[Data]

Well, the title says it all. Yesterday on a run to Mersea Island I could easily have gone to meet my maker, or at the very least, a visit to A & E.

It was a glorious afternoon, and with a nice clean Burgman 400 I set off to the the Island. This is a trip of just 11 miles from my home. On leaving the outskirts of Colchester (where Starfleet Headquarters is based and where I work) I started to quicken the pace in the 60 limit. In fact I was accelerating quite hard. Suddenly, and at just under 60mph a fairly large monkjack sprung from the bushes on the right side of the road and ran at full speed at a 90 degree angle to me, just a few metres ahead. Collision was imminent. Bear in mind this all happend in split seconds, but I actually remember thinking this is going to be bad and I defo am going to hospital or worse! I was being followed, but the car was about 100 metre behind. In a flash and instinctively I grabbed the brakes and yanked on them as hard as I thought I could get away with, without loosing all control. At the same time I tried to vere away left from the poor innocent creature causing the concern to buy some valuable extra braking time. Now at this point I was expecting to have the machine go down, but no, something amazing started happening. ABS! I've only ever had it operate once on a slimey road when the back wheel started to loose traction when braking a little harder than usual. But this time, boy did it kick in big time. There is no doubt it saved the day and it allowed me to swerve slightly under massive braking without highsiding or laying it down. I could feel the wheels front and back slipping on the very dry road surface but I maintained control all the way through. The monkjack and I missed each other buy about an inch! No exageration! I had to stop and the car behind stopped to. He said he thought I was a gonner. If you hit one of those at that sort of speed it's normally pretty bad for everyone.

So, with this piece of experience under my belt, I can now say abs is bloody brilliant on a bike. If I'd been on my Vstrom 1000 non abs, I think I would have high sided without a doubt or worse. ABS is not something I ever thought about as being very important on a bike. I've never needed it in the past in 43 years of riding. Amazing really isn't it! As a result, I always ride as though I don't have ABS, which I think is the thing to do. In this emergency the bike just took over the braking for me and allowed me to concentrate on the important stuff. By the way, my trousers didn't need changing afterwards. I think it was a clenched buttocks thing!! All's well that ends well, or so they say!

[Mr Angry]

Well saved and glad you survived.

Similar thing happened to me in Norfolk when a Muntjac ran in front of me but as I was on the Fuocco with huge metal bars at the front and two wheels I just let go of the twist grip and steered around it.

I was with a mate in the 60's when he hit a rabbit with his Lambretta that bent the fairing back but he managed to stay shiny side up. Another mate gave up biking when he hit a red deer at 70mph cutting it clean in half and bringing him off but with no injuries, shook the crap out of him and swore off bikes from that day.

[R1K SU]

Never heard of a Monkjack ? oh this..

We dont have these up north as far as I know.

Glad it worked, and the car behind you managed to stop to !
Having had 20+ years of HGV driving and 10 years Bus driving I find it very hard to slam brakes on as I am always worried about my load shifting and passengers taking flying lessons, maybe thats why in the back of my mind I couldnt brake quick enough when I ditched my FZ1.

[SpikeOne]

Well that seems to kill all the past arguments over whether ABS is worth it or not!
Well done for surviving mate....

[halfabusa]

glad you made it out of that situation in one piece to tell the tale mate. ABS is definitely useful no matter what some people think. It's only in these emergency situations that you really notice it's use, so unless it's a first hand experience, many will keep opposing it.

[Data]

RIK SU...yes, sorry about the spelling. That's the little blighter, but he wasn't so little yesterday! We have quite a few around here. I would point out that I always know what's behind me at anytime and where it is, like any good biker. Due to that knowledge I hope I would always make the right call as to whether it's best to brake, swerve, or just carryon and suck it up! There is no doubt in my mind I would have hit it full on without swerving and braking. I wasn't worried about the damage to the bike, just to me! My buddy hit a large dog some twenty years ago while riding his Z900 at just 50mph. He still lives with the consequences today. He spent 2months in hospital.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

[terryvanman]

many years ago, a mate of mine was riding his sidecar outfit along a country road with his mate in the open sidecar.. a pheasant flew over the right hand side hedge and hit my mate square in the chest. The poor creature exploded and covered the guy in the sidecar with blood and guts. he had to be hosed down at the next garage, thank god it was summer time.
remember at this time of year there are loads of young animals leaving the nest so to speak, and they don't have a clue as to the dangers of crossing the road, so be careful out there..

[R1K SU]

You would have thought that after almost 100 years that cars have been around that someone would have thought to teach animals some basic road skills ?
I mean you dont see many Elephants running across the roads, they have bigger brains, they must have learnt not to.

[Funkycowie]

They are worse in the dark, had to avoid slamming into one on the Nexus a while back, luckily I saw something come out of bushes on the right side about 40 metres a head and slowed with the front brake and increase pressure to the linked and front solo together and stopped about 1 metre from the Muntjac and scared the shit out of the driver of the car behind me who was following to close to me.

[MrGrumpy]

many years ago, a mate of mine was riding his sidecar outfit along a country road with his mate in the open sidecar.. a pheasant flew over the right hand side hedge and hit my mate square in the chest.

Didn't it hurt?? The rider I mean! I had a bird strike when some sort of bird flew across me whilst I was doing 70 on a dual carriageway and hit my arm....it wasn't a massive bird but it HURT. I keep having very very near misses with rabbits at the moment. One little blighter ran out from the left, so I swerved left to avoid him, and he turned round and ran back!! Very close......