Everybody says the same thing about ABS. I'll be the "old school" guy to say I've been riding for 23 years, thousands of track and street miles and never ONCE have I needed ABS. I know I could be lucky in that, but I'll still say that its not the be-all end-all safety net that people describe it to be.
Frosty saying that he "knows" he can stop if some monkey swerves in front him is not entirely correct. ABS can actually lengthen stopping distances in extreme cases but it could keep the bike from locking up and allow you to steer out of trouble.
Learning how to get the most of out of your machine, knowing its and your limits, combined with unrelenting situational awareness are the best ways to maximize safety. Riding/track schools, and going to the track often to reacquaint yourself with what you and machine are capable of will do wonders when the inevitable "oh $H%+" moment happens. In my case, years of endurance racing on worn tires in the rain on a bike setup to handle different riders with 100 lbs differential, had sharpened my "feeling" and senses to a fine point. So much so that when I ran over diesel fuel at the apex of a mountain switchback, causing the steering to go completely numb as the front tire folded, I reflexively planted all my weight on my knee puck, very slightly increased the throttle to unweight the front, and looked as far into the turn as possible while intentionally not focusing on the guard rail I was understeering towards at 70 mph. Through years of honing the proper technique, not to mention the Grace of God, the front tire regained traction, and the steering came back alive as I immediately stood the bike up while leaning even further off the bike to keep the arc and avoid the guardrail by a yard.
Bottom line is, practice the critical skills before the moment of truth, because all these electronic aids could fail at any moment, for any reason, especially with a Ducati
