Accident and Emergency doctors say that dozens of motorcyclists' lives could be saved every year if air bag jackets were made compulsory.
The jackets are the equivalent of car air bags and inflate if the rider is thrown off during a crash.
In one version the jacket is attached to the bike by a lead so it knows when the rider has come off suddenly.
The Department of Transport said it had no plans for a new law but would welcome anything to improve safety.
Max Biaggi was testing new leathers last year which had an airbag device built into them - it was in the hump I believe & inflates over & around the shoulders.How it was activated I don't know, but there was one shot of him coming off his bike & the 'airbag' being deployed!
I have seen a few concepts of this but will look to see if there are any videos of it working...
I would prefer an 'ejector' mechanism.... 2 rockets fire you a thousand feet into the air where your safety chute is deployed and you safely float down and land 3 feet away from your crumpled machine.... (it would obviously deactivate in tunnels and multi-story car parks... )
Think that may increase the price somewhat TC
The only time I see them becoming compulsory is after the poloticians have bought shares in the manufactures Or am i being a touch sinical
Be bit embarising getting of bike in front of your mates and forgetting to unplug.
Similar to leaving dick lock on. Opps
Yeah, but wouldn't it be cool though, Mick!!
.. and you could have a built in voice recorder so you could dictate your insurance claim on the way down and a camera to take an aerial shot of the incident and...and.....
*looks at empty bag of jelly beans and four crumpled cans of Red bull*
(chortles at Micks vision of a load of bikers getting off their bikes outside a pub and sudenly inflating!)
Saw it on t'telly earlier... looks pretty effective and the jacket they were showing doesn't seem to inflate quite as much as that Dainese one in the link... although it inflates around the rib cage as well, rather than just the neck & shoulders, which seems like a good idea.
I think cynical Mick might have a point... they can't really legislate for clothing... retailing at around £600 apparently. But a very nice earner if you invest in it soon enough.... Anyone got any spare cash?
Can you get one with an extra long lead for pillions? They often come off the worst...
Just seen the report on the news....
I can maybe believe that 20% of traffic accident victims admitted to hospital are bikers but do motorcyclists really only account for 1% of road users?
I am guessing this is possible but does anybody know the actual figures, just out of interest?
Hmmm... A 2008 report from Bikesafe in Essex states:
Nationally,
the figures suggest motorcyclists account for approximately 1 in 7
road deaths. In Essex that figure is nearer 1 in 4. andIn
Essex, motorcyclists make up 25% of all road fatalities despite
the fact that proportinally, they make up a far smaller percentage of
all road users (currently about 1.8% nationally).
Just had a thought. I know some times I scare myself.
Would come in handy if you crashed into a lake, deep river or off a quay
Or could you use a life jacket and tie toggle to bike
A good friend mentioned these to me today seeing as I keep falling off my damn bike! I knew she'd dump me on my arse as soon as she saw fit seeing as I kept her couped up in the garage for five weeks!
The 3in of slushy snow I tried to ride through had *nothing* to do with it!!!
Of course there's always the embarrassment at the petrol station; you get off, you fill up and then you go to pay. Only when you do your instant Michelin Man impression do you realise you forgot to untoggle!!
Or people could simply do what I do! Get a jacket three sizes too big and stuff loads of tissue paper inside!
Works brilliantly in two ways; firstly you tend to bounce down the road pretty much unhurt and secondly you always have paper handy to mop up the bits that do get ... erm, damaged!
![Airbag for Bikers - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
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