[Nas3car]

Other than some more inches it all sounds like crap to me. Keep dumming up the bike and soon we will have more stupid ass people who cant ride or shouldn't ride. Hey lets put seat belts and air bags they save lives too. The kick stand cut off, ABS and slipper clutch is about inexperienced rider as you can get. I say learn to ride. If you leave the bar and forget to lift the kick stand you had to much to drink and should not be on a bike anyway. I do believe that HD did this because so many non riding people from other brands who rely on the safety stuff just want to be cool and own an HD. Keep bikes deadly it makes them safer for all of us. The harder to ride the less morons who think they can will try. Kinda upset the HD would go that way. I know the 07 was the last of the real riders bikes. If HD wanted to move into a higher arena how about some real suspension. Something that can be adjusted compression and rebound front and rear. Much rather that than some make it easy to ride crap. Don't ever confuse easy with it's safer. The rider is who makes it safe.

 

[Oriondk]

Other than some more inches it all sounds like crap to me. Keep dumming up the bike and soon we will have more stupid ass people who cant ride or shouldn't ride. Hey lets put seat belts and air bags they save lives too. The kick stand cut off, ABS and slipper clutch is about inexperienced rider as you can get. I say learn to ride. If you leave the bar and forget to lift the kick stand you had to much to drink and should not be on a bike anyway. I do believe that HD did this because so many non riding people from other brands who rely on the safety stuff just want to be cool and own an HD. Keep bikes deadly it makes them safer for all of us. The harder to ride the less morons who think they can will try. Kinda upset the HD would go that way. I know the 07 was the last of the real riders bikes. If HD wanted to move into a higher arena how about some real suspension. Something that can be adjusted compression and rebound front and rear. Much rather that than some make it easy to ride crap. Don't ever confuse easy with it's safer. The rider is who makes it safe.

So what really makes it easier to ride, the anti-lock brakes? Even the California Highway Patrol has anti-lock brakes on their bikes. I don't care how well you ride, you can't pulse your brakes like an ABS system can. As far as forgetting the kick stand, I've seen guys with years of experience forget that. Crap happens. I agree about the suspension. Would be nice to see a really first class suspension set-up standard on Harleys. I mean, we are paying a premium price for them.

 

[pjoo7]

How about automatic tranny? Tiltmeter sensor and warning alarm, Breather analzer locked out Ignition. No thanks!!! I like my bike bare so any moron such as me myself and I can work on them. ABS ? maybe on the front but if I lock up the rear I probably want it to slide just before I have to ditch the bike on an iminent impact.

Harley is getting lawyered up because your getting a bunch of a--holes that wont take responsiblity for their own actions. These are probably the same folks I see riding with flip flops/ sneakers and short pants

 

[PHXDX]

Thats life bro, look at what the auto industry went through in the 70/80's. You want an unalulterated VROD buy a Destroyer.

 

[gaprider0]

Thats life bro, look at what the auto industry went through in the 70/80's. You want an unalulterated VROD buy a Destroyer.

:them:

 

[The_Apprentice]

The true fact is that HD have to compete.
If someone is trying to decide between two bikes and one has ABS and the other doesn't, the chances are the ABS will swing it.

Tis a sad reflection of today's consumer mentality where the more boltons there are the more likely someone is gonna buy it, even if they do not know what it does or will never use it.
Take the Suzuki with SHRAD, sounds quite cool.
It is a small ally plate that directs air down onto the engine.

Me, I like looking at my back tyre as it tries to pass me
I am not unknown for doing "hand brake" turns for the pure fun of it. It put the sh!ts up a mate of mine when I did it in front of him one day (nb. the bikes were not close, I am not that stupid).
I would like a little lever type thingy to flash the headlight though.

 

[derelict_1969]

To me, ABS is interesting at best. There is a video that makes a pretty strong arguement though:
http://www.americanrider.com/index.cfm?vid=675

 

[landglider]

Yeah and who needs water cooled crap either?

oops

 

[Night GT]

yeah, who wants better braking? hell, lets go back to drum brakes.

 

[POSRod]

Kick Stand Cut OFF

Other than some more inches it all sounds like crap to me. Keep dumming up the bike and soon we will have more stupid ass people who cant ride or shouldn't ride. Hey lets put seat belts and air bags they save lives too. The kick stand cut off, ABS and slipper clutch is about inexperienced rider as you can get. I say learn to ride. If you leave the bar and forget to lift the kick stand you had to much to drink and should not be on a bike anyway. I do believe that HD did this because so many non riding people from other brands who rely on the safety stuff just want to be cool and own an HD. Keep bikes deadly it makes them safer for all of us. The harder to ride the less morons who think they can will try. Kinda upset the HD would go that way. I know the 07 was the last of the real riders bikes. If HD wanted to move into a higher arena how about some real suspension. Something that can be adjusted compression and rebound front and rear. Much rather that than some make it easy to ride crap. Don't ever confuse easy with it's safer. The rider is who makes it safe.

Since those options have been out on other bikes it is not that big of a deal. I guess I am an inexperienced rider since I have left the tiny kickstand down before. 14 years of riding and still make mistakes.. Almost everybike on the market except HD have the stand cut off.

