Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
I just learned of the existence of airbag vests/jackets on another forum. That sounds like a great idea! Anybody here using them and care to comment?
Disclaimer: My two-wheel days are long gone never to return, alas. But I still like motorcycles.  |
I haven't moved to the air bag vests yet for my track riding. I've sort of seen it in action when one of the guys in my riding group crashed at the track. It did save him from having more significant injuries.
The issue for me are two things. Cost and compatibility. Cost....The Alpinestars airbag vest goes for around $1000. There are cheaper ones out there but they're still a few hundred. The A* ones from what I can tell seem to be the one many people get due to the service ability and the quick reaction of the system. Compatibility is an issue because my track gear has to have the additional space for expansion of the air bag. Right now, the jacket I use (I use a two piece setup) is already pretty tight. I can just get a back protector on but no way will it accommodate a vest that's deployed.
Some other considerations. Some of the vests are one time use only. Meaning if it deploys one time, it's done until the vest is serviced. Some vests enable the user to do a field upgrade of the air canisters. Some require you to send them back to the manufacturer. The newer A* vest allows two deployments before it needs to be serviced. Some manufacturers request/require you to send the vest in after a certain number of deployments to check over the vest to ensure everything is still good.
The vests work via the use of accelerometers and other sensors. Based on data collected from the vests being activated, the manufacturers are periodically updating the firmware of the system to enhance performance/safety. California Superbike School showed us a slow motion video of Marc Marquez crashing. We could see his A* vest detected something not being right and deployed literally milliseconds after he separated from his bike in the air. By the time he came into contact with the ground, the vest was fully deployed. So far I haven't heard of any false deployments.
ETA: There are some vests that are worn on the outside of your riding suit. I'm not so sure about those in terms of whether they're just as good as the ones that are worn internally.