I had lunch with a buddy this week who works in the moto industry, and was asking him about airbag vests/jackets/etc. Aside from emphatically telling me that they save lives and I should be riding in one, he showed a couple of first person crash videos as well as some data that the Alpinestars products collect when they are deployed. To say it’s convincing is an understatement…
The graph below is the data pulled from Justin Barcia’s Tech-Air MX system during his horrific crash with Stewart at A1 two weeks ago (you can find it on Youtube). The max impact G-forces are mind blowing in this dataset; as an example, fighter pilots sustain something like 9 G’s max during the most difficult maneuvers. In Barcia’s crash data, his first max impact was almost 28 G’s. Followed by half a dozen other impacts above 25 G’s. Not only did the airbag save his life, but he walked out of the hospital the next day and was able to post an update. It’s also pretty incredible to look at the elapsed time between when the airbag sensed that things were going sideways and full deployment. Milliseconds.
Who currently rides with an airbag? Any stories to tell? (And yes, I’ll be ordering one.)
My daughter is a competitive equestrian. Inflatable vests have been around in that sport for years now, mostly used in a different, riskier category of riding than the one Ruby is involved with. So, she never wore one. Horrible accidents only happen to other people, those doing crazier shit than than the shit you’re doing. Right?
This past May she was thrown from the horse while doing nothing of any great risk at all, and fractured four vertebrae. The worst of the four made for an xray I wish I had never seen. We purchased the airbag vest as soon as she was able to try one on, 8 weeks later.
Since then, and since seeing how the technology has finally this season made the leap into MX from MotoGP, this item has moved to the top of my gear shopping list.
Timely. I’ve thought about getting one for a while and inevitably it gets pushed. I’ve no doubt they make a material difference. Will be curious to hear others experiences and reccs on a system. Would prefer not having to pay for yet another subscription though this would be one worthwhile I’m sure.
Mandatory in Alpine ski racing (FIS level) now too. My buddy who races rally has had his go off once at Sonora Rally and he swears it saved him from big issues.
I had my Alpinestars TechAir Vest deploy during a fast roadracing crash a couple year ago. it worked really well, I’m sure it saved me from experiencing what could have been a much worse outcome from the crash.
I have an Alpinstar vest that deployed during one of my misadventures in the snow around Moab. It was a simple slide and plop that activated the vest. My biggest objection is that it went off to easily and cost $200 to redo the canisters. There are other vest out there that use air canister at $20 each and the vest was $500 ish. I would like to trade mine for the off-road version. O
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, the new Alpinestars Plasma, MX, and others are home rechargeable, and the accelerometers+algorithms are much improved based on what I’ve seen/read. They’re also lighter and breathe better.
Interested but just not seeing anything I feel like would work for me on the market yet. I overheat really easily and I sweat a ton. I’ve never liked compression suits because of this. I overheat just looking at the Tech Air Off Road. The Plasma has my attention but I’m not sure I’m willing to give up passive chest protection for it. I wear an Alpinestars A-10 chest and back protector every time I ride. That chest protector makes me feel a lot better about protecting the rather important stuff behind it.
I’m in a very similar boat in terms of terrible heat intolerance. That’s actually my biggest concern, as my body totally shuts down in heat. I’ve been in some dangerous situations due to that. (My problem is that I DON’T sweat.)
I tried on the Plasma at the ADV 101 class at Revzilla, and it’s a fine mesh/stretchy fabric combined with the bits that hold the airbags. Likely hotter than my Leatt body protector, but when deployed has far better coverage. My plan is to test it with some elbow slip-on armor. I think it will be better for touring type riding on the big bike, but for stuff like West Mag, Rollins, or whatever, I’d probably still wear the armor due to the heat thing.
I ended up buying a Tech Air 5 Plasma. Spent a couple of hours in it yesterday and found it easy to forget I had it on. This is good sign but I’ll wait on praising it until it gets hot. It feels lighter and less bulky than my chest/back protector. I plan to use it for big bike rides and stick with passive armor for dirt bike rides.
First time I bought a moto item that my wife thanked me for buying.
I had not really been paying much attention to this tech for off road riding until Justin Barcia’s big crash at the A1 SX. Got a bunch of info on the Air Teck line at Performance Cycle in Centennial. They had all of the models in stock. The MX and Off Road versions have additional armor, the off road model can deploy twice. I guess that is important if you’re Daniel Sanders. There are more differences and unique feature between the models than I realized. The sales person seemed very knowledgeable when explaining the details, I suspect they have some Astars training. The Plasma 5 looks like the most versatile option and since it also has an off road setting which changes the deployment algorithm and you can wear it with other armor. Considering it.
I am going to get the TA Plasma 5 as well. The guy that shared that data with Gino about the crash said for Adv riding/enduro the P5 is best option and people are happy with it, fit, etc. And the off-road setting. He said for really aggressive or mx track - the full off-road one is the way to go. Seems way more than I would need for BDR type stuff or even going really slow at IMI…