 

[Nas3car]

Oh I agree that the Destroyer is unadulterated but up till this year HD had no fail safe for rider error. I am not against the ABS but as a package it dose let less experienced riders THINK they are safe. I have been in cars where the car was much less capable of doing what the driver wanted it to do. When questioned about the execive speed on the back road the answer was "Dont worry its got ABS." The next statement was "*HIT" as we slid off the road into a ditch. Yep the ABS was pounding away. This is why my feeling of morons are now able to ride. When you make it better for a good rider and give him some tools to help them have a safer ride it also lets a lesser rider think they are a better driver (the one who would wreck anyway) but now they "feel" like they are superman.

 

[VrodG]

These options have been on bikes for years, HD is just playing catch up :deal: The rear barake on my 03 is easy to lock up, when its sliding ...its not stopping.

 

[Vrod-Mike]

These options have been on bikes for years, HD is just playing catch up :deal: The rear barake on my 03 is easy to lock up, when its sliding ...its not stopping.

:stupid: HD needs to stay competitive with the other manufactures. With your thinking we may just as well stayed with the outdated a/c motors. I could care less about the side stand. I have never forgotten to raise it and doubt I ever will, but the inclusion of ABS is a great idea. If I was in the market for a new bike and had to choose between a bike with or without ABS the one with ABS would certainly be my choice.

 

[Nitro66]

I just was wondering: Can you perform a good burn-out at the strip with ABS? Or will the bike just sneak forward?

 

[smoothrod]

These options have been on bikes for years, HD is just playing catch up :deal: The rear barake on my 03 is easy to lock up, when its sliding ...its not stopping.

Thats a great ****ing point Greg.

 

[KJK1971]

Other than some more inches it all sounds like crap to me. Keep dumming up the bike and soon we will have more stupid ass people who cant ride or shouldn't ride. Hey lets put seat belts and air bags they save lives too. The kick stand cut off, ABS and slipper clutch is about inexperienced rider as you can get. I say learn to ride. If you leave the bar and forget to lift the kick stand you had to much to drink and should not be on a bike anyway. I do believe that HD did this because so many non riding people from other brands who rely on the safety stuff just want to be cool and own an HD. Keep bikes deadly it makes them safer for all of us. The harder to ride the less morons who think they can will try. Kinda upset the HD would go that way. I know the 07 was the last of the real riders bikes. If HD wanted to move into a higher arena how about some real suspension. Something that can be adjusted compression and rebound front and rear. Much rather that than some make it easy to ride crap. Don't ever confuse easy with it's safer. The rider is who makes it safe.

I've been riding Buells and harleys for 15 years. There will always be situations where ABS will save your ass. No matter how much experience you have, you can't control an 80 year old man pulling out in front of you in the rain. Try to stop your bike without laying it down or T-boning that car in that situation. Or a deer stepping onto the road in front of you while you're going 70 mph down the interstate, try to stop safely then. Unordinary circumstances happen to bikers all the time in which ABS would save there lives. Experience doesn't always save you...as I have learned over and over in my lifetime. I have to say that I am really getting sick of this forum. Everyone always arguing in here about something. Whether it is ABS, which gas tank is better ( ricks or V-mod), saddlebags on your V-rod, etc. I used to find it amusing to read through the threads and see how these arguments would go on and on but now it's just idiotic. Lifes too short for all this negativity.

 

[Kieron]

Just be happy with what you've got, that's my philosophy...

 

[The_Apprentice]

I just was wondering: Can you perform a good burn-out at the strip with ABS? Or will the bike just sneak forward?

ABS is purely to do with braking.

You hit the brakes as hard as you like and the onboard computer calculates the optimum usage of the brakes and at the same time stop them locking up.
It pulsates the brakes on and off, at high speed, so you get more effective braking without the wheels locking/losing traction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-lock_braking_system

 

[V-RODSALLAH]

Good brakes encourage bad riding.... Sometimes I like being bad.

 

[GelbKreuz]

Meh, back when I rode Hondas, the VFR had ABS even around the year 2003. I bought the CBR that same year and guess what - no ABS was on it. No ABS was on the VTX or the RC or any other save maybe the Goldwing and Honda did this on purpose. Read the reviews from that time, the more experienced the rider was, the less likely they supported an ABS option. I don't know if the ABS is the same on HD, but when you hit the front brake lever on the VFR, the computer would do a calculation and activate both front and back pistons (like 3 up front, 1 in the rear, etc depending on how hard the force applied was).

HD is adding ABS because they think their target demographic likes it: an older, cruiser loving rider who doesn't tear through corners or do track days and knows generally how to handle braking but is not advanced or have intimate knowledge of the activity.

Personally I don't like ABS, but I think it's great for the wife's car. I don't want anything electronic adding another layer of false security. FI is bad enough, hehe. So I can wrench the front brake as hard as humanly possible going 100mph and I won't wash out. Great. But I wouldn't wrench the front brake that hard to the point where some computer has to step in and save me from myself, anyway. For me, it's about knowing the bike. People owe it to themselves to go to a track day. People would really learn the true capabilities of their bike if they did. That's my .02