Another question - Air Jackets?

For example:
http://www.hitairaustralia.com/frames.htm
As one who has (a few years ago) taken the pain of a shirtful of
broken ribs in a relatively slow over-the-handle-bars off, I am
wondering if this system (or one like it) could prevent the bone
breakages. It all looks OK but what are the down-sides (weight?
comfort? inconvenience? etc?)
Personal experience? second hand anecdotes? theory? utter codswallop?
All welcome.
Thanks

 

I suspect that you will come off the bike, bounce four times, accelerating
all the way down the hill, before hitting the lamppost at the bottom face
first. Your ribs may survive, but not the rest of you.

I love the animation but I feel that if you have a balloon on your back you
are more likely to land on your face. I don't think I'll volunteer for the
testing program.

How did that bike rider hit the car and go over the handlebars without
hitting them with his legs?

Theo

 

Good point but I'm sure some would doubt that there is enough
"effective diameter" to allow the tennis ball effect you allude to.

In my case it was the mirror that did the damage. Mirror bags anyone?

 

The new Goldwing has a big airbag on the bars that looks like a bum.

Fraser

 

Heh - that looked a but rude. Sounds a bit like "BUM"!

 

I wish that they would stop with this ridiculous motor cycle air bag
rubbish,next we will see some idiot government dept. trying to mandate
air bags on all motor cycles

 

I think so. If the riders legs hit the bars then this will create a tumbling
trajectory in the riders body. In the case of the projected scenario,
instead of the rider landing gracefully on his well-padded back, he will do
a face-plant on the car bonnet.

Theo

 

I saw an airbag jacket in a shop last year, normal retail around $600+
being sold for about $200+.

Heavy.
Very heavy.

Not for me.

I also live by the, more you have the more you have to go wrong.

Imagine one of these going off when they shouldn't!
I see them potentially creating more hazards than what they will remove.

 

It would be weight that would worry me the most. I see that HitAir
has a range of vests that go over the top of your normal wets,
leathers or whatever. This idea seems to have merit, but weight and
unwanted airflow blocking would be issues if excessive. Thoughts or
experience?

 

Then you had better speak to someone who has had their pelvis broken when
they were propelled forward into the head stem when a woman did a u-turn in
front of him

 

Funbags would be OK though!

 

Yes, that's probably true - the disincentive to purchase is likely to be
something else, such as weight, bulk, or inconvenience. What's more
likely is that there is no incentive to purchase; after all, if safety
was paramount you wouldn't be riding to begin with.

 

Agree with the weight/bulk/inconvenience thing - those would be
disincentives. I do not like broken bones at all, so if this prevents
them, then there is the incentive. It then becomes a matter of
balance. Some first hand experience would be a big help, but of course
you have to have the incentive to use the thing in order to gain that
experience.
I don't think many keen motorcyclists would tell you with a straight
face that safety was not THE paramount issue for motorcyclists.
Anyway, good comments all, so thanks.

 

Imagine walking down the road and the airbag deploys.
This is enough disincentive for me keeping in mind the jacket is now
written off.

Imagine riding and the airbag deploys.
I know they don't cover the eyes so one can still see but, what a drag!

Imagine walking through a china shop and the airbag deploying.
Now that would be funny!

 

The site says you can re-use the airbag as long as it isn't damaged...

I can't imagine how it would deploy accidentally - you have to pull a pin to
make it deploy. I imagine that would only happen if you forgot to disconnect
it from the bike when you dismounted??? How embarrassing would that be, to
get off your bike and puff up like the Michelin Man? Conversely, if you
forgot to connect it when you got on the bike, and then had an off, I
suppose it wouldn't deploy when you wanted it to...

Meh, sounds like more trouble than it's worth!

betty

 

That implies a lot of inertial forward momentum was converted into
downwards momentum, it doesn't mean that 'all of' (as quoted from Nev's
comment) will be converted.

I'm certain some percentage of forward motion remained (even if minor).


G-S

 

There are a lot of open face wearing, leather vest wearing, finger less
glove wearing Harley riders who'd tell you that appearance was more
important


G-S

 

I wonder if one of these airbag thingies would be acceptable to the
boating authorities as a life jacket or PFD?

Might come in handy if you crash your bike and end up in a river or ocean.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Imagine riding off a cliff into the sea and the air bag fails to
deploy, how ironic!

 

In aus.motorcycles on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:07:25 +1100

This open face wearing rider reckons that a) vision and comfort are
important and b) chinbars are overrated as a major safety item.

And as for appearance... bet that if the only gear you could buy was
either a leather vest or a pink sparkly jacket with "I'm so pretty"
across the back in red sequins... you'd find leather vests were suddenly safe enough.

Zebee