Motorcycle Airbag Vests & Airbag Jackets

Now this is a tricky for us one because we here at Motolegends, and I suppose that means me in particular, have not always been great fans of airbags. And morally that's a difficult tightrope to walk for a company that sells protective wear. 

 

And it's difficult because one cannot deny that, in extremis, an airbag could prevent serious injury. It might even save somebody's life.

 

But we have had, and to an extent still have, both philosophical as well as practical concerns when it comes to airbags.

 

Philosophically, we take the view motorcycling is inherently dangerous. Nothing can change that. One might even suggest that an element of risk is part of the appeal. But for me part of that appeal is also the freedom that motorcycling imparts. In the modern world, for most of us, there's not a lot that compares to the joy that skillfully piloting a motorcycle delivers. Driving a car simply cannot compare. There's you, the road,  a slither of rubber barely an inch wide that connects you to it. And an assortment of levers  and that enable you to control the machine. On a good day, the experience borders on the oneiric.

 

Now there is always a way of adding more protection into the motorcycling equation. Gear that delivers greater levels of abrasion resistance. Larger and heavier armour. A chest protector. A coccyx protector. A hi-viz-vest. Taller, more rigid, off-road style boots. Heavier duty gloves. An FIM approved helmet. And so on.

 

But if motorcycling becomes little more than the pursuit of greater safety, then it is the act of motorcycling that loses out. It will always be dangerous. Yes, you can add layers of protection. But the more layers you add the more you face the prospect of detracting from the excitement that attracted you to two wheels in the first place.

 

If your every focus is about reducing the risks and the danger to life, you'd be better off in a car. Or a bus. Or a train. Better still, lock the door, and stay at home.

 

No motorcyclist wants to get injured. And of course nobody wants to die whilst riding their motorcycle, but you will never rule out the possibility that this could happen. Best in our view to embrace the dangers and ride accordingly. And that's part of the reason that I, that we as a company, have never jumped on the airbag bandwagon.

 

But there's another, more overtly physical and practical reason we have never truly embraced airbags.

 

So much of our philosophy here is bound up in the concept of passive safety. This entails riding in a state of the highest achievable level of calm, comfort and concentration. Of being totally relaxed on the bike. Of making sure you don't get too wet. Don't get too cold. And don't get too hot. It's also about being unencumbered such that you can swiftly respond to unforeseen circumstances.

 

And an airbag is not always consistent with this approach.

Ironically, we were one of the first companies in the UK to market an airbag vest. We came across Helite at a motorcycle show in France at a time when they were attempting to persuade people that their experience in the equestrian world was equally applicable to two-wheeled transportation.

 

We offered Helite for a number of years. We were never convinced of the reliability of their tethered, firing mechanism. But the weight and sheer bulk of their vests simply didn't sit well with us.

 

Now the essence of an airbag is that is not breathable. Surrounding your body with a large airtight-bag reduces the breathability of whatever you are wearing. To an extent that, in our view, made them potentially dangerous, and prone in some circumstances to cause an accident rather than prevent one. If, for example, you were riding anywhere where it was really hot. Or where you were generating your own heat; say off road.

 

In the slightly unthinking pursuit of ever higher levels of protection, Bennett's recently reviewed airbag jackets in an attempt to come up with what they deemed to be the ‘best’. Their favourite seemed to be a Moto Airbag vest. And I do not doubt that, on a technical level, it provides more protection than other airbag, but it's a monstrous affair that more resembles the outfit that Jeremy Renner wore in Hurt Locker when diffusing IUDs than anything you'd want to wear on a motorbike. And personally I cannot conceive of anything more likely to cause me to want to give up motorcycling.

 

And indeed it’s the bulk, the weight and the lack of breathability in airbags that has historically caused us to steer away from them.

 

The measures we take to protect ourselves on the bike need to be proportional to the risks involved. I sometimes drive an open-top car, yet I don't routinely don a crash helmet, even though there are scenarios where one could save my life! And yes an airbag vest could save my life; nevertheless I haven’t historically been minded to wear one.

 

In fact, we have always offered airbag vests and jacket. At times because some of our clothing brands have made it clear that we needed to. But we have never truly championed them because we never felt that we had come across one that ticked all the boxes we would want to be ticked.