How do I tell if I have ABS II or III?

[Rattus]

Hi Astropin, so which of our hints and tips did you adopt to isolate that you had ABS III?

[Astropin]

I looked at the front calipers which said BMW not Brembo. I also noticed that when the bike is turned on and you squeeze the brakes you can hear the Power assist noise. It did not dry the "heading for your garage door and turn off the bike" approch!

[Rattus]

Are you happy that you have the ABS III? I like how trusty the config is in the wet. If a car pulls out in front of me unexpectedly nothing could be better than this.

[Astropin]

So far I am very impressed with the ABS III system. I could stop this 500lb bike with my pinkey....and fast! It will take a little getting used to and I'm not sure I would want the power assisted EVO's without the ABS.

[CarlosT]

Originally posted by pdonnell
ABS III doesn't offer a substantial leap in performance over regular ABS II or Non-ABS braking to offset the downsides to it.

P you cranky fooker...please enlighten us about the downsides of ABS III again

[MoDog]

Does anyone know which post office Pat works in?

[BMW Atlanta]

I think some people dont understand the depth to the functionality of an Integral ABS system(What yall are calling ABSIII) with the "S" being partially integrated. Essentially the ABSIII has two separate systems working. First the power assist and smart proportioning are one feature, second is the ABS. They work together, but are two components sharing information to get the job done. ABS could fail and you would still have power brakes as this is evident in the late '03 GS's with manually defeatable ABS but still retain Power assist/proportioning. Our experience here with Integral ABS is that once it is working and been thoroughly bleed and tested that we have not seen a total failure to date. Thats well over 400 - 500 unique units through our service department. To the guy who wishes to argue the lack of feedback due to the Integral ABS, I dont have much of a rebuttle it's only that maybe 5-10% of the BWM riders even value "feedback" from the pedal. Next is the Integral ABS is definitely performance enhanced from ABSII as it is over 3 times faster and doing alot more thinking to boot. It is able to correct proportioning under braking and respond at 70 milisecond intervals. You will not out think an Integral ABS system. Its only disadvantage is on the track where you may want to induce slide therefore you have the option of a Boxer Cup edition w/o ABS. The absolute fastest stopping thing I have ever been on is a K1200RS with the newest Integral ABS. It is absolutely amazing. I woke up the next day after putting it through its paces with sore pecks and thighs. And to address the lack of braking when servos are off, yes it is harder to activate the brakes without power assist, however if the pads and rotors are properly worn in the overall braking ability is there, it will just take more effort, I think most of us are capable of much more force when needed. Overall I have a hard time knocking the performance gains of the Integral ABS, I would have two gripes. The first is I dont want an R1150GS Adventure with Integral ABS, when offroad it is absolutely necessary for me to have full control. Second is it must be serviced at your BMW Dealer as they are the only ones with the necessary computer to bleed the brakes and verify optimal performance from the system. Overall it is a major advancement in technology and fortunately they test all of this technology extensively in their car division before implementing it onto motorcycles. Integral systems have been in place on the cars since mid-late 90's on the Beemers.

[roger albert]

Well said,

it really is a good system. I _might_ have went for if it had been available back when I got my S, whereas I wasn't too interested in ABSII. The weakness when in failure mode is annoying, but if you're used to old bikes, not really threatening -- or at least not a change

My only reservation is not being able to do something as routine as bleeding on my own. I tend to do everything but tranny rebuilds myself, so it would annoy me immensely. Otoh, that's maybe an issue for relatively few people, and a big big issue for even fewer. I'm a real fence sitter on this one. The Integral sure does brake hard.

roger

[island_dude]

During my test rides I had a chance to try out both ABS II and EVO/ABSIII brakes. The EVO is really awesome. I would have prefered having the. Everyone has there own bias I am sure, but that is mine.