Motorcycle Explorer February 2015 Issue 4 | Page 287

What’s it all about? The name may give it away ‘airbag’ well it is a CO2 bag actually and the outer coating is nylon, the same kind of fabric that you would find in most textile jackets. It does feel a little padded like it has an arctic liner but that’s the airbag inside that is locked in between the front nylon and the mesh polyester vest liner. This will have the downside of blocking any front vents that your jacket has in summer use. There is also the matter that I found the vest covered all my pockets on the jackets. The vest does have large nylon straps across the front that makes opening the vest up a simple affair even in gloves. These straps are also adjustable that worked very well for the different thickness of jackets that I use, the straps are then all neatly hidden away under a flap that seals over the chest. You attach a lanyard from the vest to the bike much as you would plug in a hard wired heated jacket and the vest blows up should you be detached from the lanyard. Fear not, it does take around 30kg of pressure to set the vest off and I was worried about forgetting this and hoping off the bike and blowing up in 0.1 seconds into a jaundiced Incredible Hulk! I did forget a few times and I was simply tugged back with a ‘oh yeah’ muttered inside the helmet this seldom got past the stage of half cocking a leg over. So how it works is if you are thrown from your bike then the lanyard pulls the release on the CO2 and the vest blows up very tightly – as I tested a few times and it did take quite a tug – around your core, lower spine and neck cuff. The whole thing felt extremely secure as there was little movement in my neck when I had my helmet on, almost like being on a spinal board. The vest blows up at the same speed as a car airbag at around 10 milliseconds and gets to 230 mBar of pressure; it then slowly deflates over a few minutes. The vest comes with the CO2 cartridge installed (threaded) to the receiver but they are easy enough to change. This is held in a ‘pocket’ on the right hand side of the vest. The pocket holds an engagement cord that has a metal ball attached to one end. The cord is attached to the bike and should you be ejected from the bike, the ball is pulled out of the receiver and a heavy spring pushes a sharp penetrator into the neck of the CO2 cartridge, which then inflates the vest all in around 10 milliseconds. One thing that did concern me in regards to Green Lanes was dropping a bike would activate a ‘false’ activation and you are looking at around £16 for a new CO2 cartridge – so a drop and pop situation would arise. This was not so much a concern with adventure touring with say a big bike and dropping it due to a parking error. The last thing on my mind if I dropped a £12,000 GS at 230kg+ would be that my £16 CO2 cartridge went off in my airbag – it would simply add insult to humour to the occasion for me. It is a fairly simple exercise to detach the vest from the bike with a buckle system and it is best attached at the central groin area under the seat for maximum movement on the bike while attached. How much? The website retails them at £399 for the high visibility model around the same price as an upper level motorcycle helmet.