ABS V-Brakes? Yes

If you were asked how you could improve on bicycles today, what would you do? It's not like making changes to a car where you could alter the powerplant or add on extra safety features like more airbags or ABS standard.

Well SABS decided that V-brakes on a bike were not... safe enough? Cool enough? I don't know, but one day in the shop one of our techs brought in ABS V-brakes for us to try out.

They install like any other brake pad (minus maneuvering the massive cylinders around the frame) and they work with a pre-existing V-brake. Once they're installed they're good to go, so how do they work?

Magic. Actually from what I can get off the side of the package is that at different speeds they generate a frequency of braking and releasing several times a second automatically. In practical terms, this means that in a panic or emergency stop type situation, you can just give her on the brake lever (bringing the lever all the way to the bars) and the system will bring you to a controlled stop without any wheel skid.

   We only had a rear set, so we threw them on and had a go in the parking lot. At a standstill there is no difference to the lever pull, even pulling as hard as we could the lever could not go any closer than half an inch to the bar. However once we got moving (even at walking pace) the lever would sink all the way to the bar and bring you to a pretty quick stop (for just using the rear wheel that is) and all without any wheel skid.

So it works as advertised but are they really necessary? For someone like myself - no. For someone who doesn't think they'd be able to come to a controlled stop in a panic situation - I suppose so. Having said that they retail for like a hundred bucks. I'll stick to the classics.