Looking at buying an Alpinestars Tech Air 5 airbag vest. Anyone have one, or tried one on? Best source for well priced Astars stuff?
Found a reasonable source, and so I've ordered one. But still interested in anyone's views or comments from experience of trying, and or using. Mike
Kevin, Bought it from Get Geared using a £50 off voucher code I found on web of GGAFD50M500 https://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/get-geared#reveal:GbIiZN0EIco:1 Worked yesterday. Mike I also found a £75 off but could not get that to register, probably expired.
OK, so come Spring will be able to answer my own post, all going well. Tech Air 5 vest should arrive Thursday and provided it passes the 'fit' test under the suit(s) will do wardrobe durability until the Spring. Mike
All change... Vest arrived, size Medium, and fitted well except.....unacceptably tight under arms. I'm tall, slim build with 40 chest, and have had no similar problem with anything bike related I tried on. So the airbag vest on it's return journey to Get Geared. So now tried both the Dainese Smart Jacket (with it's unacceptable electronics packaged a midrift) and the Alpinestars Tech Air 5. Unlike all the suits I have had from both these have both been very disappointing with elementary fit problems. The Astars would have chafed like mad underarm on a warm day, at a loss to understand why so tight in that area. With all other non-lanyard airbag vests being powered by the In&Motion 'subscription" electronics, which makes no economic sense for me, will have to soldier on with the existing MotoAir lanyard vest until either D or Astars do better with second generation. So as a compensation decided to keep the Dainese one piece I had up for sale. Mike
I've been looking at the alpinestars stuff myself. I'm.interedyed on the integrated race/Street system they have but by god its expensive. I'm on the look out for the alpinestars missile 2 piece leathers with a reasonable discount and will probably get that as a Xmas pressie with a view to buying the integrated airbag protector system for it later (£1000 ouch) Like you say it has to fit and be comfy though . Seen a few videos of it and it does look very impressive in action so maybe its worth the money?
The Tech Air 5 vest is good for the reason that you can wear under any jacket with chest clearance it defines. There is some ? about wearing under a one piece, but sure same common sense route about clearance could apply. They are worried about crushing crown jewels as suit deploys and shoulders etc move up. Painful!! So the TA5 has it's benefits BUT it's a street vest only. The Tech Air Race & Street vest are indeed expensive but designed only for specific suits - but I thought, although I have not researched them, they were dedicated to either street or track and not recommended vice versa. I've now tried both the best autonomous street vests from Dainese & Alpinestars and both had comfort issues for me. Given a comfy fit the Astars TA5 is more protective interestingly, greater coverage. So back to wearing the MotoAir vest I have worn for 6+ years. Never ride without it. Why not? Good luck with your deliberations. Mike
I maybe wrong. just read elsewhere that the integrated tech air race vest can be changed from race to track and back etc. "Another useful feature is that the user can flash over the vest from race to street mode and back again as many times as he wants - so this vest is suitable for road, track day and race use". So sorry if I did mislead. I'm sure the vests instruction manual, which is online, fully explains, and hopefully confirms. Mike
Yeah the 'race' version can indeed be set up for race track or Street but the Street version can only do Street. I understand the difference is when in race mode only 1 canister fires but when in Street both canisters fire. Rationale being on track stats show you crash largely through rider error, low side, high side etc and typically the impact whilst at higher speeds happens slightly slower so the algorithm has been set up this way and 1 canister going off is ample. However on Street the stats suggest a lot of accidents are from outside sources, hitting a car, a tree and are more sudden so both cannisters go off to inflate even faster and give max protection. At least that's my understanding. Race version about £1000 but can do both and Street version about £800 but only does Street.
I guess not worth my while to switch to the integrated Astars or Dainese bags as needs a suit/kit swop too. I'll hope that they do slightly better with their autonomous, wear-under-any-jacket designs when they get to second generation. But the race with street capability certainly sounds better alt of Astars two integrated vests. Mike
Its only the need for new leathers that has prompted me to look into it. If I'm buying a new set of leathers I might ad well get some that can be upgraded with the airbag at some point. The RST version which requires a monthly subscription of £12 pm is just nuts to me. Cheaper to buy at outset as a good 1 piece is £1000 but then you have the subs on top which may go up each year ...who knows. Don't pay your subs and the air bag won't activate! I'll stick with alpinestars, a better brand but a bit more expensive. I'm hoping to sort the leathers out for about £600 to £700 next week with the black Friday malarkey and then I will see if I can get a vest in the new year for maybe £850.
