Quick anecdote on "Darksiding".....completely topical to the thread.
First of all, my rear ABS has been inoperative for several months. Have been unable to track down the problem and will probably remain undiagnosed and unrepaired for the time being.
That's all in good faith disclosure prior to relating an incident last night.
On the way home, I'm approaching an intersection I go through twice a day on my work commute. My side is 4 lanes wide, with two left hand turn lanes, a straight lane and a right turn lane.
I'm in the second-from-the-left left turn lane. The straight lane has a red, as the approaching lanes are also in turn mode. I've got a green arrow to make my left, when the idiot in the cage at the front of the straight lane, with the red, decides to hop into my turn lane to make a left. I was far enough back to simply slow down to avoid the moron, had she (incidentally, on a cellphone) NOT pulled into my lane and STOPPED!!!! Had she just turned in and hit the gas, what happened next wouldn't have...
So now, there's a braindead, caged phone-talker perpendicular to my path, apparently unaware that the only red light was in the lane she had just left, blocking my left turn that I usually take at about 35mph.
Nowhere to go, left or right, so hard-[SIZE=12pt]HARD[/SIZE]-[SIZE=14pt]HARD[/SIZE] on the brakes. Apparently NOT hard enough to activate the front ABS (God this thing's got good brakes) but hard enough to lock up the rear as fork dive unloads weight from the rear end.
All I can say is, even with the rear tire locked up solid, the bike stopped straight and true. Could have been luck, could have been that huge patch of tread on the road. I don't know and I won't speculate. All I DO know is the bike stopped dead straight in a locked-rear situation. I have NEVER panic-locked the rear on a moto-tire without slewing left or right.
I know there's gonna be a lot of differing opinions on this, but frankly, my confidence in the Darkside has gone up another notch.
