Would you try this??

My body is much more valuable than the body of my bike...

 

When I was T-Boned by a car 10-12 years ago, I did get thrown from my bike. Worst accident I ever had on a motorcycle. Almost gave up on riding. Soft tissue damage to my right leg -- where the car hit me and thus pinned my leg between my bike and her bumper. That took 6 months of physical therapy to resolve, but my ankle still pops on occassion. Then because of how I landed, I shattered several bones in my hand and fingers. 4 months of physical therapy there, still hurts. Leaves me with pins, plates & screws in my hand still. Plus some stray bone chips where the doctor thought he would do more damage to my muscle tissue getting it out, than just by leaving them in.

 

Yeup, half man, half machine, half RedBull... ;-)

I was just tooling along, saw her, thought she saw me, WHAM! Next thing I know I am flat on my back (I passed out at impact apparently), with someone asking me if they wanted me to call 911, I lifted my head up, nodded yes, and passed out again, came to again a little later, this time with a fireman opening my visor, asking me where it hurt, I asked where my bike was...

 

When I was in Japan they had those on the shelf, and I even tried one on. They are kind heavy but well made. They are also reusable- so long as there is no holes in the bladder. I got close to buying one but never seemed to have my size in the model I wanted. Would I buy it? Yes, If my commute was in a major city. But it's not, so I haven't justified the expenditure. I can say this- the demo's I have seen staged by the Japanese were low speed incidents showing how much energy there is at low speeds. When it inflates it helps stabilize the neck and spine. one of the most common injuries from motorcycle accidents is damage to your collar bone(s) from the helmet hitting them. The worst part about this product isn't it's weight, price, or style. It's the fact that no one will ever know how good this product is unless they were wearing it in an accident.....

 

Interesting I was just looking at the hit-airs at Hit Air Motorcycle Airbag Jacket Mesh Style - Honda Goldwing Parts and Accessories

Did any of you end up getting one of these jackets? It seems the main advantage of these would be when hitting the ground it would help reduce impact. The armor in normal jackets can do that too if it is in the right place. In a fall if this jacket prevented a broken bone or even some bad bruising it would easy have paid for itself.

It says it takes about 1/3 second to inflate after activating....I'd guess you could easily already be on the ground in that amount of time, especially since you'd already have to be pulling away from teh bike for the tether to activate. That's probably why it says it provides some protection even if it hasn't fully inflated yet.

I wonder how this jacket's durability is. Will it withstand a nice slide on pavement without wearing through....

 

Ah thanks I completely missed that post. I like your point in the other thread about being ejected into the air and landing. In that event I'd imagine the jacket would be fully inflated before impact and might provide a lot of extra protection on the impact.