Updated Suit Airbag Feedback

The two issue I heard were over heating wearing it and dodgy firmware / software and units getting bricked. It’s cool to see safety equipment continue to advance though and help us stay healthier in the event of a crash.

 

I think that may have turned me off from the Tech-Air 10.

 

Honestly my exact thoughts. I don't need go be bleeding edge safety gear guy and waited until I thought we were in the meat of the bell curve. But we aren't.

It's still good! and progress is coming... but facts are, that the height of safety gear is we are still wearing dead cow skin.

 

Or wait for the Tech Air 7.
@Spooner , do you have any insight on this yet?

https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/alpinestars-launches-new-tech-air-7x-autonomous-airbag-system/

 

I have crashed so many DAIR suits its comical. I have had zero injuries, other than pride. I love them. I custom sized one 2 years ago, crashed it at grattan, and it messed it up pretty good. It was a fast crash, end of straight going backwards, shredded a few parts of leather. It was $850 to fix. IMO, thats cheap considering buying a new one was like 4k. Ive owned probably 6 off the rack dair's, crashed them a whole bunch. The suit works really well. My wife is very cheap, and even she told me i was a Fin moron if i ever rode without one.
The new one they're coming out with is suppose to have more coverage, which should be a little better, but i have no issues with the current one.

 

I will add, i have never had one issue with Dair firmwares, they have always just worked. Their service center in California is pretty odd to get ahold of through email for repair, but its straightforward.

 

That looks interesting. I wonder if Alpinestars can release enough stock without all of the issues I hear the Tech-Air 10 having.

 

The coverage pictures I’ve seen of the new D Air system looks so minimal. I feel like I’m missing something with the revision to the system.

 

Cycleworld article says the user can replace the canister for the first four deployments before needing to send it in for service. That’s awesome.

 

Ya idk. I didn’t do any research about it, I just saw it was improved. I would 10/10 recommend them to anyone.

 

I have one on order hoping. Ext few months, I have been thoroughly disappointed in the tech 10, not firing sending g 4 back because they wouldn't work. Love the coverage but hate the software.

 

Has anyone tried the RST airbag suit?

 

Yep this will be the new version of the race system. It's a little different as it can both zip into a suit and be worn independently so its like a mix of the 5 and the race. Should be available around April only from tech air race shops, it won't be available to normal Parts Unlimited dealers like the race and 10 is as well. But yeah its user serviceable so that will be a big advantage for sure.

 

I have the original tech-air and Tech Air 10. I wanted the added hip protection for my 6 decade old hips. You put the tech10 on like an undersuit and then put on your leathers. The first couple of times I needed help getting into the leathers but now I've got it figured out. Had a lowside crash last summer and the hip coverage was soft and cushy.

 

I have had a hell of a time with Dainese recently.
I have a Misano 2 D-Air and at the beginning of 2023 I saw some red flashing LED that looked like an error message, I contacted them 4 days before the warranty ran out thankfully, this is important for later.
I reached out to their support and after chatting for a bit I supplied a video of the LED flashing, and the support person said it was normal behavior and part of the shut down procedure.
I took them at their word and rode it all of 2023, lots of racing, teaching track classes, and track days.

In September I badly crashed a bike on track at around 50mph, bike was FUBAR, my Full Metal D1 glove split open at the palm, and the airbag didn't deploy. I was very fortunate that the crash wasn't much worse and I got out only mildly scathed.

I revived the email thread with their support and told them about the crash and how the suit didn't deploy. Lots of back and forth later and they agreed to look at it and said it'd be 2 weeks turn around, that was in October. To their credit they agreed to honor the warranty if it was a defect since I initially reported the issue before it expired.

I am still waiting on my suit, the support guy I'm talking to is doing his best to herd cats, and told me the suit would be sent out last week. Still no word on what the actual problem was with the suit or what failed.

It's not very confidence inspiring to push it in a race or on track if I have to second guess if my equipment will do the one job it has. Depending on how this goes I may get a non-airbag suit and run the new Tech Air 7x.

I've always been in Dainese and it's disappointing to see such a premium brand have so many issues lately.

 

How do you know you were going 50mph? Did you have data from the suit or an AIM? (It's downloadable)

Only reason I ask is the suit isn't armed under 45 or something like that.

Mine has gone off in crashes several times and saved me every time from something worse. This is the first time I've heard of a D-air not going off when it was supposed to- as opposed to the Alpinestars of which were was several reports on here of them not deploying. Anecdotal of course.

Just to add, I crashed in the pits in December, endoed the bike when someone pulled out in front of me. I was going 17MPH and the D-air did not inflate. And now I have a serious shoulder injury, so I wish it had been up to arming speed!

 

I checked the data on the bike after the fact to confirm I was going ~50 MPH when I lost it.

Also the threshold for the suit to arm is 50 KPH, not 50 MPH.

 

And this is the rub. Mine Air 5 flashes as if it's not working until you get up to speed? So I think it's working propely? If it fails to deploy I'm in worse shape than I would have been in the first place with my regular gear on.

Which makes me pause if I want to trust something that can be glitchy and possibly not do it's job when I need it the most...

 

Something is wrong. It should flash 5x when powered up- Red then Green- the number of green flashes corresponds to the number of days battery charge left. Then it flashes green once every few seconds to let you know it's working. There's other lights for GPS signal and faults but I don't know what they are. When you plug it in, do you get a solid green once it's fully charged?

 

Appriciate the into, I'll check it sometime when I dig it out of my trailer. There has got to be a better way to make the interface more user friendly.