As ABS has been mandated on motorcycles here in the Murica (and wherever else), a trend has seemed to develop. The trend (especially among the ADV crowd (ZOMG street bikes on dirt bro!!!) heavily on the rise is with those whining about their new electrowhizbang machines reverting ABS constantly to the ON setting.

I’m not here to debate the merits or perks or downfalls of having ABS on a motorcycle. In some situations I have really enjoyed it. In others, I’ve had to quickly remind myself to let OFF the brakes, look through the turn, and trust I can make it despite not having scrubbed the speed I’ve intended. I am very much aware that on motorcycles (especially when riding in the dirt), you can really do magical things when you’re skidding the rear, something that ABS will NOT let you do.

Well, this is why the OEM’s give the option of being able to turn OFF the ABS, or even in some circumstances, retain front ABS, while turning off the rear. However, the bikes are required to be defaulted to an ON position for their ABS. As the ABS is a government required thing, the OEM’s hands are tied. While some OEM’s may re-arm the ABS in different manners (keyswitches, stalls, whatever), the issue for many remains that for them, the ABS doesn’t remain in the OFF position.

Well, I’m gonna lay it on yah string bean. This is a government pushed issue, so you’ve really got a few ways around this. One, you can keep whining about it like a 2 year old not getting their way. This seems to be the most common option…..Just go browse ADVRider.com Two, you can deal with it, using your eyes & brain to see if the ABS light is flashing (generally) indicating that ABS is disabled; subsequently deciding if you want to enable, or disable the ABS. Three, remove the entire ABS system. Many folks pushing for the weight wheenie option seem to like this route, as they don’t want the extra mass on the bike. Fourth, you can pull the ABS fuse out of the bike. Your ABS will be permanently off so long as the fuse is removed, AND you can return it to OEM with a simple blade fuse. A handy folk could even figure a way to wire in an external switch so this fuse could be permanently on\off whenever they so desire.

Break the trend. You can either keep whining about the “problem”, or just do something about it.