Magura x Bosch ABS Brake System review

Magura has been dabbling with anti-lock for a few years now. This is the latest Magura x Bosch ABS setup aimed at e-bikes primarily.

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By ben_haworth

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https://singletrackworld.com/?p=12808656

Have you been “mountain biking” in Germany? Imagine taking a 180mm gnarpoon for a stroll around centre parks. Somewhere in an office in Stuttgart, a Bosch engineer is crying into his kaffe-sahne-ruined latte at the ignominy of some journalist wanting to test his beautiful creation in an actual off-road setting.

Interesting – quite different to the review by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFechd6UgvA RobRidesEMTB but then he *was* riding in dry dusty conditions and bike park trails. Worth watching for the last few minutes when he returns to a bike without ABS and repeatedly eats dirt.

Unsurprisingly, if you can teach yourself to rely on ABS it’s an issue when you no longer have it.

I can see the point Ben’s making, I borrowed a twist and go scooter after riding proper motorbikes, and lacked the mechanical un-sympathy required to basically redline the engine everywhere Vs the usual crack the throttle open ad release the clutch.

Cargo bikes, especially if they add in any sort of lean sensing/cornering ABS like motorbikes have would be a different matter. Grabbing a handful of brake whilst towing the trailer and making any sort of turn is a complete lottery and even small amounts of lean/steering angle make massive differences to weight distribution (the trailer applies a torque to the rear of the bike trying to ‘lift’ the front wheel sideways when leant over), and then braking throws it all the other way.

That video is really interesting. I’d actually quite like a go now.

It does appear to work far better than I’d have anticipated. The slow-mo footage was interesting

I’m curious, is the distant bite point a necessary feature of how the system works (so it uses the travel of the lever to reapply the brake after a short release)? Or is there a pump in the little box? In which case I’d be interested to know if it has a significant impact on battery life / would require a big battery for a non-ebike.

I was under the impression, that on dirt bikes abs was a no-go because on anything other than a handpacked surface, in preventing the wheel from locking up it was also preventing the wheel from digging down to the surface where it could get grip. In a system where we rely so much on front end grip, surely anything taking away form that should be avoided.

That is the case, however KTM and Bosch have worked on this and created an offroad mode for their adventure motor bikes. This deliberately allows a little bit of skidding before initiating the ABS system, the idea is that the tyre builds up a bow wave of stuff that the abs then uses to its advantage. It’s possible some of the programming has trickled down to this system. I’m still sceptical, but would definitely like to try it out.

I don’t think this system is really aimed at MTBs. Last year we toured round the Netherlands and I popped into a couple of bike shops. The amount of cargo bike over there is astonishing. I’ve seen it fitted to an Urban Arrow and that’s where it’ll work. The front wheel is miles away from you and steered by a linkage. ABS would stop that from locking up and be an advantage. There’s a lot of people riding these sorts of bike who aren’t cyclists, just people on bikes or delivery riders, and if I was going down that route I’d certainly look at buying a bike with ABS.

Robs vid was a good impression, and certainly was convincing. but it was a panic grab in the type of scenario you need to stop or else. But most times its a case of feathering speed, so im unsure how light touch is going to affect it.
Unless as Tom says and you need to unlearn that and relearn finger pressure.

I don’t actually go fast enough to need it 😆

I was under the impression, that on dirt bikes abs was a no-go because on anything other than a handpacked surface, in preventing the wheel from locking up it was also preventing the wheel from digging down to the surface where it could get grip. In a system where we rely so much on front end grip, surely anything taking away form that should be avoided.

The impression I get from reviews is that in the real world (i.e. outside of MX/Enduro and not behind a keyboard) is that the rear is switchable anyway, and the front actually becomes useable in dry-ish conditions rather than instant muddy death.

But I agree with PP, it’s a cool thing to demonstrate on an MTB, but it’s real use will be in allowing commuters to throw out the anchors when a car pulls out in front of you.