Call me cynical, but I think it has more to do with marketing than safety. From a practical standpoint, its effectiveness would appear, to me, limited to a narrow range of incidents. Mr. Self made an interesting point. That bag, in a car, slams you to the back of the seat, pinning you down. With no back, it might just knock me AND my cooler off the bike!
... side curtains on your Foster Grants?
Riders without helmets need their heads examined.
How incredibly stupid was THAT idea. The whole idea is to get away from that bouncing lump of metal after a spill (and pray your leathers stay together)
I was kind of thinking that also. Why would you want to tie yourself to a potentially spinning, rotating mass of metal that weighs more than you do with only yourself between that metal and the pavement? [shudder]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Interesting side thought here. Assume driver is carrying a rider behind him and airbag goes off, what are the ripple effects upon the rider and subsequent effect upon the driver?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+What's next--seat belts?
What's next--seat belts?
I agree, powerful stuff. I'm not the one to thank for it.
Bill shut down the comments after more than 650, but I followed them for a few days. There was a meme that was nascent, but growing, of a bumper sticker.
One word.
"WOOF!"
I like it.
djb
Maybe, but lets face it, something will have happened for the air bag to go off. If the bike is moving at the time, I'd rather be knocked off in any direction except for flying forwards. No way in hell an expanding air bag is going to knock you 100 feet in any direction which is entirely possible with a forwards ejection.
You crash on a bike, you ARE going to hit the ground. How does an airbag help there?
Yup, but it's the speed that you hit the ground that is important. Of course, flying as little as five feet is enough to break your neck.
Back in the '80s, some company introduced a suit to be worn by the rider that would inflate like the old Mae West life vests in the event of a get-off. The suit's inflation mechanism was activated by a lanyard that the rider attached to the frame of the bike. I still laugh at the thought of the Michelin Man bouncing down the road, or the look on the rider's face if he forgot to disconnect the lanyard at his destination. The suit apparently didn't catch on.
Maybe not for motorcycles, but hasn't NASA developed similar protection for its Mars landing? The technology is there, just hasn't filtered down yet to the person on the donercycle.
Hear hear! Mobile organ donors. Though that type tends to ride the crotch rockets, where the bag would be ineffective.
I think the sensor -rating program would be a bit difficult with this kind of thing. Motorcycle geometry, except on the purely cushy road models, would have to make the decision to deploy contingent on at least three or four factors, rather than simple deceleration and impact sensors.
Would be sort of nice to have a belly bag on snowmobiles, though. Bellies full of burgers and beer impacting the handlebars make for a lot of peritonitis.
A yes, leathers. Dispatched to a call where the rider was said to have departed the road at close to 90 mph - caller said "I think he's dead" - something with which we tended to agree. Nonetheless, shattered helmet and scarred leathers held a living rider.
When we called in report to the hospital, they noticed an absence, and asked what his BP was. I replied that we could not get one, because he was in leathers (now splinted).
We were met at the door of the ED by the boys from the psych ward, complete with their set of leather restraints....
ROTF.... ohh that's rich.. Made my day.
It always amazes me when a rider loses his bike in Formula style road racing.. at well over 100 MPH in most cases, takes a skid on the tarmac, stands up, dusts himself off, walks over to the bike, gives it a kick in frustration and walks back to the pit lane.
It's all about the leathers and being in good shape.
It makes me sick to see a young couple on a crotch-rocket blowing by me at insane speeds wearing nothing but t-shirts, shorts and sneakers.... then again, somebody will make good use of the internal organs.
I remember reading an ariticle (back in the mid eighties I think) about a motorcycle airbag SUIT. That's right, a rubber suit with inflatable airbags that would deploy if the rider left the bike. It was attached to the bike with a tether and activated if the tether broke or was disconnected from the motorcycle. When it inflated the rider looked like the Michelin tire man. Testing showed that it would be very effective but for some reason :) it never caught on as an alternative to leather.
Yep. I've blanked on the names of the lander and the explorer robot, but the landing craft was slowed by a 'chute, had about 20 airbags deploy, the 'chute let go and it bounced and rolled to a stop.
-j
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