We motorcyclists are a hoary old lot. Oh, we revel in the latest outrageous designs and, my God, some of the graphics on helmets these days are worthy of George Clinton, funk impresario extraordinaire and the most outrageously coiffed man of the ’70s. Deep down, though, we are suspicious of anything new.
Especially if it’s safety-related. Doubly paranoid, in fact, if it’s a safety device that’s electronically activated. Some decry the loss of freedom. Others simply fear that sensors and the ECU won’t be reliable. More still — especially in these anti-science days — don’t actually believe that anything computer-controlled can actually improve their safety. Whatever the reason, we’re generally pretty slow on the uptake.
For instance, I rode my first ABS-equipped bike in 1988 — an ice-white BMW K100RS sporting, as I remember it, some of the industry’s first radial tires, as well — but the biggest safety boon for motorcyclists since the crash helmet didn’t become mainstream for another 30 years.
Ditto traction control. Incredibly, it was introduced on Honda’s ST1100, possibly the least likely motorcycle — save perhaps BMW’s R-Series Boxer twins — to need saving from its rider’s over-enthusiastic right wrist. And yet today, what sane person — including virtually every topflight racer — would ride a 200+ horsepower superbike without the benefit of a lean angle-sensitive traction nanny?
That same turtle-like development would also seem to apply to air bags. Oh, many, if not most, racing organizations mandate the wearing of an airbag-equipped racing suit, but other than those risking their lives on closed-courses, that’s about it for success stories when it comes to supplemental restraint systems.
Airbag-equipped jackets have not taken off and standalone vests are only somewhat more popular. And since Honda introduced the first air bagged motorcycle — way back in 2006 on its touring stalwart Gold Wing — exactly no other motorcycles have followed suit. I’m sure the company’s engineers expected dramatic demand — and there are anecdotal stories of airbag-equipped Wings saving lives — but it never materialized.
Honda, however, would seem to be not giving up: the Japanese giant is trying to broaden the types of motorcycles that could be equipped with an airbag. According to Cycle World, a new patent shows an altogether new approach for protecting the rider in the case of a collision. For one thing, rather than being a simple “bag,” Honda’s latest version is shaped. First there is, of course, a substantial front section that protects the chest and head from a direct frontal impact. But there are also “arms” that, when inflated, wrap around the rider and protect them from harm from the side.
That last is important because the second trick listed in Honda’s patent is that the airbag, once up to full pressure, can detach from the motorcycle. Yes, it literally wraps itself around the now hapless rider and acts like a cocoon when he or she inevitably falls off the bike. In other words, this new air bag would act like a traditional airbag — a la Gold Wing — and provide protection from direct head-on impacts and then act, more or less, like an airbag garment as you roll,bounce and/or slide along the tarmac. It’s the best of both worlds, protection-wise. Perhaps more importantly, it alleviates the discomfort — airbag jackets are, shall we say, a little warm to wear — that comes from wearing a non-ventilated garment in the heat of summer, one of the main reasons, besides price, that airbag clothing is still not popular.
And lest those naysayers I mentioned at the beginning start their traditional decrying of anything new, let’s understand that air bags do offer superior protection. I’ve never — thank the Lord — fallen off a bike wearing an airbag jacket. But I have inflated more than a few and then let bystanders beat me with whatever weapon was handy — up to, and including, a baseball bat. Their ability to absorb energy truly has to be experienced to be believed. Depending on which manufacturer is doing the bragging, air bags in garments either offer the safety of 17 Level-1 back protectors or reduce the force of a blow by more than 90 per cent. Either claim, if true, is mighty impressive.
As for airbags built into your future bike, Autoliv, a pioneer in auto safety, is, like Honda, looking to launch its first motorcycle airbag, only in the Swedish safety giant’s case, they have a definite timeline — 2025. As for its benefits, Autoliv says that the number of g’s that a rider’s head would experience in a typical crash are reduced by more than half and, according to MCN, something called the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) would be reduced from a score of 6,794 in a crash on a scooter without an airbag to just 118 if it happened on a bike that was so equipped.
As well as these on-bike systems, Autoliv is also working on airbags built into helmets while another Swedish company, Mo’cycle, is now offering air bag jeans using technology from Helite. What I am trying to say is that the technology to prevent injury is either already available or is about to be launched. We should embrace it.
