Alpinestars has surfaced the crash test video of their proprietary motorcycle airbag jacket, Tech-Air. In a growing market for new, modern motorcycle safety devices, motorcycle rider airbags are becoming increasingly popular, so seeing the top gear manufacturers offering more such solutions is only natural.
The Alpinestars Tech-Air system is different from Dainese’s D|Air, which is considered to be the benchmark in the segment. The inflation times are comparable, with the Dainese airbag activating in 45 milliseconds, while the Alpinestars Tech-Air becomes fully inflated in 59 milliseconds, on average.
Some might say that the 25% longer time represents a huge difference, but the video shows that the Alpinestars is fully inflated before the rider impacts the vehicle. Crash detection is triggered in 30 to 60 milliseconds, while the system needs 25 ms to fully inflate the bladders. Official tests will of course be run by safety organizations to establish a hierarchy in this sector, but the inflation times are only one variable in the whole big picture.
A bike-independent airbag system
One of the biggest advantages of the Alpinestars Tech-Air system is that it is bike-independent. This means that the whole thing doesn’t need to be linked to any external sensor or electronic device, and can work anywhere.
The Alpinestars Tech-Air can be effortlessly installed in any compatible jacket and it requires no tools or complex operations. Even more, the installation can be performed by any rider, as the Tech-Air is more of an add-on garment under the jacket itself, as the videos below show.
With no need to link the Tech-Air to the bike, the usability of the system is dramatically improved, as riders can swap as many bikes as they like, when they want, and retain the full protection the Alpinestars device offers initially. Even more, the module and the cartridge are easily replaceable after a crash. An LED indicator in the jacket sleeve offers status info for the system and will also tell the rider if there’s something wrong right from the instant he takes his or her jacket from the hanger.
Alpinestars’ Tech-Air is weatherproofed and can also detect a crash occurring when the bike is still, so it offers protection when a stopped rider is rear-ended, a rather common, if unfortunate scenario. Being derived from the airbag systems used by Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, the Tech-Air can also predict low-side and high-side crashes.
Zipping up the jacket automatically engages the system and a fully charged battery pack offering protection for up to 25 hours of riding. If you’re in a hurry, one hour’s charging will provide up power for up to 4 hours of riding.
Even though the Alpinestars Tech-Air is the kind of system which you hope you’ll never have to actually use, it definitely ups the rider protection game a lot. We are positive that we are going to see it. So far only the Valparaiso and Viper jackets are Tech-Air ready, but more models are to follow soon.
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