The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Motorcycle Traction Control on the Street – The Technology Keeps Coming

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You can buy a Ducati 1098R with traction control and it’s the kind of bike where you might expect it to appear, hit the hammer hard exiting a corner and the computer keeps you hooked up. Very nice, race oriented tech available on the street. So along comes Kawasaki, with their 2010 Concours 14, offering their ABS equipped model with traction control. Does a non-race oriented motorcycle like the Concours need it? It’s great technology and, like Kawasaki says, they have everything in place already with ABS and engine controls so it’s just a matter of adding the new function.

In the same way ABS is nice to have, even if it isn’t always necessary, there are times when it can be a life saver. I’m not sure a touring bike, even a super sport touring bike like the Concours, will run into a lot of occasions where traction control is really necessary, but there may be situations where it comes in handy and having the technology available may become the order of the day as we move forward. With the big Connie, once you have a computer along with sensors that detect wheel lock or wheel slip, traction control just becomes a bit of added programming.

I was thinking about this after posting the Concours article and then noticed Kenny left a comment remarking how no one seems to blink an eye when things like this pop up. As computers and sensors of all types make their way onto standard motorcycles, we’ll be seeing more of this as programmers will look for more features to offer. I just hope the features they add continue to be of this passive variety, they work when you need them and stay in the background until then. Feature creep can also mean lots of extra buttons and screens to play with, probably not the best idea for riders, but you can bet those computers still have a lot more to offer.

Comments

  1. None of my bikes (or cars for that matter) have either ABS or traction control. In my case, they probably would not hurt to have. I dont know if most riders stay current enough to not need this equipment.

  2. Riding a heavily loaded Concours sport tourer over an iced-up mountain pass, will have even the most dedicated Luddite thanking Kawasaki for their foresight. Both ABS and traction control are really really nice then. On the other hand, there are times when I actually WANT wheelspin, so it needs to come with an off switch. But all in all, a positive technology when used right. If it’s light enough not to cause other issues.

  3. I welcome the technology as long as it comes with an on/off button. As DoctorNine said, sometimes I want a raw functioning motorcycle.

  4. I’m not a fan of either, but I can at least understand how ABS could help in some panic-stop situations. I can see how, it could be argued, that traction control would actually be less safe.

    Consider: If you’re hitting the limits of traction control, you’re riding aggressively and accelerating at the limits of traction. If you’re an experience rider, you know what you’re doing and you guage and use that wheel-spin as part of your experience.

    If you’re an inexperienced rider, you shouldn’t be pushing that hard and, rather than getting the clear sign that you’re on the throttle too hard, traction control will mask that and the inexperienced rider could continue to push to the point he/she gets in some real trouble.

    I also found it very interesting (though not completely surprising) that when Sport-Rider tested the 1098R in their last issue, they found that their best times came with the TC switched off.

    Call me an old fart, but I still go with the idea that the best traction control is a well calibrated right wrist.

  5. Consider this: what if you’re riding a bike with traction control and a switch. Let’s say you’re doing a burnout and switch the traction control on in the middle of it. What happens?

    I would think if traction control becomes common, they would also want to include an anti-wheelie technology that would cut the throttle when a certain angle is exceeded (like shown on this site a few weeks ago).

  6. Balance
    Finding just the right balance between technology and a simple motorcycle is very difficult.
    It seems to make perfect sense to me that a touring bike that should see a wide variety of road conditions would be one of the BEST candidates for traction control and ABS (esp. with the kind of power the 1400 has).
    Is the answer to have a bunch of bikes on the road that don’t use technology (isn’t HD getting picked on for that all the time).
    Truthfully I don’t know where I end up falling on this issue. I would have an easier time arguing that race/track bikes should not have things like traction control and ABS while street bikes should.
    That being said I would prefer to have vehicles I can actually work on too.

  7. The equipment is already there, so there is no real penalty to adding the feature, and it can aid such a powerful and heavy vehicle in low traction conditions.

    Drivers aides that can be manually engaged or disengaged (like the toggle switch for off/on/competition mode) are fantastic.

  8. What? No wheelies???

    Actually, I haven’t done one for years, but I like to think I still could.

  9. Just as long as no one sneaks up and puts anything like that on my ’73 R75 I’ll be happy.

    It’s much like sitcoms. We all look at each other and wonder how we used to get along without them.

    -todd

  10. I was following a couple in their 50s on a Goldwing 1800 one morning on a damp urban road when they stopped at some traffic lights. When the lights went green they accelerated away and then as they were accelerating they changed lanes. A combination of slightly too much gas, slightly too much moisture and way too much weight, and they were on their backsides – unhurt but embarrassed and going no further that day. Perhaps traction control might have saved them?

  11. “Let’s say you’re doing a burnout and switch the traction control on in the middle of it. What happens?”

    All that would happen is that power is reduced until the wheel stops spinning. Traction control cannot increase traction, it can only cut back power until traction is regained. The question I would ask is what would happen if you were drifting a corner?

  12. BMW has traction control on a few of their sport/sport touring/touring models I believe. All the reports I have read indicate that it works well and it would be beneficial. As others have said here, I believe it is more relevant on a touring motorcycle than it is on a racing motorcycle.

