Motorcycle airbag jacket

[oVTo]

From Design News magazine - the Bering Co., a French firm that specializes in wearable motorcycle gear, has rolled out a jacket that doubles as an airbag. Send it a firing signal and the jacket will puff up with 21 l of compressed helium, cushioning the cyclist's body before it strikes the bone-breaking surfaces.


The jacket is triggered by a set of accelerometers in the bike's forks connected via Canbus to the cpu and wireless to the jacket. No tether to the bike is needed.



They've been on sale in France since last November, and they claim to have sold about 500 of them at 590 Euro (approx. $820). Looking at the inflated jacket, it doesn't seem to fill much in the neck area, it filling that space to reduce neck motion would be important.

[lrrs182]

Check out safermoto. They have jackets but they also have vests that inflate to proteck your neck. After deployment, replace CO2 cartridge and reuse. Best is they fit over leathers and speed hump, are not restrictive at all and only cost $350/$375 IRC. Some vids on youtube of them deploying them at trade show. Looks like it could help with collar bone, shoulder rib and sternum injuries, and is just the greatest neck support imaginable. I'm really considering one for the track.

[BSR6]

What I want to know is...In that first picture...Is that some kind of test dummy or did they actually convince someone to participate in a live test of the gear?

[DuncanMoto]

I remember seeing a guy purposely wreck over and over on his cul-de-sac years ago demonstrating these vests.

What I want to know is...In that first picture...Is that some kind of test dummy or did they actually convince someone to participate in a live test of the gear?

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[cfro30]

This looks pretty effective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9Vl...eature=related

[Karaya One]

IXS had the Stunt jacket back in 2002. Powered by CO2 cartridges. Very clever design.

We still have one left.

[ZX-12R]

I see 2 problems with it besides price. It requires batteries and relies on a wireless signal to deploy.