Bennetts gets it wrong. Again!

After much head scratching I think I may have worked it out; I have, I feel, come to understand why Bennetts' reviews often seem so contrary.

Okay, so I understand that, in life, there are no absolutes; there are no rights and no wrongs; just shades of opinion. But I admit that I have often found it hard to comprehend why Bennetts seems so determined to challenge received wisdoms.

In a world, for example, where most people have abandoned old-fashioned, heavy, sweaty and, at times just downright ugly, Kevlar-lined protective jeans in favour of lighter, more breathable single-layer ones, it seemed inconceivable to us that, just a few years ago, Bennetts would so vehemently have challenged the self-evident benefits that more technical yarns and construction techniques have brought to motorcyclists.

Equally confusing to many people was why, not that long ago, Bennetts took a high-end, Gore-Tex suit from Rukka, the brand that most people acknowledges as the maker of the world's best quality, most reliable motorcycling suits; and then tried to suggest that a budget suit from Oxford Products did everything the Rukka suit did. That particularly disingenuous comparison beggared belief and would surely not have convinced anybody?

And then, most recently, Bennetts laid into Alpinestars' latest Tech Air Plasma 5 airbag vest. This is the vest that looks set, single-handedly, to turn around the moribund state of the airbag sector. It is the fastest-selling, most popular airbag the market has ever seen. It is the airbag that is getting all those old-school bikers who swore they'd never wear an airbag to change their tune. And I should know; I'm one of them!

The Plasma 5 is a marvel; and so it seemed bizarre to us that anybody would set out to deliberately undermine its appeal. This is the airbag that so many bikers have been waiting for. It represents a pivotal moment that signals that the manufacturers have finally begun to realise that success in this market lays not in how protective you can make an airbag, but in how comfortable and wearable you can make one.

The popularity of the Alpinestars vest pays testament to this truth. And indeed what we know already is that players like Dainese are set on building on its success.

And then the penny dropped. A bit like the Fort Nine guy, Bennetts is probably less interested in offerring meaningful advice, and more interested in getting clicks. Bennetts, after all, is a company that sells motorcycle insurance. And if they are employing somebody to write reviews about motorcycle gear their ultimate aim is less about helping riders to find the best solution for their riding needs, and more about recruiting people to buy their insurance policies.

It's why, in our opinion, so many of Bennetts' reviews are positioned as revelatory, as exposés promising to deliver the 'honest truth'; the truths that other people won't tell you! Increasingly, we feel, it's the desire to sensationalise and foster 'engagement' that is driving Bennetts' reviews and governing their content.

What we know, and have long accepted, is that Bennetts does not really understand the nuances and complexities of the protective wear market. They are more than capable of ticking boxes, and comparing the specs. of various products, but one man working out of a shed simply cannot be expected to appreciate the wide ranging demands upon motorcycle gear that only become clear when, like us, you deal directly, and face-to-face, with hundreds of motorcyclists every single week.

Of course, everyone has a right to an opinion. And indeed the various forums are full of people who feel that, if they have one, it is their obligation to broadcast it. But not all opinions are born equal. Not all of them have a solid foundation. And some of them are simply misguided.

Bennetts and the Tech Air Plasma 5

Bennetts' starting position when it comes to their recent criticisms of the Plasma 5 is that it isn't as protective as many other vests.

Well, frankly, you don't need to be Woodward or Bernstein to figure that out!

The historic problem with airbags was that the manufacturers set out to compete with one another on the basis of the amount of protection their vests provided. And, in hindsight, that was almost certainly a mistake, for inevitably the more protection a vest provides, the less wearable it becomes.

More is not necessarily better; indeed less is often more. There has to be concession given to appropriate levels of protection, and when even the Plasma 5 offers protection to the spine equivalent to two passive Level 2 back protectors, one has to suggest that what it provides is both impressive and sufficient.

Nobody, least of all us, has ever claimed that the Plasma 5 is the most protective airbag on the market. Clearly it is not; but it is the fact that it is not that makes it so much nicer and easier to wear than any airbag out there.

So let us be clear for those who are hard of understanding! If you want an airbag with greater coverage of the shoulders, the elbows, the chest or the spine then you will find one. There is no shortage of options out there. Of course, whether you will want to ride in any of them is another matter!

Even with the Plasma 5 you access levels of impact protection that passive armour can never get close to matching. And you can get it in a package that, at times, you can barely tell you're wearing.

But with their recent criticisms of the Plasma 5 what demonstrated to me more than anything that Bennetts just doesn't understand what makes the Plasma 5 so much more wearable than other airbags is their claim that it's not particularly breathable because the bag itself only contains a smattering of holes.

Now we agree that those holes in the airbag itself will, in theory, only allow a small amount of hot air to escape from the body, but actually those holes are, in the way of things, pretty irrelevant.

What makes the Plasma 5 so much cooler to wear than any airbag on the market is the way the vest is contoured around the chest to leave the 'core' exposed. To prevent us from over heating, it's imperative to keep the core cool, and it's the lightweight, stretchy, moisture-wicking mesh panelling covering the core that allows cool air to reach the body, and for hot air to escape.

Now clearly the effect here is going to be greater if you wear your Plasma 5 beneath something that is, in turn, aerated and highly breathable. But whatever you're wearing it's this mesh-like panelling that is going to assist evaporative cooling. And as all our customers know, evaporative cooling is another word for sweating. And in hot conditions sweating is the body's natural mechanism for cooling itself down.

Not, of course, that the mesh panelling we're talking about is restricted solely to the core. From the core it runs into the flanks and the lower back. You get more of it in the sleeves and under the arms.

And it is this mesh panelling, and not the tiny number of holes in the airbag itself, that causes the Plasma 5 to be so much cooler to wear than any other airbag on the market.

Thinking that the holes in the airbag were accountable for the Plasma 5's breathability is an easy mistake to make if all you are doing is gathering your information from Alpinestar's website, but those holes are a very minor part of the breathability equation.

I would, however, like to thank Bennetts for giving me the opportunity to, once again, explain how the Plasma 5 works, and exactly why it's so much nicer to wear than other airbags.

But watch this space. The Plasma 5 may have set the benchmark, but it won't be long before we see a whole swathe of new airbags attempting to build on the Plasma 5's success. And all of them will be trading protection for breathability.

Alpinestars has provided us with a new paradigm. Up to now, the airbag manufacturers felt that success lay in providing ever greater levels of protection. But the more protection their vests offered the less comfortable and wearable they became. What Alpinestars has shown is is that success in this market is about balancing protection with wearability.

And that is difficult for some influencers to get their heads around because it makes ascribing a number or a score a lot more difficult!