Bicycle Anti-lock Braking Is Amazing! A Review After 6 Years of Use.

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Bicycle Anti-lock Braking Is Amazing! A Review After 6 Years of Use.
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flag henrywheels
Posted: Jul 17, 2019 at 21:12 Quote
In 2012 Bikerumor reviewed SABS Anti-lock brake pads and reported that "In short, they’re amazing." They intrigued me but the rarity of these parts, the extra 100 grams and cost of $129USD made them a bit of a no go as a bike experiment.
Incredibly in 2013 someone listed 4 brand new v-brake sets of SABS pads on Kijiji in Toronto for $15 CAD a pair without knowing what they had! I bought up the whole lot and they made their way onto every mountain and commuter bike in my stable.

These are by far the best bike components I have come across in my 40+ years of cycling!

Sounds crazy I know esp. since this company has done a terrible job of marketing, and the cycling community highly resistant to such radical tech. The sentiment among seasoned riders is that "perhaps these are ok for new riders but I am too good a rider to need these". Even Bosch will have a hard time convincing ebikers that they will need their new electronic disc brake ABS but early reviews have been very positive.

SABS are fully mechanical rim brake pads which work by pulsing the pads at a rate proportional to rim speed. Unlike car ABS the pulsing is imperceptible. Also unlike electronic ABS, SABS is full time anti-lock rather than acting when detecting the wheel is about to lock.

Why I think they are "In short, they're amazing!" :

1. It is virtually impossible to endo your bike. In fact, I never had in thousands of kms of riding with SABS and I have pushed them by squeezing levers as hard as possible but they never failed.
2. You don't realize how much jerky and clunky on/off braking you do in combination with lots of body English when braking with conventional grabby rim brakes and disc brakes. Once you have SABS you can experience perfect linear stopping modulation by simply squeezing your brakes continuously and stay seated without any dramatic weight shifts.
3. Diving into corners and braking late is not scary. SABS allows you to have tons more grip and control when braking during a turn. This is something all cyclists can immediately appreciate.
4. SABS has saved me from crashing in countless unexpected situations while commuting and on the trail. These are situations where I would have previously locked up during panic braking.
5. SABS eliminates around 50% of the brake induced fork dive that occurs on suspension forks thus giving you more comfort and control. This is really noticeable on my Marzocchi Bomber where I seem to have more available travel in the fork since adding SABS.
6. I ride more relaxed esp. when commuting among traffic.
6. SABS gives you more control in wet weather because you don't have to worry about locking up and washing out.

 


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