ABS equipped bikes

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

Possibly, but it's still all you've got, you need to learn this so you can use your brakes correctly. DON'T shy away from this - it matters.

Agreed. Almost the first thing I do when riding any unfamiliar vehicle (supervised test rides excepted). A friend said I was a "hooligan" for doing it in all the different hire cars I had as part of my familiairising myself with the vehicle. He thought it was completely unnecessary to find out where the threshold of the brakes were as "you shouldn't ever be braking that hard". He genuinely thought it was just messing about/showing off and couldn't make the distinction between it and, say, doing burnouts. I've had the front end go three or four times at very low speeds, when it was genuinely surprising that it was slipping given the speed/amount of braking/road surface and I imagine if it was the first time I'd experienced a locked front wheel, I'd of not recognised it and quite likely dropped the bike. Building up that muscle memory of getting off the brakes when it happens is invaluable.

I think after all this discussion and debate, im probably going to go for non-ABS. Its not that I think it doesnt matter as ideally I'd like it, but there were hardly any ABS Versys in the particular colour im looking for. They just werent popular enough. The only "Green" one I can get is a blue one which has had all its panels swapped, fork legs and wheels changed. Both unregistered. Does push the balance a bit too high though for what I was hoping

Damn, you're going to beat me in the bike buying race!