It seems just about every motorcycling discipline has been on the receiving end of air-bag technology in recent years. Trickled down from MotoGP, the technology has been a quantum leap forward in rider protection as more and more people have adopted it for the street or dirt.
But one area still hadn't received the technology: dirt biking. Specifically, motocross. That is until today, as Alpinestars, one of the best in the business, just dropped its all-new Tech-Air MX airbag system designed to keep pros and amateurs alike safe in the event they send it a little too hard.
Let's take a look.
If you've seen, read about, or used Alpinestars' Tech-Air vests before, well, the Tech-Air MX works essentially the same way. Using the company's proprietary algorithm, the Tech-Air MX can detect when a motocrosser falls or suffers an impact and deploy the airbag to ensure protection across their chest and neck. It's active safety, compared to a traditional motorcycle jacket or armor's passive safety.
How that works is that Alpinestars took the lessons it learned from MotoGP and Dakar, in that it recorded countless data points with riders without the vest, and then trained the Tech-Air's algorithm so that it doesn't auto-inflate during the wrong moments. And that's especially important with the Tech-Air MX as, unlike those other disciplines, motocrossers have things like jumps, whoops, and harder G-forces than MotoGP or Dakar.
According to the release, "Alpinestars has been doing data logging with its athletes in FIM MXGP and AMA Supercross and Motocross, since 2016, in order to develop the sophisticated activation algorithm that can precisely and swiftly trigger airbag protection in the challenging and dynamic environments that MX and Supercross riders encounter - including ruts, berms, and different configurations of jumps and whoops."
The vest itself looks almost identical to a traditional motocross chest and back protector, and is just as light. As such, it'll still fit under all your standard jerseys, so long as you have room for it to inflate. Likewise, you can also just wear it over you jersey.
Turning the Tech-Air MX on is also pretty fool-proof, as once you clip the left buckle to the vest, an "internal magnetic switch will detect the left buckle is closed and automatically turn on and activate the Airbag System." If you unhook the buckle, it deactivates it.
Once the Tech-Air MX reaches the public, it'll also come pre-loaded with three different riding modes, including motocross, supercross, and a third that hasn't been announced. Each comes with a unique algorithm so as to perfectly adjust for the type of riding the wearer is doing. Further, as with Alpinestars' other Tech-Air products, replacing the gas canisters is simple, as they just pop out. The bag will likely be able to be deployed four to six times before the rider needs to have it replaced.
But here's the rub. You and I aren't getting the Tech-Air MX until next year. First customers will be active racers, with the rest of us hucksters having to wait until 2025 for the public version to become available. Likewise, pricing wasn't announced.
Yet, I can't help but be stoked by this as motocross, supercross, and just riding backwoods trails safely could seriously be bolstered by this vest. Here's hoping people get it and stay safe.
