SuperBike Magazine

There's little doubt 2009 is turning out to be something of an important year in terms of bike development. Showa Big Piston Forks (BPF) are the new big thing, Yamaha's R1 is kicking up a storm with its fancy exhaust note (among other items) and Aprilia's RSV4 looks like setting a new standard for exactly how good a sportsbike should be, not to mention its unique engine design.

Honda and its sportsbike ABS system is dipping under the radar somewhat but there are signs it's here to stay.

We've tested several Hondas with the system fitted this year, both in our 600s sportsbike test and the actual ABS system launches in Germany and at the Honda institute. It's fair to say as far as braking performance goes a trip to the Ron Haslam race school brought the truth home about just how good these brakes perform on track.

A back-to-back test round Donington, on a non-ABS model for three sessions followed by a session with Ron himself on an ABS-kitted model, proved to me the Honda ABS system basically performs exactly the same as the non-ABS. I'd go so far to say if I'd been blindfolded I couldn't have told you the difference and this was despite setting faster lap times on the ABS fitted Fireblade (with Ron following it's hard not to try a bit harder).

Even so if Ron Haslam says “they were alright laps” you'd have to say they were “alright” and certainly good enough to test the brakes around Donington Park.

According to Haslam himself there's a strong chance all the race school bikes “will be ABS models in 2010, but the decision rests with Honda.” That not only backs up Honda's commitment to developing the system but also the faith it has in ABS being the future.

Cynics, or at least the sceptical, will point at racing as a trend-setter – when Dani Pedrosa gets ABS on his RC211V then we should start taking it seriously – is a not an unreasonable thought. But it's also fair to say the limit of a road bike, with road bike suspension and slightly less sticky Bridgestone sport road tyres (not to mention a slightly less able rider) is operating with a softer performance margin. As far as the limits of non-MotoGP bikes go, I'm surprised to say ABS system feels fine on track to me.