With to many torso injuries over the last two years and a very strong devotion to not build up muscle strength, which obviously some of you will say would help the most, I was wandering if any of you have tried any sorts of Airbag protection vests from the motorcycle industry. With the introduction of the ALPINESTARS TECH-AIR MX MOTOCROSS AIRBAG WESTE and the SHOT RACEGEAR SRG-1, I could imagine, that they would work for Enduro, Park/Freeride and Downhill riding since they offer MX specific threshold. I know that there are Downhill athletes using Airbag Vests but if they use any of the available MX specific systems I have no idea and most likely they run different Software.
The prices (the vest doesn’t include the cartridge note control unit) are pretty hefty but I‘d love to get some opinions and maybe even experience you‘d be willing to share.
I've been interested in it ever since I saw the protos used early on in supercross. Figured it would make for a great piece of DH protection. I have the Alpinestar Tech Air MX on the way right now.
I’ve dealt with 12 fractures across 5 vertebrae from 3 incidents and I would use one of these racing or shuttling every time. They’ll continue to get better, I wouldn’t be surprised to see lower profile versions integrated to existing gear soon.
I think they make a lot of sense for more aggressive riding. The only thing holding me back is the price and whether I’d actually wear it every ride.
Would be super cool if you could share your thoughts after riding with it for a while. Hope you will never need it!
The information I find online, after it deployed, is a bit confusing to me. Like, do you just wait for it to empty out the air and put a new cartridge in? I know that you have to send it in for service after a certain amount of times it goes off but what would I do on a park day after I used it once. If you can clarify after it arrived would be amazing!
Would be happy to!
And to my understanding, after x amount of seconds, it will start deflating itself after a crash. You can then fold it back up appropriately and stuff it back in to keep riding for the day. Change out the air canister if you have one available.
I believe it’s like 6-7? Uses before sending it back in for an integrity check.
But more the most part, it’s a okay af the bike park to deploy, self deflate, pack in back in, and keep going.
I will share my thoughts with it as soon as it comes in.
Just showed up! Going to go do some laps with it this evening.
You might get lucky and be able to update yours!
From the Pink site
Unfortunately not… for some reason they won’t allow that. Whatever. I’m still pumped on mine. Really, really nice feeling fit on it!
I'm not interested in an airbag unless it can do multiple, day-of deployments in an affordable way (no single-use and $25 recharge at the scuba shop like the old avalanche bags), and can be repacked easily in the field.
Honestly the tech for me is interesting, but I have more questions than answers now. As someone that rides single crown bikes and enduro, the threshold for anyone in that world to wear a chest protector while pedaling is already extremely high. The tech has to be extremely compelling, lightweight, immune to false deployments, and breathable before I buy in. I ride clipped in so any airbag triggering crash is likely a giant disaster.
It's something I can see the rich AF, old guy e-bike crowd (I see your fancy vans, you know who you are) buying into first, and hopefully the price goes down with more widespread adoption.
The deployment times of this vs an avy bag are orders of magnitude faster. Not even close to apple to apples due to volume differences but my avy canister is charged to just under 3000psi, these are around 6000 PSI and filled with argon. Can scuba shops fill to pressures that high?
commercial dive shops with large compressor / gas systems usually max out between 5 and 6k PSI. non-technical dive shops wouldn't have argon; that's not a breathable gas. it's only use is for dry suits as its a slightly better insulator used in very cold water.
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