It’s not every day you see somebody willingly volunteering to be hit repeatedly with a baseball bat but that’s just what this video shows.
We witnessed the unprovoked attack at a bike trade show and the ferocity of the beating can be seen on our eyewitness video. Thankfully the ‘victim’ was part of a demonstration for an item of protective kit.
Our Tracy tries one on for size
The MotoAirBag® vest was designed in Milan by leading engineering experts in the 1990s and was launched in 2003, since then over 10,000 have been sold. The latest vZERO is an off-the-shelf ‘one size fits all’ haversack type vest with a mechanical operating system. It means the airbag is deployed using a lanyard system connected to the bike, rather than detecting a crash electronically. Although the UK importer assure us it won’t go off accidentally, or if you get off the bike with it still attached. The vest can also be repacked by the user if discharged, it takes less than five minutes and a replacement cartridge costs £20 to replace.
The MotoAirBag® vZERO is built from 100 parts with stringent quality control and adheres to the latest British safety standards (the only mechanical vest to meet them). It’s made from lightweight Cordura and weighs in at just 800 grammes, it’s designed to be worn over your usual jacket. It comes in a choice of metal grey, flourescent or cammo colours and costs £325. MotoAirBag® also claim their vest has the best body coverage, it covers 25 x 90cm from the neck to the coccyx.
If you want protection for the front, the Motoarbag 2.0C Gilet-Vest uses front and rear airbags. The front airbag covers 40cm x 40cm when inflated and is on a splitter system which detects the direction of impact and fires either the front or rear first, followed by the other airbag 1-15 milliseconds later. MotoAirBags® are claimed to have the fastest inflation time and longest duration of inflation.
 
The vest in its flacid state
Italian rider clothing specialists Tucano Urbano were one of the first companies to licence the technology from MotoAirBag and a few years ago designed a number of jackets specifically to suit the airbag.
The advantage of this was that the airbag wasn’t simply strapped on to your body as an extra item but instead the rider’s jacket (which also had suitable elbow and shoulder armour installed) accommodated the airbag into it, thus allowing the wearer to take it on and off as part of the jacket. In theory this would make it more appealing to the average commuter, although the extra cost of the airbag on top of the regular jacket does make it quite expensive.
The Tucano Urbano Urbis 842 AB jacket accommodates the airbag fairly subtly
We had the opportunity to try a few Tucano jackets with the AB suffix that are designed to accommodate the MotoAirBag and while the airbag alone does add a bit of weight to the rider’s back, the Tucano solution spreads it well.
When putting on the jacket there is the extra harness to secure around your waist inside the coat, but that is all, so it is indeed far less intimidating than adding the airbag on top of your riding jacket every time you venture out.
The rip cord was easily clipped to either a scooter grab rail, or Tucano’s supplied extension piece for the seat strap. The cord also needed a good, solid sudden jerk to activate the airbag so if you forgot when getting off it pulled tight to remind you rather than inflate unexpectedly!
While the protective advantages of the airbag over a basic back protector are greater, it will however still take a bit of convincing to get more people to wear them. They are a little more restrictive and heavier to wear, but that’s more noticeable in the summer when you want as light a jacket as possible. That said, we know what we’d rather slide into a lamppost wearing…
Tucano Urbano Steve AB jacket, with airbag clipped to a Kymco scooter pillion grab rail.
It’s not every day you see somebody willingly volunteering to be hit repeatedly with a baseball bat but that’s just what this video shows.
We witnessed the unprovoked attack at a bike trade show and the ferocity of the beating can be seen on our eyewitness video. Thankfully the ‘victim’ was part of a demonstration for an item of protective kit.
The MotoAirBag® vest was designed in Milan by leading engineering experts in the 1990s and was launched in 2003, since then over 10,000 have been sold. The latest vZERO is an off-the-shelf ‘one size fits all’ haversack type vest with a mechanical operating system. It means the airbag is deployed using a lanyard system connected to the bike, rather than detecting a crash electronically. Although the UK importer assure us it won’t go off accidentally, or if you get off the bike with it still attached. The vest can also be repacked by the user if discharged, it takes less than five minutes and a replacement cartridge costs £20 to replace.
The MotoAirBag® vZERO is built from 100 parts with stringent quality control and adheres to the latest British safety standards (the only mechanical vest to meet them). It’s made from lightweight Cordura and weighs in at just 800 grammes, it’s designed to be worn over your usual jacket. It comes in a choice of metal grey, flourescent or cammo colours and costs £325. MotoAirBag® also claim their vest has the best body coverage, it covers 25 x 90cm from the neck to the coccyx.
If you want protection for the front, the Motoarbag 2.0C Gilet-Vest uses front and rear airbags. The front airbag covers 40cm x 40cm when inflated and is on a splitter system which detects the direction of impact and fires either the front or rear first, followed by the other airbag 1-15 milliseconds later. MotoAirBags® are claimed to have the fastest inflation time and longest duration of inflation.
 
Italian rider clothing specialists Tucano Urbano were one of the first companies to licence the technology from MotoAirBag and a few years ago designed a number of jackets specifically to suit the airbag.
The advantage of this was that the airbag wasn’t simply strapped on to your body as an extra item but instead the rider’s jacket (which also had suitable elbow and shoulder armour installed) accommodated the airbag into it, thus allowing the wearer to take it on and off as part of the jacket. In theory this would make it more appealing to the average commuter, although the extra cost of the airbag on top of the regular jacket does make it quite expensive.
We had the opportunity to try a few Tucano jackets with the AB suffix that are designed to accommodate the MotoAirBag and while the airbag alone does add a bit of weight to the rider’s back, the Tucano solution spreads it well.
When putting on the jacket there is the extra harness to secure around your waist inside the coat, but that is all, so it is indeed far less intimidating than adding the airbag on top of your riding jacket every time you venture out.
The rip cord was easily clipped to either a scooter grab rail, or Tucano’s supplied extension piece for the seat strap. The cord also needed a good, solid sudden jerk to activate the airbag so if you forgot when getting off it pulled tight to remind you rather than inflate unexpectedly!
While the protective advantages of the airbag over a basic back protector are greater, it will however still take a bit of convincing to get more people to wear them. They are a little more restrictive and heavier to wear, but that’s more noticeable in the summer when you want as light a jacket as possible. That said, we know what we’d rather slide into a lamppost wearing…
Could you ask the manufacturer what their recommendations are regarding carrying a pillion please?
We’re just waiting for their reply Marty…
From MotoAirBag: Of course in normal day-to-day use the air bag is just two skins of material with virtually no additional thickness at all. The v zero will accommodate all but the smallest of children so the pillion can also wear one as well and benefit from the greatly enhanced protection that they provide. It is not a problem.
Rules of comfort and fit do not apply when you are in an accident which is when the inflated bulk becomes important.
Regards
Chris
Here’s a video that will help Marty: https://youtu.be/Y1yC583YK-E
Fuel syphoned directly to the carb is a good idea. Doing away with fuel pumps that are not totally reliable. Syphoned fuel is under pressure and will make sure the carb doesn’t suffer from starvation… Just a thought !