OT: Motorcycle AIRBAGS???? Believe it or not!

On 9/18/2005 10:03 AM George mumbled something about the following:

The chain of posts suggests that the airbag would hold me onto the bike, It also suggests it would slow me down. I'm not the one making those claims, I'm challenging them. You, OTOH are being ignorant of what is actually transpiring.

Reply to
Odinn
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I would suggest you've been fairly lucky. I'll see your anecdotal evidence and raise you one more, i know a guy that lost a leg from injuries sustained when he t-boned a trailer full of firewood at about

50Mph. Would airbags have helped..? maybe not, but it's a moot point if you're missing a leg.

hoot.

Reply to
hoot

On 9/18/2005 11:26 AM hoot mumbled something about the following:

If a person is worried that much about their safety, they wouldn't be on a motorcycle in the first place, they would be in a car. We all know we are taking extra risks by riding a motorcycle vs driving a car.

Reply to
Odinn

You're loosin' me here Odinn..., how much is "that much"? I have a wife and daughter that i can't wait to get home to every time i leave the house, my safety is paramount regardless of the conveyance i choose on a given day. Of course there are extra risks if opt for the bike, but i'm not prepared to close my mind to risk minimization just because "i know what i'm getting myself into".

hoot.

Reply to
hoot

I read what you wrote. You have legitimate questions, but I'm sure the engineers have considered this. You aren't making assumptions based on nothing are you? As I stated, neither of us knows how this works yet so we should not condemn what we don't know. The air bag is to cushion your body as you travel forward after impact of the bike to another object. By limiting the size of it the bag would not push far enough to push you back and away from the handlebars. The bag is a barrier, not a projectile aimed at the back of the bike.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

On 9/18/2005 11:54 AM hoot mumbled something about the following:

If a person is worried that much about their safety to require an airbag, the shouldn't be on a motorcycle, they should be in a car. Is that detailed enough? I'm not saying that one shouldn't minimize risks, but an airbag is just a bit too much on a motorcycle.

Reply to
Odinn

On 9/18/2005 11:56 AM Edwin Pawlowski mumbled something about the following:

Have you ever been hit by an airbag? Do you ride a motorcycle? Getting hit by an airbag will knock your hands away from the steering wheel in a car. Doing the same thing unexpectedly on a motorcycle when not involved in a crash can be deadly. Don't think it can't happen? It's happened plenty of times in cars with just hitting a bad bump causing the sensors to trigger. I'm not willing to take a chance of losing control of a vehicle because some sensor wrongly thinks it should deploy an airbag.

Reply to
Odinn

This thread reminds me of the proposal of a MA state lawmaker who proposed making seatbelts on motorcycles mandatory in that state a few years ago. THAT proposal was quickly dropped!!

John

Reply to
John T

No and no, respectively.

Only because the airbag is wider than the steering wheel.

Only if the airbag is wider than the spacing of the handgrips. In the picture I saw, this did not appear to be the case though it appears to be a mannikin and a permanantly inflated bag. It looks to be designed stop the rider from doing a faceplant on the inside of the windsheild and hold him down on the seat, without knocking him back or knocking his hands off the grips.

Even if the Goldwing bag IS too wide, it is clearly possible to make one smaller, so the problem you anticipate is not unavoidable.

I _expected_ to hear of many such cases, but have not.

I've hear of one (1) case of an airbag deploying upon hitting a bump (railroad tracks). Given that some railroad tracks are on a hump ten feet above grade it is not clear if THAT bump was severe enough to cause a normal driver to lose control of the car regardless.

Reply to
fredfighter

Yes to both for me. Getting hit by an airbag is not fun, although it was definitely better than hitting the dash would have been if the seatbelt didn't restrain me. I'm not sure which hurt more, the bruise from the seatbelt or the airbag. I do know the seatbelt bruise did last longer.

