Not cool but...

if I ever can ride again I am thinking of investing in a air bag vest or jacket: I, painfully discovered, at 55, that our body is not as resilient as I thought. Does anyone has a first hand experience on this type of protection?
Thanks
Philippe

No, but am keeping eye on the advancements in area's protected and trigger devices. There are also currently 'active' padding that flexible until impacted.
I'm also got a neck protector that should feel good in cold air. They have two types of neck protectors now, old football school foam collar and air bag collar. I can take so much more busting up w/o much bother as long as nerves to the area aren't pinched too - either at local spine level and/or the upper spinal cord.

Don't know if the air bags are re-usable or like car type. Replacement in my case would cut into my bike parts budget ,darn it.

Don't know if the air bags are re-usable or like car type. Replacement in my case would cut into my bike parts budget ,darn it.

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So would 2 - 3 weeks in Intensive Care.

A mate in Tasmania has one and has yet to test it's abillity, luckly.
His has a lanyard that attaches to the bike, if he comes off a CO2 bottle in the jacket inflates the jacket. This is replaceable.

He knows this because it also goes off when he forgot to release the lanyard when getting off the bike at a fuel stop ! (twice)

Oh that must suck! LOL.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/airbag-j ... jacket.htm


http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/29/airb ... -race-mot/


http://www.bikebone.com/Air-Vest-Motorc ... it-Air.htm


Here a low side test, but its hi sides that I'd most want to see tested.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9Vlt5tGwY&feature=player_embedded[/video]

It seems like it blowing up like a balloon would reduce the impact, but make you more likely to tumble.

At some rates I've been thrown off or knocked down the impact would of been over before air bag inflated to matter. Also most the times I'm still on bike at impact, so no air help till trying to wiggle out and get up PUFF great. But still neat devices but they need to have impact sensors and work wire less, which means better interface with bike ignition or getting off would fire it w/o a cord tug to remind ya.

Most serious injury is from head and neck, limbs not that big a deal unless sliced or burned off. I'm sticking with normal thick hide and dense pads under and gloves with reenforced palms not knuckles. If I try some stunts I'll duct tape up major joints so the crumbles and mush stay contained in general area. Only real safety device for motorcycler's is throwing away the keys. Inherently dangerous no matter pilot skill or intentions. Only takes a blip of mis attention or wrong decision for splat. That still don't protect full scope of risky motorcycling.

I mostly keeping eye on the neck bag that fires out of helmet or jacket collar.
A hip bag would help a lot as that what I hip reflexly snow skiing to cycling or have hit on hip leg bone knob hard with no time to react. just crush it again.

Hobot: I was like you: limbs are not big deal, after all I broke a couple of arm, collar bone and even the tibia with a SS rod drilled in there...no prob! my last accident was only a compound femur and a humerus till I unserstood that elongated, not even severed, nerves are way more a pain than thought before! It's already 11 months and my arm moves are limited to the biceps and some fingers grapping with less and less patience and hope for the future! I think that this kind of new technology could have save me 4 surgeries (and an extra pulmonary embolism, just for fun!) and would have been worth a lot of MC maintenance/rides/gas etc.
Kind of remember the same type of discussion when the 1st full face helmet/disc brakes/suit pads appeared....
Philippe

hobot said:

... Only real safety device for motorcycler's is throwing away the keys. Inherently dangerous no matter pilot skill or intentions. Only takes a blip of mis attention or wrong decision for splat...

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The main reason I prefer to build than to ride, I feel safer on a bicycle than on a motorcycle, I still really enjoy my rides, but always with a little worry. And Phillipe, I know what you mean about having something broken, it will never be like it was to begin with. I still don't know what possessed Evel Kneivel to literally break every bone in his body and still keep trying to break them again a second or third time!

Jean

I've always preferred to go the do it yourself route.

I'm still on crutches from a very mild fall 3 weeks ago. Road rash on elbow and knee are healed OK, but the pulled groin muscle on the leg is still painful. I doubt any kind of inflatable protection could keep that kind of injury from happening. Still, the video above looks interesting.

Getting old sux. We just don't heal as quickly as we used to.

Getting old does suck. Last April I watched as a friend went down on a steep down hill turn when his front wheel hit some wet antifreeze in the turn. He was only going 20 or 25 mph but ended up breaking all the ribs on his left side, chiping a bone in his back and his leg and brusied a lung. Two weeks in the hospital!!! He was wearing his racing suit and got hurt worse by this 20 mph drop than many crashes on the tract.

