http://www.automotive-eetimes.com/en/eu ... 52&vID=229EU Commission plans to mandate ABS for motorbikes
The EU Commission has submitted a proposal for a framework for motorcycles, aiming at improving the driving safety for motorbike riders. The framework contains a plan to equip all motorcycles with more than 125 cc displacement with antilock brake systems.
The proposal is currently passing through the EU legislative procedure, and is expected to be adopted next year. The regulation is likely to come into effect from 2017.
In 2008, the number of motorcyclists involved in fatal accidents in the European Union came to 5,520 – 14 percent of all road deaths. The European figure has scarcely changed since 1997, yet the number of fatal accidents involving car drivers fell significantly during the same period – by 49 percent, as an analysis of 17 European countries shows. According to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the risk of suffering a fatal accident is 18 times greater for motorcyclists than for car drivers in Europe, assuming that the same distance is traveled. But although the first antilock braking system to be installed in a motorcycle dates back to 1988, just 16 percent of all newly manufactured motorcycles in Europe are equipped with this safety system. In contrast, in passenger cars the ABS system is virtually standard.
Experts of automotive supplier Bosch in Japan have for the first time designed a series specifically for motorcycles. With greatly reduced volume and weighing just 0.7 kilograms, the entry-level product ABS 9 base is half the size and weight of its predecessor. Bosch claims that this makes it by far the most compact system in the market.
Experts regard the antilock braking system as a huge boost to safety. For example, a benefit analysis conducted for the European Commission calculates that the proposed regulation will allow the number of fatal accidents among motorcyclists to be reduced by more than 5,000 over a ten-year period. A study presented by Vägverket, the Swedish highways authority, in October 2009 shows that 38 percent of all motorcycle accidents involving personal injury and 48 percent of all serious and fatal accidents could be prevented with the help of ABS. This active safety system allows motorcyclists to brake safely in critical situations without locking the wheels, and thus without having to fear an inevitable fall. Braking distance is also reduced considerably.
With the positive press on the latest ABS systems - particularly from Honda and Aprilia - this seems to be a good thing ..... except for the inevitable price-hike.
That said, I think their logic is a bit flawed. They justify on road safety grounds due to the high number of injuries and fatalities of 2 wheelers .... and then they go and exempt bikes of less than 125cc .... ie those that have a greater percentage of inexperienced riders, are ridden in parts of Europe with no safety kit and in much of Europe form a disproportionately large percentage of the total number of powered two-wheelers ...... so it probably won't have the kind of impact they expect it to.
On the other hand, were they to apply it to these small bikes, it would probably add a huge price-hike in proportion to the overall cost of the machine and be another blow to people taking up biking.