It doesn't have to be wider, it just has to deploy a little to one side to knock an hand off the handlebars. It only has to deploy unexpectedly in a non-accident to possibly cause an accident that would be considerably more dangerous on a bike than in a car.

Once again, I'll state that if the airbag is designed to hold a person down in their seat like you suggest, then it is a VERY dangerous move.

All it has to happen is one time, and Honda will have a serious lawsuit on their hands as well as recalls, and more than likely a serious decline in sales of the GW.

Reply to
Odinn

No

Do you ride a motorcycle?

Not for a few years. Recently sold a Triumph.

Don't know and neither do you. Have you seen the design? Do you know hte size? the mounting? Think about how it would cushion you if it just shot straight up in front of you, not touching until you are being tossed over the handlebars. Would you rather hit an airbag or the side of a tree?

Have you disconnected your auto airbags? You may be 100% correct, you may be 100% wrong. You are, however, condemning a product you just don't know much about. Why not keep an open mind until you do know?

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

On 9/18/2005 5:04 PM Edwin Pawlowski mumbled something about the following:

Do you even read what's posted? Doesn't look like it.

Reply to
Odinn

You haven't seen the results of safety tests with an air bag and a motorcycle and you haven't yet seen any statistics on it either. How can you completely dismiss the idea without any knowledge of how it is going to work?

The only knowledge you have is the usage of bikes without an air bag. Will you still completely dismiss it if you see verifiable statistics and definite examples of an air bag being effective in reducing injury and deaths?

Reply to
Upscale

Even though I've ridden a motorcycle only a few times in my life, I'd still have to agree with you. Assuming that an airbag is deploying properly when it should, it means that something has happened and some type of crash is imminent, with recovery unlikely. I wouldn't want to be near a bike at that time if I could help it.

Reply to
Upscale

Falling isn't the problem. Landing is.

Reply to
Dave Balderstone

....

Understood. I doubt that it is desiged to deploy to one side, or that it CAN deply to one side.

I don't see how holding the rider in the seat is in general more dangerous than flying forward over the handlebars. It won't stop the rider from laying the bike down or exiting from the side or rear prior to a head-on collision

...

Agreed, which leads me to suspect that Honda hs an exceptionally high level of confidence in it.

Reply to
fredfighter

On 9/18/2005 7:31 PM Upscale mumbled something about the following:

So, you're saying we should try the seatbelts options on motorcycles as well?

Reply to
Odinn

On 9/18/2005 7:46 PM Upscale mumbled something about the following:

I've ridden motorcycles almost all my life. I grew up with them (my dad had several as I was growing up) and have been riding them on my own since I was 15. If an airbag deploys on a motorcycle, it shouldn't be happening when a crash is imminent, it should be happening during a crash. Unfortunately, I'm afraid of the possibilities of it deploying when there is no crash, causing a crash in itself.

Reply to
Odinn

Designed or not, it is a bag that is expanded by a small explosion. There is no way to guarantee it will not expand in one direction or another.

You've obviously never seen a motorcycle crash into a car. Holding a rider on the bike in such an event is probably more dangerous to the rider than being catapulted over it. Any rider who thinks that laying a bike down prior to a collision is stupid, since a motorcycle can slow down much faster while still on its wheels than when sliding metal against asphalt, and you have a better chance of avoiding the accident if you have full control of the bike instead of having no control while it is sliding.

Honda had an exceptionally high level of confidence in their GW 1800 series when it debuted with their new swingarm. Unfortunately, those swingarms failed and there is a huge recall.

Reply to
Odinn

In that case, you're afraid to drive cars that have air bags. Who knows when an airbag in a car might deploy at the wrong time causing you to temporarily lose control and crash?

On the one hand, you don't appear to have any fear of driving one of the most dangerous transportation devices around, yet without knowing exactly how it works, you appear to fear a device that is designed to lesson the chances of injury or death. You've certainly got some screwed up ideas about fear.

Reply to
Upscale

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