‘An airbag on a motorcycle! Now I’ve seen everything!’
The new Honda Gold Winnebago will be equipped with an airbag for protection in front-impact collisions. It’s expected to add about $1,200 to the cost of the bike, according to the local news story.
I don’t care how many wheels it has, if the machine comes with a trailer hitch, it ain’t a motorcycle. Gold Wings also happen to come with their own zip codes…
I thought this was going to be one of those “it makes about as much sense as a submarine with a screen door…” type things. Arg.
In the event of a head-on collision, won’t most riders be catapulted up and over? Maybe they should install a pop-up lacrosse net instead.
I thought I saw a full-body suit that could inflate if a climber fell, & form an airbag-type “ball” around the climber before he hit the ground.
Can’t recall just where, but it sounds like a good choice.
It was on a commercial for… something. The idea of innovation? Something like that. A guy’s working on a billboard and falls off, and the crash ball inflates around him. IIRC the same commercial has people running round on bionic leg things.
The immediate problem I see is that airbags don’t stay inflated for any length of time. The inflate and deflate in under a second.
The BBC automobile show Fifth Gear recently featured an inflatable jacket for motorcyclists that is triggered when you fall off, using a cord attached to your jacket that gets ripped out. They had some young sportbike owner test it, and he said it did make a difference.
I doubt it would save your life if you got into a deadly accident, but I think it would make minor accidents more tolerable.
Not exactly as effective as that commercial you saw (which I thought was incredibly cool), but it’s on the right track.
Just because automobile airbags are designed to work that way doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it.
There’s no reason why someone making custom airbags to use on such a suit couldn’t design them to stay inflated.
I’ve seen a video of this awhile ago. I’m not sure how much it would help, but it might help if you hit an SUV or something you can not go over. I know Motorcycle Comsumer News did a study saying that part of the reason there have been more deaths is because of SUVs. I personally don’t think I would want one on my bike, I just hope they don’t make them mandatory.