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Dainese Smart Jacket


GMan

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 I have been following Dainese’s D-air system for a while now. I was going to pull the trigger on a jacket but learned they are soon coming out with an air bag system designed to be worn under your current gear. I am planning on getting this for my MC riding but I think it will work for EUC also.  Supposedly available in the USA in the next month.

https://www.dainese.com/us/en/smart-jacket.html

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Doesn't look very useful to me for an euc.

The stuff you hurt the most when falling from an euc is still unprotected (shoulders, elbows etc). This is great for high speed impacts where you want to protect your chest or back (smashing a motorcycle at 100mph for instance). For our speeds and usage 3do style soft-but-hard-when-falling padding will be sufficient IMO.

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I wear a Dianese motorbike jacket now and love it. I saw this at the local store but seems overkill for my needs.

 

https://www.dainese.com/us/en/motorbike/jackets/mesh/air-flux-d1-tex-jacket-201735163.html?cgid=motorbike-jackets-mesh&dwvar_201735163_color=ANTHRACITE%2FBLACK#start=1

 

For wet months I think I am just going to wear an existing rain-jacket I have that will go over it. So far it has worked out.

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On 9/15/2019 at 9:58 PM, GMan said:

 I have been following Dainese’s D-air system for a while now. I was going to pull the trigger on a jacket but learned they are soon coming out with an air bag system designed to be worn under your current gear. I am planning on getting this for my MC riding but I think it will work for EUC also.  Supposedly available in the USA in the next month.

https://www.dainese.com/us/en/smart-jacket.html

lol I wouldn’t suggest that. 

Something as inherently unstable as an EUC, where every movement looks like you’re falling, would probably trigger the airbag system without you even crashing. Considering it used gyrosensors. 

Edited by Darrell Wesh
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  • 8 months later...

It looks like the competition is heating up in the smart-jacket market with the Dainese D-air system and Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 going head-to-head. It seems to me that sensor-based systems are going to be the predominate technology going forward. (Tethered systems are just too low-tech.) We're starting to see gear manufacturers like Klim and others adopt In&motion's sensors in order to offer a comparable product. (Helite offers a multi-sensor system which may catch on as well.)  The algorithms for all of these black-boxes evolved out of AI machine learning from MotoGP racing before being modified for street motorcycles.

In the future, I'd like to see a multi-sensor system modified for EUC riding. Something like Helite's B'Safe with sensors in the vest and a separate Crash Detection Unit (CDU). You'd think they'd already be working on an upgraded protection system for BMX/mountain biking and (with any luck) modifications could (in theory) be made for EUC's. Unfortunately, all  my hopes for this are based solely on the fact that they are French and  (just maybe) take EUC's more seriously...

Edited by RayRay
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3 minutes ago, RayRay said:

It looks like the competition is heating up in the smart-jacket market with the Dainese D-air system and Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 going head-to-head. It seems to me that sensor-based systems are going to be the predominate technology going forward. (Tethered systems are just too low-tech.) We're starting to see gear manufacturers like Klim and others adopt In&motion's sensors in order to offer comparable protection. (Helite offers a multi-sensor system which may catch on as well.)  The algorithms for all of these black-boxes evolved out of AI machine learning from MotoGP racing before being modified for street motorcycles.

In the future, I'd like to see a multi-sensor system modified for EUC riding. Something like Helite's B'Safe with sensors in the vest and a separate Crash Detection Unit (CDU). You'd think they'd already be working on an upgraded protection system for BMX/mountain biking and (with any luck) modifications could (in theory) be made for EUC's. Unfortunately, all  my hopes for this are based solely on the fact that they are French and therefore, (just maybe) take EUC's more seriously...

And why would someone spend $1000 on a jacket that would go off when they fall at 2mph clipping a curb? And then have to spend $500 replacing the airbag.
 

That would look so bad. The gear we already have is more than good enough for EUC’s. 

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The competition I noted earlier has already brought the price down into the $600-700 range and that's for motorcycle crash protection. My hope is that similar systems for bicycles would be a little cheaper and adaptable to EUC's. (Also, the pricing for airbag refill and replacement programs are coming down as well.)

Edited by RayRay
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1 hour ago, RayRay said:

The competition I noted earlier has already brought the price down into the $600-700 range and that's for motorcycle crash protection. My hope is that similar systems for bicycles would be a little cheaper and adaptable to EUC's. (Also, the pricing for airbag refill and replacement programs are coming down as well.)

The amount of impact you’d need to find these worthwhile exceeds anything an EUC crash is capable of generating. Even if the price came down to $500 to save your ribs, you’d be better off with an $80 chest protector from like Leatt or Fox. 

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  • 1 year later...

I use an Alpinestars Techair airbag while riding a motorbike on a racetrack. I've had a low-side and alo a nasty highside where I was airborne and landed upside down. The airbag worked wonderfully - while I was injured it probably prevented me breaking my collarbone or anything too serious.

On my Sherman I recently crashed jumping a speed bump at maybe 40km/h. I misjudged the timing and landed on the uphill side of the bump. The EUC virtually stopped dead and my feet did not release from the pads, so my upper body was whiplashed from horizontal to vertical and I was body slammed into the ground.

It happened in an instant and was far worse than any other crash I've ever experienced. I landed on my elbows, chest and helmet, and the vertical force damaged my shoulder and a rib, and my head hit VERY hard. The arms on my (non-airbag) Dianese Ryholite vest slid up so I got a nasty road rash, but that was the lessor problem. I thought I was over-protected, but now know that mountain bike gear is inadequate for an EUC.

1. An accident like this happens instantly and with no warning, with less than a second from "everything normal" to impact.
2. You have zero time to prepare to roll, etc.
3. You hit face first, not to the side like you do with motorcycle, skiing, skateboards, etc. Your gear needs to take that into account.

Regarding airbags - the Alpinestars airbag appears to the best, and I have no doubt it would be fantastic in preventing EUC injuries. It currently has different algorithms for road and racetrack, and it could potentially also have a mode for EUC, but would anyone be prepared to pay the repack cost of several hundred dollars each time it fires, given that low speed crashes are part of learning? For the current time, the race model requires significant turning forces (as experienced on a race bike) or ~100 km/h to arm, and the street version only works at low speed if hit from behind, so they are probably unusable on an EUC.

Maybe one day the economics will justify them creating an EUC mode, but until then I will be wearing motocross gear. I'm currently switching to Leatt 6.5 Body Protection, with a CE level 2 hard shell on the front and shoulders, and CE 1 level protection on the elbows. Expensive, but far less than medical bills or potentially being crippled.
 

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Can buy a full motorcycle suit, full grain leather, custom made to measure, CE certified guards, knee pucks, Dainese branding, etc, for less than Leatt body armour, on ebay.

Edited by Paul A
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@philcal, @GreyRider tried the tech-air and it seemed to work fine for him:

 

From what I've been able to work out, you can get pretty good protection with motorcycle gear, with the exception that shoulders are a weak point that are hard to fully protect with regular armor. So the tech-air should solve that problem at least, albeit very expensively.

I would think motorcycle jackets work better than motocross gear for street riding since they provide more protection against road rash. But I don't know enough to say if it makes a difference at 40kph.

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  • 2 months later...

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