Riding around in the slop and spinning up on a climb, I remembered a trick from the 90s where you use the rear brake to reduce the wheel slip. This could be automated of course. Who wouldn’t want that to go with their electronic fully auto wireless shifting?
And in reverse you can have ABS. I can’t think of a single reason why you’d want to lock the front wheel while riding in anger. You could switch it off when you wanna play at being Hans Rey.

Keepin’ it real.

To be honest no, call me old fashioned, but I ride a bike to get away from all this electronics and stuff, the Di2 shifting looks like a very nice idea and I’ll likely stick it on a road bike some point in the future, but ABS and traction control would take a lot of the skill/fun out of mtb riding for me (But then again I like driving without it too 🙄 )

No way in hell. Would be horrible.

Abs has been tried. Was crap. Not even sure you could get a traction control system to work properly either

How much would the ABS sensors and pump weigh?

Have you ever tried ABS on gravel?

How much would the ABS sensors and pump weigh?
450g

Have you ever tried ABS on gravel?
Yep, didn’t lock up

That pic is brilliant

ABS and TC take the fun out of driving and I’m sure they’d do the same for a bicycle!

My motorbike allows me to change the mode of ABS and TC to “Enduro” and even switch them off completely so the bike works well offroad. If £10k of motorbike can’t make ABS work offroad, neither will it work on a mountain bike.

Rachel

I can see that being a liability

Fast into that tricky, but doable corner…

Drift the back out to scrub a bit of speed….

Traction control kicks in….

Rear wheel sticks to ground….

Why am I upside down in a hedge?

How about, right, to make climbing easier.. an engine? who wouldn’t want that eh?

Yep, didn’t lock up

And therein lies the problem, when there’s less friction between the tyres and ground than there is on the road you actually need the wheels to be able to lock, which is why any car/motorbike designed to go off road has a switch to turn it off.

Even on the road, the braking force peaks when the tyre is turning about 10% slower than the speed of the car so you’ve got both static and sliding friction working for you, which is why racing cars/bikes don’t have it, given a bit of practice a driver can do a better job than the computer.

Traction control by feathering the rear brake? Surely you can react just as quick by not mashing on the pedal as you can by squeezing the brake lever? Or are you dragging the brake all the way up the hill?

I can see that being a liability
I think you’re thinking of a stability control thingy like ESP

How about, right, to make climbing easier.. an engine? who wouldn’t want that eh?
Depends what type of traction control it worked with innit

which is why racing cars/bikes don’t have it
No, it’s cos it’s banned in most formulas

Surely you can react just as quick by not mashing on the pedal as you can by squeezing the brake lever? Or are you dragging the brake all the way up the hill?
A bit of both, plus grabbing brake as you mash, it’s worth experimenting.

I already have it!

If the back wheel starts slipping I pedal less hard and move my weight back.

If the brakes start to lock I squeeze the brake lever a bit less.

It’s called skill and over time you develop it…

HTH