I once had a conversation with Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali, where he described that in terms of safety advancement, cornering ABS was to the front wheel what traction control was to the rear wheel.
A few years later now, we see that the Italian brand is taking cornering ABS very seriously, and during the company’s EICMA unveiling event, Domenicali announced that Ducati is making cornering ABS a standard item on all of its 2019 model year motorcycles.
Powered by an inertial measurement unit (IMU), cornering ABS systems are able to detect the pitch, roll, and yaw (and the rate of those movements) in real-time, and then adjust the braking force being sent to the calipers, in order to prevent the front-wheel from losing grip, tucking, and crashing.
Several companies have come out with cornering ABS systems for motorcycles, with Bosch and Continental leading the pack.
For its efforts, Ducati seems to have hitched up with Bosch, as the German company is building out a robust set of electronic features for motorcycle OEMs.
The systems have evolved quickly, and we already see on the Ducati Panigale V4 that a “race” version of the cornering ABS technology has been created, with use on a race track in mind. This means trail braking all the way to the apex can be achieved, without having to worry about a low-side crash.
This is more than handy when you are riding a $40,000 machine, like the recently released Ducati Panigale V4 R. Though, the technology is applicable on virtually any two-wheeled machine.
It makes sense then for Ducati to include cornering ABS on all its 2019 models.
Source: Ducati
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