Well, I'll give you a not very well informed sketch. The traction control on a bike is really for controling wheel spin caused by too much throttle for the traction available. That is of big use with todays liter bikes that have more than enough HP and torque to break loose, mostly in corners. Especially for those with not enough skills to manage it {street!!!}. The earlier systems had wheel speed sensors similar to ABS systems, in fact, from what I've read, it wasn't a stretch to make an ABS system into a traction control system. The latest spin
{couldn't resist pun} appears to be what is called a "Rate of change" system.
At least that's what I've heard it called so far. It doesn't require wheel speed sensors as far as I know. It is the system that the Suzuki superbikes were supposedly using in the AMA when "TC" was illegal. BUT, it wasn't illegal just by the wording of the rules. It is completely contained within the "balck box".
The genius engineers figured that an engine can only rev so fast, with no load on it, much less so as load is applied. So with that knowledge, you can define a threshold for how fast you allow your engine to rev. A tire losing traction will rev up quicker than a tire with traction. So when the tire starts to lose traction, and the revs start to accelerate too fast, and it approaches the "rate of change" threshold, that the engineers, programmers, or even the rider thinks is too much, the TC will do its' thing. Being a computer, there are probably a bunch of variable parameters that can be adjusted to suit the conditions, or rider's style. I hope this helps a little. As a matter of fact, you can now by a plug and play TC system of that type, for the most modern sport bikes, for somwhere under 2000$. It probably isn't truly just plug and play, plug maybe. I'm sure there is quite a bit to learn to get it to work the way you want.
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