  13. @WillyP: Are you drifting a corner on the street (illegal) or on the track? You would have to be either a) a loony and talented, or b) incredibly stupid to accidentally ramp up the traction control mid-drift. BMW’s ESA doesn’t allow you to switch suspension modes on the fly, I wouldn’t imagine *most* traction control systems to be switchable on the fly, especially BMW’s. Ducati is a different matter, but in their case TC is a track tool and you want to be able to tailor that while moving.

  14. Honda is launching an on-off 300cc road bike here in Brazil with the usual C-DBS, and with no way to shut it off. Based on previous experience with other trail bikes (think BMW) many journalists thought this was crazy. Turns out the newly developed ABS control unit has a much faster processing, and even the most critical journalists say it helps preventing blocking AND also stops the bike. My favourite quote is the system could only be more efficient “if the gravel had ABS too”. Seems ABS can save your a** even in off-road situations.

  15. Now days those loss of traction moments as depicted with the goldwing above surely do put my heart in my throat in a way I never thought they would when I was younger. This certainly is technology for overweight, high torque bikes like goldwings and my geezerglide. I have had my moments with wet roads or mountain passes and cold tires. I will be long dead before the motor co. ever has anything like TC. I would certainly like to ride a big bike with TC just to see what its like.

  16. After 2 years of Concours ownership I am an ABS convert. On a big heavy bike with monster brakes it’s well worth any extra cost.

    I’m not sure that the Connie needs traction control. The only time I’ve had issues with breaking traction is when I’ve been playing silly buggers. Maybe it’d be nice to have in very extreme weather or if you hit oil on the road or something but I can’t think of any other reason. And I like wheelies!

  17. I would love to have ABS I don’t want to buy a new bike to get it. The catch 22 is certainly the small contact patch we are balancing the physics of motion on. The facts are large, heavy bikes with lots of torque can loose traction fairly easily trying to get that mass in motion and even more so stopping. I’ve stepped my Harley up pretty well and a little moisture or oil at a stop light can get your attention with out even trying. I don’t know what the torque available to a goldwing is at just off idle but if my geezerglide has 115 I’m sure it more on the Honda. My TC will have to be awareness and caution but the goldwing would probably benefit

  18. Much like the ABS topics of months past, que the guys who say TC is more dangerous since they won’t be able to pop the clutch and get the rear tire to lose traction so they can slide out!!!

    I wonder if these are the guys that don’t wear seat belts for fear of being trapped in their upside down car…

    All kidding aside, I really don’t see how TC could be a negative if it is defeat-able. Hell, there are very few cases that I could think of where TC would be a negative at all. Besides, how often does one do a burnout?
    (note: not at all advocating non-defeat-able TC, just making a point)

  19. I do not understand why ABS is not standard on all new motorcycles. Only because the costs and difficulties with retrofitting I would say that existing bikes do not have to be modified.
    Be realistic. in 99.8% of the cases with 99.8% of the riders they are much better off WITH ABS. And for the other 0.04% ….I do not believe them 🙂

    TC is a different piece altogether.. The situations where it comes in handy are less obvious. That is until you ride in countries where the wheather is not California-sunshine 364 days a year.

    When the roads are damp, temperature is low, leafs are lying on the roads…..My god you experience a \heartrate 180\ moment at least once a week.

    I would settle for TC and ABS anytime except when paying for the bike 🙂
    (bikes with ABS tend to be much more expensive. TC is completely out of range for now for me)

  20. For a track day ABS and trac control are unnecessary, the surface and environment are predictable and a few loops allow you to learn the limits. But aggressive road riding is another matter (not that any of us would ever do such a thing), 9/10th or even 7/10th braking and acceleration can easily become 11/10th or 12/10th if the surface unexpectedly changes. An undetected bump, a bit of sand or liquid obscured by the lighting, like abrupt transitions from sun to shade. None of us are that good that we can always recover from an unexpected change.

  21. From some of the comments, I think some people might be imagining true traction control . . . as opposed to the systems that are actually being put on bikes.

    True traction control comes from the tires. These systems don’t improve the grip of the tires. The only thing they do is back off on the throttle slightly when you are too hard on the throttle and causing the real wheel to spin.

    The 95% of traction issues that happen for reasons other than you giving too much throttle are still going to be a problem unless you get better tires.

  23. TC here is a freebie and a marketing bullet point. it doesn’t hurt, unless you want to make an extreme case where it might get in your way of doing something unusual.
    I like that drive-by-wire makes this much easier to implement than earlier systems.
    I had a ’97 BMW M3 (car) with “Dynamic Traction Control”. I called it the “expensive rear tire saver” as it would make those $250 Michelins last longer. This system was implemented with a secondary computer-controlled throttle upstream of the footpedal-linked butterfly, when DTC enabled it would manage engine output by closing off the airflow. This extra butterfly was marginally restrictive and stood in the way of many performance upgrade possibilities.

  24. I remember reading that a debate raged about having a front brake in the late twenties. Twenty years from now, all new bikes will proably have ABS and everyone will wonder what the fuss was all about.

  27. This certainly isn’t the first S/T bike with traction control. The Honda ST1100 had it way back in 1992. I don’t have TCS on my ST1100, but I could see the benefits to keeping the tires inline when loaded down with a passenger and full bags.

  28. To know for real if TC works just ask why EVERY team in MotoGP uses it!

    Even Rossi who wishes it would go back to “No Traction Control” knows his times are slower without it. So unless it is banned he has to keep using it.