Firsthand experience that an airbag proves its worth during a racetrack crash.

When David Booth says airbag vest technology is the greatest advancement in rider safety, I’m paying attention. I’ve been active on the racetrack since 1999; half of that time has been actual road racing and, after a friend broke some ribs crashing my race bike, I started looking more seriously at this airbag technology.

Airbag vests come in a multitude of styles now, and the ones that have appealed to me are the ones that do not rely on a tether to detonate the vest but rather an electronic algorithm that triggers circuitry on the vest to detect a crash. These are self-contained units without wires and rely on a cell phone app to put the vest in Ready Mode, and a charged battery, which is built into the vest. 

Fitting something under my existing leathers was mandatory for me as I wasn’t budgeting for a new set of leathers as well as a new vest, so I went to 613 Motorsports in Ottawa to get fitted. The concern with fitting an airbag vest under your existing leathers, as owner Steph explained, is room. There has to be enough room under the leathers for the vest to detonate, or you run the risk of the detonation breaking your ribs. And with that chilling warning, I was immediately even more aware of my inability to shed four or five kilograms last year. 

The good news, in my case, was that there was still enough room under my Joe Rocket suit for an air vest. 

Here’s where it gets interesting. I entered that shop with a desire to buy the $1,400 Tech-Air 10 and Steph actually talked me into a less expensive solution: the vest-only Alpinestars Tech-Air 5, for $950. His reason for suggesting the Tech-Air 5 was the amount of complaints he was receiving about difficulty with the electronics in the more expensive Tech-Air 10. I heeded his advice in a desire for simplicity.

CTMP Track Day

This is where the bad news/good news happens, at a beautiful, sunny August track day at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport). Alan and I were preparing for an endurance race the following day. I was riding my GSX-R 600, having a great time, when things went wrong in the afternoon.

There were some asphalt patches going all the way down to Turn 2, which is about a six-storey drop as you turn left, at speed. I rode over most of the patches in the morning to see how bumpy they were for our race the next day, but in the afternoon, I was probably going too fast to continue exploring more bumpy patches.

Anyway, I found out quickly that one patch was pretty bumpy and my front tire washed out immediately as I was turning left, with my knee only a centimetre or two above the asphalt, going maybe 150 km/h. The bike and I slid across the paved runout in a fit of disorganization and complete loss of control, and within two seconds, we both slammed into the tire wall. The bike and I separated by a couple of metres when we hit the tire wall and the bike got crunched pretty good, but I was lucky enough to go spine-first into the tire wall, which actually felt like slamming back-first into a Sleep Country mattress.

The Vest Worked as it Should

Literally: I felt a firm, even push across my entire upper back, shoulder to shoulder, down the middle of my back to my lower back, filling out left side to right side. My Tech-Air 5 vest had inflated at some point during my lowside crash and saved my back from a hard impact with the tire wall.

I was completely unharmed in the crash but my helmet, after skidding across 70 metres of asphalt, was ready for the garbage. I was able to slowly get on my feet, remove my helmet and then spend five minutes trying to get out of my leathers, which had an inflated suit inside. It was hard to breathe but relief came when I was able to get one shoulder out.

In a scientific world, we could repeat tests for further product testing, but I’m not that scientific. Or that stupid. I’m grateful to report I was completely uninjured thanks in large part to the air vest technology. After I got the vest repacked at 613 Motorsports ($316), it was ready to protect again. 

The airbag vest is a technology that every rider should consider, especially given that they can be used under your jacket for street riding. After nearly 13 years of being crash-free on the racetrack, this was only my second outing with the airbag vest when I crashed. In the future, I will not be on the racetrack without it.