Motorcycle Airbags Exist – But No One Uses Them?

geez jesus holistic you get the bang this heavy pressure on your chest i feel like i've been shot [Music] i'll show size of this thing [Music] so motorcycle airbags exist and have since the 90s ogs use a tether attached near the seat there's a spring in here held taut by this little ball when i fly off the bike the spring fires a plunger which penetrates co2 cartridge that inflates the vest which immobilizes my helmet by puffing up around the shoulders and elsewhere for obvious reasons now i know what you're thinking will i go from zero to dana white in one forgetful step no it takes a 60 pound oopsie to trigger this and only fat gymnasts dismount with that much force wow not for moto gp turns out there are rules against tethering racers to their bikes it's not dangerous as such but with marquez leaning so far it'd have to be a long ass string then if i crash and remount you have this tether flapping free you can't have that so in 2007 we see the first deployment of an electronic airbag i'm impressed with that a lot wow these have a gps sensor to note the rider's velocity combine that with data from an accelerometer to note sudden changes in velocity and combine that with gyroscopic data on changes in orientation after that you just need a little on-board computer to look at those three metrics and ask are we crashing no cool it's not actually a very complicated conversation the little brain in this vest can have it a thousand times per second teething pains were mostly comical corpora once sent their bag off by fist pumping zach quartz put his body on the line for alpine stars only to have the bag embarrassingly inflate after impact but those are exceptions to the rule every unit keeps its data 30 seconds before and after a crash so every crash is memorized by the units that follow at this point 14 years and thousands of crashes down the road electronic airbags are as reliable as the tether yes wonderful but is it useful because these cost 900 dollars they're bulky they're not breathable and airbags got to be mostly airtight am i right and they're not invincibility cloaks get schmuck to 200 and even the michelin man is gonna croak fair points but the gear you already own is the counterpoint here's my european union ce level 1 back pad if i hit it with the force of ursula's anvil it transmits less than 18 kilonewtons mostly thanks to dispersion the pad spreads force across its area but airbags don't just distribute force they have the crushed depth to absorb it 0.36 kilonewtons absorption is 50 times more effective than dispersion that old fallacy of engines proves true with armor there's no replacement for displacement which is why i let a niche hit me with a golf club something i'd never do with a lesser background nor a lesser friend so airbags may be bulky stuffy and expensive but less so than 50 of these then consider the neck brace which has been shown to decrease cervical spine injuries by 89 percent as a boyish ryan f9 will explain limited movement limited movement limited movement limited movement limited movement wow much vocabulary neck brace good airbag better it immobilizes your helmet to a similar spine saving extent but only when crashing the rest of the time this is less obtrusive than a neck brace and when you consider that airbags replace your brace your back pad your chest pad it's hard to see them as a hurdle yet we do this is jorge lorenzo a guy with every reason to wear an airbag including sponsorship obligations to wear an airbag crashing without one it's been a while since you had a high size like that uh does our bag make a difference yeah it was okay was okay it was working well thank you huge balls that's why riders reject airbags see a lot of us want motorcycling to be dangerous we want to risk something real because when we come home we know we have the skills the focus and the balls to make at home whether it's healthy to test yourself like that or not it's part of the joy motogp robbed jorge's joy in 2018 when airbags became mandatory in the sport and governments will eventually rob ours by making these mandatory on the street early life-saving statistics are similar to what they were for car airbags and we all know how that went but history has a warning for us there 1984. airbags are expensive so the big three automakers take a cheap shortcut to safety and they lobby for state seat belt laws to knock federal airbag regulations off the table eventually the feds say no it's unethical to kill your customers build the damn airbags and that is the manufacturer oversight we will be missing because the major manufacturers aren't involved only honda has stuck the pillow on an actual motorcycle but that'll catch on like a one-legged horse there are still three other ways to fall off so if an airbag is right for you it will be your responsibility to choose one that is made right tough since three out of four offerings cut dangerous corners the climb ai1 in an effort to hide its cost they offer it with an optional subscription package 12 bucks a month and if you forget to pay you'll slam into a truck with the airbag doing dick all i don't understand people who lease their cell phones i certainly don't understand that then we have the dynasy smart jacket in an effort to make this slimmer they took away most of its inflation volume notice how it barely expands around the shoulders which is what you want if you don't want your helmet to snap your collarbone or your neck even at the back inflation is so shallow that it's rated at four and a half kilo newtons what is the point you can get numbers like that with a regular armor pad next is the alpine stars tech air 5 easily the finest electronic option but therein lies the rub see electronic airbags use batteries what inevitably happens is a sunny day in february and ah of course the airbag is dead and you can't charge it while riding so do you take the risk you decided not to take or miss the ride you spent a thousand dollars not to miss hence we arrive at the heliturtle our cheap tethered airbag is still by far the best not least because it blows the biggest bubble and if i'm buying an airbag that's kind of the point also reloading it after a crash only takes a 20 co2 canister and 60 seconds of spare time see fancy airbags use an argon mix which is highly compressible and lets them get away with smaller canisters but more pertinently is proprietary meaning these airbags need to be sent back to the manufacturer to be reloaded costing you a few hundred dollars and putting you at their mercy oh mr mcmurray yeah we found a little scratch here and couldn't possibly ethically reload this looks like you'll have to buy a whole new one easy reusability simple practicality smart airbags can boast about their 40 millisecond crash detection times but smart riders know that at 50 kph you're covering this half meter tether in 36 milliseconds anyway and that has no battery to die on you so yes motorcycle airbags exist no riders generally don't use them because they like the risk but maybe you want to buy one while you still have the choice to buy one if so get the helite turtle and leave electronic airbags for the racers [Music] thanks [Music] you

Channel: FortNine

Views: 3,133,755

Rating: 4.9263091 out of 5

Keywords: motorcycle airbags, review, 2021, best motorcycle airbags, Helite Turtle 2 Airbag Vest, Dainese D-Air Smart Jacket, Alpinestars Tech-Air 5, Alpinestars Tech-Air Street Airbag, Klim AI-1 Airbag Vest

Id: N2jZryt607U

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/TomZeBomb]

Fortnine can make a paper bag review interesting. His style of reviews and how it weaves storytelling into it is super unique that a lot of other people don't do.

[u/Glk30SF]

I’m curious how many people know about them.

[u/Captain3DTV]

Ngl, I didn't really care for the topic, but this guy made it interesting to watch. This is why I love this subreddit - I might not have found him otherwise. Thank you for the suggestion!

[u/stopthemeyham]

I can't even ride a bike, and this guy held me the whole time. Reminds me a lot of Technology Connections.

[u/Mu4dD1b]

This was an amazing video, he covered five topics in under 10 minutes and you still felt like you got all the information you needed. History of MC ABs; check, how they work; check, different types; check, why MC riders don't wear them; check, consumer review of available models; check. It was well scripted, edited, and had some jokes for entertainment. Great video 5 stars.

[u/magical_elf]

I have something similar for horse riding.

[u/mud_tug]

The production quality of this guy's videos is absolutely mind blowing. I have absolutely nothing to do with motorcycles yet I binge them just for the quality.

[u/TacospacemanII]

As a motorcycle rider, I didn’t know these existed, and I would feel so much fucking safer. I’m gonna SEND IT

[u/theloop82]

I have a Hit-Air vest I ride with any time I’m out. I disconnect it for trail riding- I forgot to do that once and laid it down in a big mud puddle and it went off. That thing could save your life if you were to high side