Alpinestars Tech-Air vest finally available

Just letting you guys know you can finally get the tech air vest that goes into compatible leathers and jackets. There are 23 dealers in the US that are stocking the vest and basically any dealer (they need to be set up with Parts Unlimited) can get the jacket/leathers. Right now only the 'Race' vest is available which can be used in suits or 'sport' jackets. There will be a 'street' version coming in the spring and more street apparel both in the 'race' and 'street' variety. I know it sounds kind of confusing but the fit of say a touring jacket is different than a GP-Tech suit so the bags differ slightly.

The vest is $1150 and there are three suits currently that are compatible that start at $1,000 and end at $2,000.

Here is a rundown of how it all works. I'll start with the race setup since that's what most guys on here are interested in. You'll buy the vest in the corresponding size to your suit. You zip that in and the brains and cartridges for the charge are built into a level 2 spine protector that is all built in to the vest. You just charge it up (it lasts 25 hours of ride time) and go. Once you zip up your suit it does a quick systems check and you're ready to to go. It can sense when you are riding at speed vs in the pits/walking/running etc and will not go off unless it thinks you're going fast enough or not running. That is how they can do things like jump from bike to bike in a flag to flag race without it going off. Or when a rider gets up after a crash and has to jump over a tire wall or trips on his stand or something it won't go off again. There are two charges in the race version when the race algorithm is running. One big advantage is once you have used up the cartridges you send just the vest to California where they service it and send it back. You can still use the suit with your normal back protector if need be but the turnaround time shouldn't be much more than a week mainly just from shipping from say the east coast to them and back.

The amount of coverage is huge. Until you've felt one aired up its tough to describe how protected you feel. It goes all the way down your back, over your shoulders, and down to about your belly button. It goes down your arm a little ways to cover your shoulder completely. I've gone through all the training and got to do a live demo where they set it off and its shocking how fast it goes off. You can still move around and it starts to slowly deflate after about 5 seconds. I don't have all the figures in front of me but the reduction in force to say a shoulder is huge over even a level 2 shoulder armor. I know I wished I had it available for a few of my crashes!

So the next great thing about the system is the ability to use it in a street jacket. You unzip it from your suit, plug it into your laptop to change the algorithm, and zip it into your jacket. What it's looking for in a street crash to go off is very different than on the track because of all the things that can hit you. It will work just sitting at a stop light as well as at speed like the race algorithm. One example video they had a slow motion of a rider getting rear ended by a car going 50 mph and it inflates before the car actually gets to the rider. Part of the speed is that it uses both cartridges to inflate the bag even faster than in race mode.

I'm sure I'm leaving a ton of it out so let me know what questions you have. I also have at my disposal the head of Tech-Air for the US which is Garet Tomlinson. He is a former Red Bull Rookies cup racer and current CMRA racer. He's crazy busy getting all the dealers up to speed so I'm just trying to get the info out to everyone as a lot of people have messaged me the last few years with questions and seeing when they would finally be available.

 

I've got an Astar suit but don't remember the model. Is it compatibal under any racing leather suit? Does it need to zip into the suit or you wear it like under armor and put your suit over it?

Definitely interested after what I've been through but also really like my current Astar suit. It does have a zip out liner.

 

No it won’t work with any astars suit. It has to be tech air compatible as there is an LED panel on the sleeve and stretch panels designed to expand when the bag goes off.

 

Is the vest all-inclusive as a stand-alone unit?

When they say the suit is "Tech-Air compatible", does it just mean the zippers and shit line up so you can zip the vest in the suit? Or does the vest actually NEED the suit to work?

In other words, could somebody buy this vest and wear it under any suit (or jacket)? It obviously wouldn't zip in, but would it still work?

 

Shit, nevermind. I didn't refresh to see your post before I made that one.

 

Yeah it needs to plug in to the led panel or it won’t turn on.

 

Well. Fuck.

 

Wait, you of all people are complaining about having to buy another suit? Don’t you have like 17 D-Air suits??

 

I know but see, that's different.

 

Makes perfect sense that A*'s would finally release the new tech but you are forced to buy a new suit that is compatible with it. Now suits are gonna be like electronics, being made with engineered obsolescence just like an iPhone. lol

 

I was thinking about getting just the vest for when I take long distance trips. I would wear that vest under my textile A-Stars jacket I wear.

But I'm sure the jacket isn't compatible. I was hoping the vest would be stand-alone.

I love my street jacket because it matches my street Bell helmet perfectly. I don't want to have to start over.

 

Haha exactly! I couldn’t believe how much it expanded when it went off when I was wearing it. The good thing too is the fit and comfort is better than non airbag gear because of the additional stretch built into it.

 

There's plenty of external vest available now that activate via lanyard attached to the bike. They seem to work well enough, saw this one on HHR's Instagram the other day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYjKpEBgUln/

 

so fully equipped suit with that system runs 2150 to 3150?

 

Yes exactly.

 

Does the street version also need a compatible Astar street jacket? If not, could the street version be used under a suit?

 

Van at STG has a really good video up over there about it.

You have to have a Tech Air compatible suit or jacket. The tech air unit has two modes. Street and Track.

You can wear your Tech air suit WITHOUT the Tech air.

A stars has three suit that are ready.

 

It always has to be a compatible jacket or it won’t work. And the street system won’t work in the race jackets, the bag itself is different sized and I don’t believe the zippers will be the same so you can’t mix them up. Also the street unit won’t be able to run the race software, only the race unit can run both algorithms.

 

Yup.... I have one, and it's a nice suit. I don't have the airbag thing yet, but I'm planning on it.... right now the LED's on the arm are dark (of course) and it's messing with my "inner Broome"......

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