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Full Emergency Braking - What Did It Feel Like?

3K views 45 replies 23 participants last post by  Shoegoo 
#1 · (Edited)
Riding 2-up this weekend, coming back from a hiking trip in South Mountain State Park. All good in the farm country, then right in the middle of a huge town, two deer bolted from left to right, with multiple oncoming cars.

At 45+ mph I grabbed all the brakes we had, as hard as I've ever had to, and missed the deer by a few feet.

The handlebars shook hard side to side, and I modulated the brake lever a bit then grabbed hard again, and again the handlebars shook hard side to side. My wife said afterwards that the tires were squealing.

The bike is a 2003 with 40 psi in the front tire and 40 psi in the rear tire (Dunlop E4's with good tread, no cupping, and about 10,000 miles on the front and 2,000 miles on the rear), ABS, and the brake fluid was replaced one year ago. The ADV is disabled with a shim, and the rear preload was refilled last year and is set on 25. The road was smooth, flat, straight, dry pavement.

For those of you who have full-on emergency braking experience, was there any kind of wobble at the time, or was it smooth?
 
#38 ·
On a group ride, I was riding 2nd. The lead rider (on a CVO with motor work) pulled out to pass a truck. I was on my new '18 Goldwing. I dropped it into Sport Mode and followed him. He had pulled out first, so I had some room behind him to accelerate. He was nearing the front of the trunk when oncoming traffic appeared. I thought we had plenty of time to clear the truck. He didn't, and nailed his brakes. I'm coming up behind him, on the speed limiter at 112, when he hit his brakes.

I have never, ever, experienced such strong, controlled braking. Holy crap. I love this bike.
 
#40 ·
i was riding along and noticed my turn onto a side road real late...grabbed a big handful of front brake (I know they are linked but the race track has trained me to ignore the rear). No drama at all, the front tire started to squeal a little but everything was stable. I was pleasantly surprised.
 
#41 ·
I would suspect it was the pavement. I locked up one time coming out of Houston. Traffic went from 70 to zero, I felt the rear start to come around, briefly let off brake and rear end immediately recovered, then back on brakes hard. Heard tires scream, stopped about an inch from bumper of a Tahoe. This was on a 2014 with no ABS. It did NOT wobble.
 
#43 ·
I've had panic stops on both an ABS and non-ABS GL1800 ('06 and '10)

No wobble.

Never felt the ABS do ABS things like you think from driving in a car -- pulsing, etc.

Survived 3 or 4 front wheel skids on the non-ABS. Not a fan. But, again, no wobble.

I agree tire pressure is high but the ABS shouldn't care. It would hurt stopping distance. No comment on its wobble imact.
 
#46 ·
The tire pressure on my Kawasaki Concours would go up when braking and go back down after stopping and rolling again. Especially with Bridgestone Road Smart tires. Likewise the mpg goes up and down depending on the windscreen. With windscreen raised up the mpg goes down. lower the windscreen and the mpg goes up.
 
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