Who with and what type ? (Pm me if prefer) I’ve been looking at these for a while and think i may be in the market
Carole and I both ride with a Helite vest. She has a Turtle with integrated chest and back protector and I ride with a track vest that has a void for the hump. 2 mates had recent accidents, the non vest wearer got hit in the back by the bike, 6 ribs, broken shoulder blade and punctured lung. The vest wearer slid for 150 yards with the bike on top of him, broken wrist and gravel rash on his hand due to summer gloves. It makes sense and is a lot cheaper than a suit. Andy
Nick at Love Life & Ride has a choice of Helite vests you can hire so you can try before you buy. Andy
Helite was at an IAM meeting my mate was at demonstrating their vests, one vest failed to inflate................
I've a vest.... wish I was wearing it in the last accident.... I would have avoided the most dangerous of my injuries... Wouldn't have helped the leg or hand/wrist.... but recovery would have been months quicker. I'd have been out of hospital in just a few days, not months.
I’m using the Alpinestars Tech-Air vest in my Alpinestars compatible leathers, same as MotoGP. Suit and vest is fekin heavy combined. Not deployed in anger yet but I’m sure it’ll give me a better chance of escaping serious injuries if the worst should happen. And based on that, worth the expense. Plus of course you get the super cool looking flashing LED’s on the forearm. Oof!
Whilst I don't doubt the quality of the suits - I don't like the fact it has to be sent off to be re-packed. Thats why I will buy an air vest
The demo vests have been activated probably 100s of times. I know 1 of the demonstrators and I'd not be surprised if they had put a fired canister in ! Andy
Apparently they didn't offer an explanation and were quite sheepish. It looked like the trigger functioned and the canister expelled it's charge but the vest didn't inflate. Mate thinks it could have been an ill fitting cartridge.
Surely the point of these vest is the quality of fit, any clothing or safety equipment is only as good as it is intended during a crash, my friend had a spill and his baggy leathers really didn’t protect the vital areas that they were supposed to due to the twisting of the clothing. He subsequently suffered abrasions to areas that should have been protected by such clothing. Fit and security is utmost the most important thing in my opinion. Some of the vest I have tried on are rather too large or too small and really needs to be tailored to suit everybody to remain intact after a collision.
Doesn’t the inflation fill the gaps tho. Too tight and inflation may do more damage that protection, like being close to a steering wheel with an airbag going off?
