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CBS (combined brake system for front and rear wheels) and ABS for motorcycles

Ideas of Honda put in CBS, ABS and Combined ABS for motorcycles

From it's very beginning, Honda has been actively tackling with the issue of safety. Safety of motorcycles can be largely classified into two stages, active safety and passive safety. The brake in particular can be said to be very important in active safety.

The aim of developing the brake is to secure a high effect with good controllability. It is necessary to achieve the goal to heighten three areas; controllability, convenience and the sense of confidence for the average rider. With respect to controllability, at first the improvement of conventional brake systems can be cited, which will include the development of a disk brake system for motorcycles for the first time in the world and the development of sintered friction materials. In regards to convenience, the second area, we have begun the development of a combined brake system (CBS) ahead of others and are now tackling the task of an easier way of distributing braking force between the front and rear wheels. This is related to the improvement of controllability mentioned in the beginning. As for the enhancement of the sense of confidence, the third, we aimed at preventing wheel lock and came up with the anti-lock brake system (ABS). Furthermore, in docking CBS and ABS, we developed a combined ABS which enhanced the respective effects.

Positioning CBS, ABS and combined ABS as those contributing to the manufacture of motorcycles with the sense of confidence, Honda aims at adopting and expanding them to many more models as an advanced brake system.

The patent for ABS was applied by Soichiro Honda, the founder, in 1959. At the time Honda did not handle the development of automobiles. The application enables one to acquire some idea about the brake for motorcycles.