Very interested in your review. Do you wear the vest with a riding suit? Is it heavy, or uncomfortable?
The FortNine video is about pads that meet a minimum standard. The pads are not only thin, but are also small. I’d estimate that the pads in my Aerostich are about double in area and thickness.
The vest I have (or should say had, long story there involving a shoulder injury and at least a temporary retirement from riding) was the Dainese D-Air vest. There’s a newer model and newer competitors but I think the gist is the same
The vest must be worn under a jacket as it’s very light weight mesh and fabric. Not saying it’s not durably made, but is in no way going to survive even the lightest contact with pavement on it’s own. It isn;t super light weight, but it’s unnoticeable when worn, especially when compared with the weight of my leather jacket. All of the computing hardware and gas inflation plumbing is contained in CE rated back protector integrated with the vest. It powers on automatically by zipping up the jacket and there’s an app for tracking rides and looking at the status of the battery.
The computer has multi-axis accelerometers that look for things that signal a crash in progress. The bags inflate when it senses you’re doing things that would indicate you are coming off the bike. It’s meant to be fully inflated before any impact, it doesn’t wait for contact.
The coverage is chest, ribs, and around the back to where it meets the back protector. There’s coverage of the tops of the shoulder/collarbone area. I’m fortunate enough to have not tested it in real life, but there are some interesting youtube videos of people who really did crash wearing the vest.
Thanks for that. I’m a FortNine fan but haven’t seen what he was testing. I have a hard time believing that there’s no value to armor given the stringency of the regs and the required impact dissipation with the CE-1 and CE-2 ratings.
It was the large Aerostich pads in my Roadcrafter that cushioned my fall, for what it’s worth.
Interesting. I was guessing the airbag vest couldn’t be worn inside my suit, but that’s not the case. It looks like it fits pretty snug and might be a little hot.
I wear a Roadcrafter as well; 2-piece. Nice to know the pads helped. I had a crash that destroyed the Roadcrafter jacket and busted up my shoulder. Not sure how much injury was prevented by the pads and jacket, but they had to help.
I didn’t find it to be any hotter than the jacket I was already wearing and I rode in 100+ degree weather a few times a year. When I would wear it under my Klim mesh jacket, I got plenty of air. Under my leather jacket or Roadcrafter top, there wasn’t much airflow but that was the nature of those jackets anyway.
Interesting discussion, but could the date of this post have something to do with the questionable nature of the content?
This is exactly what he addresses in the video. The amount of energy allowed to pass the CE armor is more than enough to cause fractures. Additional academic studies he cites claim that accident followup shows CE-1 and 2 armor does not prevent serious injury. His claim is that basically the CE armor requirement was lobbied for by motorcycle gear companies in order to keep non-motorcycle gear out of motorcycle stores. So Dianese doesn’t have to compete with Patagonia, for example.
He does mention this, that larger pads are available, which transmit less energy, but that because they are not required, almost all gear does not come with them.
The final argument is that pads do not provide enough additional safety to be worth the inconvenience of wearing them.
I’m not sure I agree with all of those things, that’s his argument.
They may be, but you’ll have to look at them to find out what standard (if any) they meet. Size and thickness isn’t perfectly correlated with protection, because different materials will dissipate different amounts of energy.
Before I watched the video, that’s what I assumed, but he is being serious. He fumbles the joke, but at the very beginning I think he’s trying to say that the tricksters are the gear companies and riders or regulatory agencies are the ones being fooled.
Agreed, but Aerostich has a CE (the Euro standard) testing rig. They make their own pads, and even the oldest 1980s pads exceed CE standards.
Here is a video rebuttal to the F9 video about armor. I don’t particularly recommend watching it, as it’s much longer and not some kind of single shot monologue that’s fun to watch. It doesn’t really say anything different than what people here have said, but it does have more weight when coming from academic and industry experts.
To me, the biggest strike against the F9 video comes in the first couple of minutes of this other video, when the author of one of the academic articles F9 cites basically says her findings are being misinterpreted. She says her study did not have the statistical power to detect a reduction in fractures from armor, so the study does not provide any evidence of that claim. Additionally, armor greatly reduces the level of soft tissue injury.
After that quote is a 20 minute interview with an industry expert that can be summed up as, “better armor is better, but some is better than none.” He also points out something I hadn’t considered, that armor not only protects the rider, but also the garment. An unpadded elbow in an impact can cause catastrophic failure of a leather suit because of the high energy intensity at the impact point. An elbow pad will spread out the intensity of the impact, so the leather stays intact, and can provide the abrasion protection it is supposed to.
I got no deeds to do, no promises to keep. The guy who got my R1 running again asked if I’d ridden yet. So… Today was the day. I took it for a spin around the block (about 1.85 miles). I’d been concerned about my knee, which has a limited range of motion due to an old injury. It fit fine! 
I still have to lift my whole foot to apply the brake because of nerve damage from the same injury, but that’d old news. I put the 2024 registration sticker over the 2015 one, and put the registration under the seat… and just in time. I’m expecting the 2025 sticker and registration any day now.
Issues:
- Idle is too slow, and it stalls unless I give it some gas.
- There’s a leak in one of the front forks. It’s a little pitted, and I hope it will be fine with new seals.
- The chain needs replacing.
- The tires should be replaced.
Oh… I couldn’t find my nice-fitting Arai helmet. I put it in a box, and then I moved the box to make it easier to get to. I had to wear my Heli Boy helmet (Shoei) that I got in 1994 and that has over 100,000 miles on it. I replaced it with the Arai because it became way too loose. Today I discovered how loose. It kept falling down and covering my eyes. I had to jut my chin so I could see. If I ever get the urge to wear it again, I’ll have to put on a tuque first. Naturally, I went right to my Arai after the ride.
Rode 2 of mine yesterday around the neighborhood, just to keep em moist. Doubt I’ll ride them much more. Too many idiots on the road playing with touch-screens. Been run over twice. That’s enough.
Come to Montana and try dirt–I’ve got an extra bike! Oh sure, you’ll get hurt, but at least it will be your own fault!
Oh, I ride dirt. Have my whole life. Used to race Desert D37. Got a couple National Trophies in the game room (lowest class, but still!).
Yeah, I’ll come! What kind of bike you got for me?
'22 Husky 300 or '24 Beta 300. Lots of trails around here, but most open either 6/16 or 7/16…
Good choices! Small enough to hustle around, plenty of power to get you moving. I’ve been riding my trusty Suzuki DR350 for years. Love that bike! I wore out a 90 model, then put all the goodies I added over the years, along with the kickstarter on a 97 model (it only had electric, now I got both!). Don’t ride as much as I used to, but still get out now and then.
If you ever come a little south, I got more desert and mountains than you could ever need! And when the snow melts up top, Dual-Sport Tahoe! That is an experience!
On my walk today, I saw someone riding a traditional putt-putt minibike up the beach road.
I got on a DR a couple years ago. It wasn’t that the power was down compared to my 300s, but I’ve come to appreciate brakes that WORK! In any racing (I raced also for a while), you’re really only as good as your brakes. KTM/Husky front brakes have been criticized as too powerful, but I’ve gotten used to one finger braking! Plus, a 230# 50hp bike is kinda awesome.