Air Bag Leathers

When would you do this while racing?

 

Not if the rider is under 60km/h

 

Not the point.

The question is, if the hand comes off the throttle during a race for any reason, without crashing, will the airbag go off?

And, what if the rider crashes, with the hand still being on the throttle (like the crash I described/experienced in the past), will the airbag go off?

 

Yes, if the hand comes off the throttle, the detachment sensor will activate the AIR system. However, if there were an accidental activation of this type (I haven't heard of one yet with this system), the AIR GAP System allows for a ton of mobility and movement.

If the rider crashes and the hand remains on the throttle, the AIR system will not activate. The AIR GAP system does not activate in these types of crashes...

 

Ok. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Wow....gonna have to give that some more thought.
That bugs me more than taking my hand off the throttle while on track.
I almost always flip people off with my left hand

 

The logic behind the Vircos AIR GAP system is as follows:

Mechanical AIR Systems are usually not suitable for rapid release Gas Inflation Technology (in short, they don't inflate fast enough)

Mechanical AIR Systems usually don't incorporate GPS technology, which makes them subject to oversight and false deployment

Electronic AIR Systems are very expensive and complicated (sensors, dedicated CPU, etc.) and therefore, currently, not completely reliable

Electronic AIR Systems have problems with short battery life

Electronic AIR Systems have to be sent back to the Factory to rearm (this takes time and is quite expensive)

The Vircos AIR GAP System addresses all of the above problems...as discussed previously, it does have some shortcomings. However, we consider it to be the most practical and cost effective AIR option on the market.

 

For the sake of this discussion, you don't need to constantly post pictures of professional riders in those suits just to try to backup your points. A few professional riders wear Vircos. We get it.

Should I post the dozens and dozens of riders that wear Dainese or Alpinestars suits and have been wearing them for years just to backup my points?

How many have failed? How are they not reliable? They aren't complicated as far as the consumer is concerned. I put it on, button it up, and ride. I do absolutely nothing differnet other than making sure it is charged at the beginning of the weekend.

Your suit costs about $3500, correct? The D-Air suit isnt much more than that. You make it sound like your suit costs half as much as the competition, that is simply not the case.

No they don't. I can have mine fully charged, wear it for 3 full days (Fri-Sun, and I do a lot of races)...then wait 3 weeks and when I check it, it will still be at 75% charged. I don't know how long it would last. But I could probably go 2-3 months without charging it and it would be fine.

I won't argue this point. Again, it depends on your definition of "expensive" and "takes time". It will take a few weeks, and it will cost some money, but it isnt excessive.

But again, you are paying a little more money for a suit with an airbag that will engage ANYTIME you have a crash that could result in an injury, regardless if you are disconnected from the motorcycle or not. And for a suit that WON'T/CAN'T engage unless there is truly an accident. I don't want to ride in a suit with an airbag that could engage if I take my hand off the throttle to wave a corner worker, or acknowledge a flag, or adjust my lever, etc.

Your suit is cool. I actually kind of like it. If you want to promote your suit, by all means go for it. But you can do so without making negative comments about other manufacturer's suits. Especially when you consider their suits have been around much longer than yours, have been developed for 15 years and proven on the World stage for a decade. Furthermore, some of the negative remarks you are making about other people's suits simply are not true.

It is possible for you to promote ths suits you sell without trying to do so at the expense of others. :up:

 

its happened to me many times in the last 15 years, rear spins up, bike kicks out, rider gets kicked out of the saddle, releases throttle, lands back in seat, breaths a sigh of relief, twists throttle WFO and go on.

wtf are you talking about "when would you do this while racing"? That shit happens all the damn time.

 

You release your grip on the bars when that happens?
My hands were the last things to go every time that happened to me. The times I fell back on the bike, my hands never came off the bars. The couple of times they did, I landed on my back or stomach.

 

didnt say i did it on purpose! LoL

First time it happened was my first year novice, coming out of the triple bitches at Jennings on the old Michelin Pilot, bike went completely sideways, snapped back, pitched me straight up in the air, somehow landed back on the bike with it in full tank slap mode, somehow, it straightened itself out, i pitted in, and cleaned out my leathers. Happened again during a race coming out of T2 at RRR, almost identical scenario. And its happened several other times over my "career". Hell, most of my crashes were when my hands actually DIDNT leave the bars until after i was bodyslammed to the ground.