Maybe a way to ride sans helmet a live to tell in milder crashes that smack head.
With slow mo video and cute gal with hair doo protected. Its pops out a collar
over bare head.

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2 ... our-hairdo

That's cool! Long way to go though considering abrasion and front of face

LOL, yes I squealed on seeing the locked front tire tip over land dummy on chin.
Besides using up 3 helmets since '99, I lost twice that many sun glasses getting trashed inside helmets but no eye injury. All my serious crashes twisted helmet
at least half way around my head. Better helmet twisting way around than my neck.
I get over size helmets for that reason as well as air flow in summer and room for head warmer in winter. Highest tech football and racer helmets have layer that slides on outside, but I beat em too it by a decade or more.

When I had to buy cheap football helmet to ride around at Barbers I was a bit pensive to take off the old school heavy steel face grid, but it pulled my neck
forward too hard to take long. I don't consider open face helmets much protection after seeing what happens to face shields and chin of flip up full face helmets.

I'd want a inflatable neck collar and balloons on top of the normal padding and maybe around major joints, I'd want mine sound activated not by cord nor stupid computer that likely fire off in Ms Peels normal flight envelope. She can hi side in glee on purpose, POP would be as mean as a missed turn don't ya know. Also
gets tossed a good bit on off road bouncing I'm still going fine - POP.

ewgoforth said:

It seems like it blowing up like a balloon would reduce the impact, but make you more likely to tumble.

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Prepare to be bored!!!
After retiring in 2007 after 34 years as a Fireman, ( no pandering to the PC brigade here!!!), I still go abroad to work for the Fire Service College as an Instructor. One of areas I instruct in is Road Traffic Collisions, extrication of people etc., etc.
Now, I don't know for definite if bike jacket air bags would be the same or even similar to cars but car air bags kind of deflate as they inflate if that makes any sense, they are designed so they don't become solid, if they did they would cause injury to the occupants, therefore defeating their purpose, I'd imagine the bike ones would be designed in a similar way.
Just to make you aware, undeployed ones, can still operate up to about 20-30 mins after an impact, so if you come across and RTC with undeployed bags try not and stand in the line of fire, I have a cracking video , from Florida I think, of F/f's in and about a car after a crash and an undeployed airbag suddenly goes off .......oops!!..ouch!!!... not the cleverest place to be I can assure you!
To Hobat, as to the speed of deployment, unbelievably fast , thousandth's of a second, if you just toppled over without coming off your bike I wouldn't think, as you say it would operate, but if leaving the bike I've no doubt it would deploy before you hit the deck.
Did I ever tell you when I was in Iran last year I turned round just in time to see an Iranian f/m about to cut the 'B' post , (which contains an airbag and gas canister), with hydraulic cutters............????????????? , he didn't realise a Scotsman knew so many swear words and could put them in the one sentence!!

he didn't realise a Scotsman knew so many swear words and could put them in the one sentence!!

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Thats most of us I'm afraid! :lol:

ugh rbt, I had no idea these air bags could be like some big firecrackers in strings that seemed to have never lit off. I don't think the air bags would have prevented my neck break when deer hit the head light taking bike out form under while my head-trunk continued froward as deer bent in half for nose to rump impact.
But it might have saved knee/ankle coming apart if they had em for those places.
Expect for law suits and self danger I'd want one or two air bags in seat and/or yoke mounted - with about 10 sec delay after motion detected. Got idea from S. Africans mounting air bags in seat and ceiling to stymie loss of cars so often.

I suspect implanted explosives in normal pad area will eventually work dang well for most common get offs - to both absorb impact and limit major joint motion and contain the shatters to self heal or easy surgical access.

The fastest get off I had was waiting for angry corner school instructor to catch up. He didn't play fair so whizzed past me ~130 while I was upright on brakes ~120, pissed me off, so dumped clutch at top of 3rd red line for surprise wheelie that landed a low side to luanch of my inverted L ankle and exploded forearm muscles/vessels, to hi side over forks with me still in place to land on my head and then fling me up spining at least 8 ft to spin, saw blue grey blue grey blue grey, blue green, blue brown, blue green then brown fog in helmet. Kieth Code was pissed at both me and his instructor, quiting the whole show and firing whole staff pissed off show down, so insepected my rental leathers with fine tooth comb in front of a big crowd, only found one nickle size scrub spot on L elbow area - he relaxed and said no charge no patch even needed.

So Tumble or Slide? .45 cal or .357? Shit just surprise me eh.

Main lesion
NEVER EVER GET DISTRACTED BY EGO/EMOTIONS KEEP ATTENTION ON PHYSICS.