Let’s face it: there’s nothing that brings you closer to the nature’s elements and gives you the same sense of freedom as riding a motorcycle. The downside is that you’re also more exposed and likely to get hurt, or worse, in the case of an accident.
That’s the main reason many people, including yours truly, who love motorcycles refrain from buying or even renting one. The consequences, compared to driving a car, are potentially much more severe when compared to driving a car.
If you’re old enough to remember the time when cars did without things like crumble zones and airbags, you might recall that cars, too, weren’t that safe either.
In fact, even today there are a couple of cars, namely the Datsun Go and the Maruti Suzuki Swift, which failed miserably in crash tests. That’s for the car companies to short out, so let’s get back to two wheels.
Companies have tried to fit them with an airbag-like system in order to provide more safety to riders. Alpinestars, though, whose logo you must have seen on racers’ outfit if you’re following any kind of four- or two-wheel motorsport, thought out of the box.
More specifically, it didn’t fit an airbag to the motorcycle but rather in the rider’s jacket. So it created its Tech-Air technology, which will be available in Europe from Spring 2015.
Extensive research done by the company showed that a rider’s body remained relatively stable in all kinds of terrain, including off-road. That changes when an accident occurs, whether that’s a crash or a fall.
Thus, after a decade of research and development, it created a vest that can be worn inside two of the company’s jackets. The Tech-Air features an airbag and a main control unit integrated into the vest.
The former offers protection to the rider’s exposed upper body parts, like shoulders, back, chest and kidney area, while the latter later uses a specially developed algorithm that can detect an impact in 30-60 milliseconds and deploy the airbag in just 25 milliseconds.
The battery pack powering the ECU provides over 25 hours of continuous use when fully charged and four hours with just an hour’s time of charging.
The Tech-Air vest is fully waterproof and is powered up by simply zipping up the jacket – so there’s no need for switches or any other procedures.
You can view a video demonstration right after the jump. Even with this kind of protection, it’s worth remembering that driving safely and wearing a helmet at all times is a must.