 

You think I did?

 

Nope, and i didnt insinuate you did!

 

Technical question.
I know the alpinestars and dainese suits in few second automatically defloat,and if you start ride again the electronics recognize that, and the air bag is ready again.
What about the vircos suit,is defloat after little bit,or it stay full until you take it off?
Also I miss how is the vircos suit recognize when you take your hand of throttle ,it's electronics,or some kinda wire like on jetski?
Same question for the Safermoto vest.can you defloat the vest if your bike is ok and you can continue racing?

 

On the vest, yes, it will take a couple minutes to go completely limp though and it won't re-deploy until you put in a new cartridge.

If you come to the gnf, come check out Draik’s, we can even test fire it for you to get a better idea of how good they work.

 

With broken collar bone in 4 places,GNF is out of question for me.
I know you need install another cartridge to make functional again,wasn't sure if is stay deploy.
Wonder if I had the vest if I still end up with the injury I have.
Bought the A race replica suit 2years ago with intention when later the air bag is available I get it install.since nothing happen so far ,and doesn't look it will near future,I need look somewhere else.

 

It's my understanding that the vest can prevent some collar bone breaks since they help prevent your helmet from slamming down into your collar bone by stabilizing your neck/head. Granted, they can still get broken from slamming your shoulders down though... so it all depends on the type of crash.

 

That is news to me that they auto reset
The way I understand each system is this:
AStar and Dainese deploy when they sense the crash
Then you send them to Italy to be reset
Vircos inflates when you part company with the throttle
Can be reset by you and you can go back out
Vest inflates when the tether attached to the bike where ever you decided to attach it gets pulled to the point of the plug in pulling apart
You can reset it with a new CO2 cartridge which can be done in the pits
None of the above is a perfect solution
Two of the above are not reasonably available here in the USA and require overseas service to rearm IF you could get one in the first place
In the scenario where you described flying in the air with you hands letting go of the bars I see no downside to the V suit inflating as you odds do saving it are small and the suit allows easy movement and can be reset in the pits
Seems to me at this time there are two offerings that are available today
I don't think the tether is the best way to activate the best and I don't think a mechanical disconnect when my hand leaves the throttle is the best either but face the facts. The vest is available and the Vircos system is available
They kind of compliment each other in coverage and the Other systems are not available here in the USA with any distributor or dealer support

 

The D-Air stays inflated for 5 seconds, then starts to deflate. IIRC it is fully deflated in 30sec.

It has been a few years since I read it so I cant remember the rider's name. But they came up with the 5 second inflation timespan based upon the crash a Japanese rider had where he came off the bike somewhere in a high speed straightaway for some reason and tumbled for a long time. I can't remember what happened, but it was a weird accident and he came off the bike basically out in the middle of nowhere, with no gravel traps or walls or anything to slow him down. IIRC he tumbled for something like 4.7 seconds.

Their research found that to be the longest duration road racing crash on record (at that time). That is why they designed it to remain inflated for 5 seconds.

 

Grady pretty much summed it up. There is no "perfect" suit. They all have pros and cons. It is just a matter of personal preference based upon which characteristics somebody finds most appealing and how much they want to spend.

Ideally, there would be an airbag suit where all of the protection is internal (built into the suit), airbags that cover the spine and hips like the Vircos, the shoulders, collarbones, upper back and chest like the D-Air, the neck like the Safermoto, actuates via GPS/gyros/inclinometers/accelerometers/etc like the D-Air (no tethers), can be self-serviced as easily and quickly as the Safermoto, batteries that last as long as the D-Air's, is available in the USA, and costs under $3,000.

But that suit doesn't exist. And likely never will, at least not for that price anytime soon. So each person has to decide what works best for them and their budget.

Personally, I didnt want anything that actuated via tether because of my previously mentioned crash where my collarbone exploded as I was slammed in the ground from almost vertical, while sitting perfectly in the middle of the seat with both hands on the bars. And because I didn't want to worry about accidental inflation.

The best bang-for-the-buck is the vest like Draik wears. It costs less than a 1/10th of the airbag suits. If I was going to wear something with a tether, it would be that. But I elected to go with the full suit instead.