First ever Motorcycle Air Bag on 2006 Honda Gold Wing!

[totalmotorcycle]

What do you think?


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The press release:

TOKYO — Honda Motor said it has developed the world's first airbag for production motorcycles.

The airbag will be available on the 2006 Honda Gold Wing, which goes on sale next spring in the United States, the company said late last week.

The airbag opens in two stages and is designed to reduce injuries in head-on collisions, Honda said. The bag opens in front of the rider and reduces the speed at which he or she gets thrown from the motorcycle.

The Japanese automaker has been working on motorcycle airbags since the 1990s. It showed an experimental version in 2000 on its ASV-2 concept motorcycle.

[Wizzard]

To tell the truth I really don't know what to think of that . At least it is not as bad as a film I saw about 10 years ago from the UK that was advocating some kind of leg protectors on the bikes that sure looked like instant amputation to me .
Regards, Wizzard

[ZooTech]

Maybe if the rider's jacket contained a big airbag that deployed before hitting the ground it might make sense, but this thing looks like a nice ramp for gettin' a soon-to-be-corpse nice and airborne.

[Keyoke]

Really not sure I like this idea myself - can see more harm than good coming of it, somehow....

Reminds me of a goldwing I saw at a Toy-Run last year - fitted with seatbelts!!

[c-los]

Maybe if the rider's jacket contained a big airbag that deployed before hitting the ground it might make sense, but this thing looks like a nice ramp for gettin' a soon-to-be-corpse nice and airborne.

they're already making...or working on something like that. The jacket has a cord attached to somewhere on the bike and when it gets disconnected e.g., when you get thrown off the bike during a crash, the airbags fill up instantly....I would spring a few hundred for something like that.

[Nibblet99]

Not sure about the colour co-ordinated helmet and bike... But if the airbag works, why not?

[oldnslo]

So, then, the rider will only fly off the bike at say, 60mph instead of 75. It might also increase the tumbling effect as the rider is manipulated by the airbag as the flight begins. I'm not convinced of the goodness of this product. Sounds like another gimmick to separate Goldwings from other tourers in some people's minds.

[Wizzard]

Maybe if the rider's jacket contained a big airbag that deployed before hitting the ground it might make sense, but this thing looks like a nice ramp for gettin' a soon-to-be-corpse nice and airborne.

they're already making...or working on something like that. The jacket has a cord attached to somewhere on the bike and when it gets disconnected e.g., when you get thrown off the bike during a crash, the airbags fill up instantly....I would spring a few hundred for something like that.

I did see these displayed and demonstrated at a dealer show . They had both jacket and vest airbags and they really were fairly nice looking and seemed to work rather well .
Kind regards, Wizzard

[Keyoke]

Yup, you can find out more about about them here...

http://www.hit-air.com/english/main.html


(There was a thread somewhere about this, think it may have been taken away by the hack, though..)

[Kal]

Not pointing fingers here but I knw a number of people with disc locks who have forgotten to remove the disc lock before getting off of the bike...


I foresee great humor in the same absent mindedness failing to disengage the jacket system before the rider gets off his bike at a stop...

MAG were fighting the leg protectors at the very start of the nineties, the arguement used was the best thing that can happen to a rider when his bike goes down is to be seperated from it and they like you had visions of the legprotectors trapping riders as the bike slid or amputating legs...

The same study was pushing for airbags on motorbikes, again MAG felt that it would increase injuries for pretty much the reasons suggested here.