Non ABS GS

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick:

After owning 2 servo/ABS braked RTs, I wouldn't be too put off by the new 
system.   I do my own work on my bike for everything except brake service 
and let the dealer do that.  It's just more convenient for me and a bit 
cheaper...and I'm sure it gets done right.   I'm frankly glad to have some 
sort of maintenance task for them to perform.   They charge me whatever 
their rate is for brake service and it keeps me bonded to the service 
department in case I really need them someday.

The newer servo/ABS system is really pretty good...and very effective in an 
emergency, which I've had maybe twice.   One of the two times, I don't think 
I'd have been able to stop in time without the servo.   I was in tight 
traffic on a four-lane undivided curving main suburban street at rush hour 
and someone about 4 cars up decided at the last minute to make a liesurely 
right hand turn without signalling.   Everyone was suddenly hard on the 
binders.  I was planning a lane change, but the car behind did that leaving 
me even less time to stop.   When you pull those servo brakes hard, they 
stop RIGHT NOW!  Still, I like good, non ABS non servo brakes.   I could go 
either way at this point.

My point is, the new brakes shouldn't be a deal breaker either way.   Mine 
probably saved me thousands of bucks and the considerable hassle and 
embarrassment of needing to repair a nearly new RT, but it might never 
happen to a thousand other riders.   For that margin of safety, you have to 
put up with more complex servicing and that grabbiness, which isn't as bad 
on the newer systems, but is still there.  It can be dealt with, but it's 
kind of non-intuitive, especially on the early system.  If you're looking at 
an early Hexhead GS, non-servo might be better overall.

- -TB 

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End of oilheads-digest V2 #297
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