Airbag protection for textile and leather motorcycle jackets
Alpinestars launched the new Tech-Air 5 airbag vest. It is easy to use and can fit under any sizeable textile jacket or compatible Tech-Air Alpinestars leather jacket.
The vest made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and it is a direct competitor to the Dainese Smart Jacket. There is no need to say how important motorcycle safety is and Alpinestars comes with a solution to this segment.
One good news is that the Tech-Air 5 airbag vest can be worn under any textile motorcycle jacket. There is an aspect of that matter to make the Italian airbag vest fit – the textile jacket needs to have 4 cm of space around the circumference of the body. To make things easy, the airbag vest can fit under any Alpinestars leather jacket that is designed to be Tech-Air compatible. A nice touch from the Italians. The airbag vest is easy to use thanks to a seamless system that allow you to only zip-up the vest and close the magnetic flap in order to wear it and go ride.
Alpinestars made the airbag vest easy to fit under any other leather jacket, it requires the latter to have built-in leather expansion panels that allow for airbag inflation. Fit smart we might say.
Among its features, the airbag jacket is not designed to be worn outside a motorcycle jacket, but the protection level is at the top and the Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 airbag vest offers protection for shoulders, chest, ribs and full back when its airbag is inflated. The company is bold and states that their airbag vest hast a complete coverage when it comes to any other airbag currently available.
Like any other hi-tech product, the technology level is high-end. Three gyroscopes and three accelerometers send information into a crash algorithm that decides whether to deploy the airbag. You can also connect the Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 airbag vest to Bluetooth by using an app on your smartphone and also use an LED display to see the airbag’s status.
Of course, when it comes to motorcycle safety, any product needs to go under tests and the airbag vest undergone testing by SGS (an official CE certification company). The test results are impressive as the impact dampening equals the protection of 18 back protectors.
All this comes with a cost. The price tag for the Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 airbag vest is $699.95 and the availability date is set for March 2020.