Motorcycle traction control is a safety factor that can help riders keep a higher safety level while riding. Although a traction control system is mainly used in cars, it is also becoming a significant safety element in motorcycles. In this article, we will go through everything necessary about motorcycle traction control system and how it works.
So how does motorcycle traction control work? Motorcycle traction control is a system that controls the amount of power delivered to the rear wheel. It reduces the chance of drifting by controlling the amount of fuel supply sent to the engine, preventing you from falling off your bike, and making a significant safety system factor on your bike.
If you want to learn more about your motorcycle traction control, continue reading as we will detail traction control and other facts connected to the traction control systems.
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How Does Motorcycle Traction Control Work?
There are many safety factors and elements that can be installed in your motorcycle, and motorcycle traction control is definitely one of them. Older motorcycles, including my Kawasaki Z750, don’t have traction control, and I have ridden some newer motorcycles like the BMW S1000RR from 2018, and all I can say is that it is a hell of a bike, and you can certainly feel the difference between a motorcycle with and without traction control.
Modern ECU collects much different information about your motorcycle and its performance like lean angles and gravity forces, and all of this data is processed very fast, and by very fast, I mean like in milliseconds. Your motorcycle has various sensors that collect and update basic information about your bike’s current position.
This is where motorcycle traction control comes into play because it takes the information collected from these various sensors and uses them to control how much power needs to be delivered to the rear wheel of your bike.
Traction control can stop or limit the fuel supply to your engine, which will cause the cylinders to misfire. This type of traction control is very effective on race tracks. It has more control over the driver’s power delivery when needed the most. However, this traction control method is not very smooth.
Another way that it can be achieved is using ride-by-wire technology. In this technology, the throttle position is adjusted electronically, and this system limits the power of your engine. It doesn’t matter how much you rev your throttle, which is also a safety factor in case of a rider’s error where he accidentally accelerates the throttle harder than he intended to do.
You can find many different pre-configured riding modes that will limit the throttle response, and therefore you don’t have to worry about hitting the throttle too hard (if you don’t like fast but safe rides).
Why Should You Have a Motorcycle Traction Control?
Traction control has become so popular nowadays because it provides better control of your motorcycle and a rider has much more safety than without it.
A motorcycle traction control system is a safety system that is in an early stage of development. While traction control system can be mostly found on cars, it is also available on some motorcycles but mostly on pretty expensive models. The good news is that it is becoming integrated into cheaper motorcycle models as well (although I personally don’t know any newly made motorcycle that is cheap but compared to some models like BMW S1000RR, or Kawasaki Ninja H2R, you can buy an excellent quality motorcycle with traction control for a much lower price than these two I mentioned) so if you buy a motorcycle that is only a few years old, there is a great possibility that it has traction control.
What Is a Motorcycle Traction Control?
A motorcycle traction control system prevents your motorcycle from drifting, and that way, it saves you from falling off your bike. This control is achieved by regulating how much power is sent to the rear wheel, which means that the traction control regulates the rotational speed sent to your motorcycle’s rear wheel. By doing so, any chance of drifting is drastically reduced.
Motorcycle traction control can be divided into two categories:
- Reactive: In this category of motorcycle traction control, the traction system and its components wait as long as the rear wheel starts to spin, and once the wheel begins to turn, the reactive system then corrects any irregularities and controls how much power needs to be sent to the rear wheel.
- Predictive: In predictive traction control, on the other hand, the ECU and other sensors collect the information and data in real-time, and according to that what they have gathered, the traction control system makes changes before the rear wheel even starts to spin. The predictive system constantly calculates the probability of some scenario to happen, and it has pretty fast reactions to prevent your motorcycle from drifting.
Traction control uses various types of complex ECU and sensors that prevent your rear wheel from losing traction. Sensors that are used for your traction control are:
- Gyroscope
- Bank angle sensor
- Gear position sensor
- Throttle position sensor
- Vehicle speed sensor
These are components used for achieving smooth traction control, and every manufacturer has its own combination of these components that they find the best for their motorcycle make and model. The best thing about these motorcycle traction systems is that they work in the background without a rider noticing anything, while at the same time, these systems are so efficient that they lower the chance of drifting to the bare minimum.
Note: The rider won’t lose control over his motorcycle even on off-road terrains and especially during off-road corners.
Motorcycle Traction Control Riding Modes
There are a couple of motorcycle traction control modes that you can select when riding, and we will tell you all of them in this section. When you start your engine and decide to go for a ride, you can choose between these motorcycle riding modes and select which one suits the best to your riding style:
- Rain mode
- Sport mode
- Street mode
The Rain Mode: This mode allows your rear tire to have a maximum grip which makes you better control the bike and at the same time prevents you from falling during rainy weather and wet road. It is important to have this fact in mind when choosing your motorcycle traction control mode on a stormy, rainy day.
The Sport Mode: This mode is perfect when the weather is nice, especially during summer days since this time of the year is the best for motorcycle rides. The sport mode will enable your bike to have some slippage, and you will be able to drift a little bit.
Tip: If you plan to drift in sport traction control mode, please be careful and avoid any unwanted injuries and damages on your motorcycle.
The Street Mode: The street mode traction control is mostly used for enjoying longer rides while cruising and riding at controllable speeds. This mode is the best when you really want to enjoy observing the locations through which you ride, and you are not in a hurry and can even take some extra time to visit some places that weren’t in your riding schedule at first.
These were the main three traction control modes that will satisfy every rider needs depending on what riding style he likes most and on what conditions he rides the majority of the time because, as we wrote above, you need a different mode if you ride in rainy and wet conditions than you need if you ride in a lovely sunny day and you think of drifting a bit.
KTM is developing an off-road traction control mode, a new riding mode that will allow the rider to get a little bit more slip while at the same time bigger but controlled drifting. These are great news, especially for dirt bike riders like myself, since this will allow us to enjoy much more in off-road conditions, and I can’t wait to try it myself.
The motorcycle traction control systems work perfectly in all of the abovementioned modes. Although, there is one important factor to consider besides the traction control, and that is how much experience the rider has and how good his riding feeling is.
All of these systems can help you a lot in your driving control and safety, but there is no system that can replace your knowledge and experience that you gather through many riding years and many miles covered.
Here is an excellent video from Bennetts Bike explaining traction control and ABS:
Final Thoughts
Although I don’t have a motorcycle traction control system on my old 2004 Kawasaki Z750, and I am a very experienced rider, I would definitely like to have this system on my bike because when it comes to safety and better bike control, I make no compromises and neither should you. But it is what it is, and if you buy a motorcycle with a traction control system built-in, I can be almost 100% sure that you will love it and feel much safer like I did when I tried my best friend’s BMW S1000RR from 2018.