Mastering The Bike Slide — Just Trust The Machine
Modern electronics keep pushing the boundaries of what riders can get away with, and slide control is one of those features that sounds almost too good to be true.
In simple terms, it’s designed to let the rear step out under braking — essentially enabling riders to back the bike into a corner in a controlled, predictable way, even if you have no business behaving that way.
In practice, it still takes a certain number of screws loose to trust the system enough to try it. Rolling into a corner, trailing the rear brake, and deliberately unsettling the chassis isn’t something most riders are eager to experiment with— as our own Sylvia Houston found out when she rode the 2026 Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP for the first time last month.
Riders who might not normally attempt — or even possess the skill — for this kind of maneuver can back the bike in like Marc Marquez with almost zero consequence. This is a system doing more than just offering riders a safety net — it’s actively shaping how the bike behaves at the limit.
Which raises a question: are features like slide control expanding what everyday riders can do, or are they encouraging people to try things they otherwise wouldn’t or shouldn't?
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Stud up a tire for the dirt bike and do it on ice. Yes it helps street riding. Helps take away the pucker factor on debris riddled spring roads in the midwest.
Brawndo! It's what plants crave!
...best street (track) riders come from offroad....stil.....on the dirt you learn to control your bike. iff it go's wrong the speed is low enough to get out un harmed.....i learned it that way. teachet my son from about 6 in the dirt. 65 now and stil go offroa on a 1972 BMW R5/75.....altough i bought a GS 650 boxer to leaf some pressur off of the 1972