Alpinestars New Tech-Air Vests
Motorcycle airbag technology has progressed steadily since companies first started experimenting will pull cord designs back in the late 1990s.
Today, there are more options than ever—those with old-school pull cords, and a growing crop of autonomous, wirelessly triggered options.
And now for the first time ever—finally, brilliantly—Alpinestars is packing their latest/greatest tech in a decidedly un-techncial looking package, with the all-new Canvas and Leather Tech-Air 3 vest options.
These new Alpinestars options like standard black leather vests, or Carhart-esque canvas workwear piece, respectively, but beyond that low-key facade lies a state of-the-art autonomous airbag system with a finely tuned hair trigger that’ll deploy 7x faster than you can blink.
Alpinestars in the Lead
To cut to the chase, this is really an Alpinestars Tech-Air® airbag buyer’s guide, because it’s the brand we feel is doing the best job in the field, with the best tech, and with the longest track record in a category where data acquisition and experience is a huge part of the equation.
Alpinestars supplies Tech-Air airbag systems to more than 50% of riders lining up on the Moto GP grid, where airbags haver been mandatory since 2018. And it supplied 107 out of 142 participants of the last Dakar Rally witih Tech-Air Offroad vests, where airbags have been required since 2023.
Backed with that experience, we believe the Tech-Air street products are the best currently available, and are happy to have them in our catalog here at Union Garage.
Once zipped up and activated by a magnetic trigger, a slew of on-board sensors in a Tech-Air airbag vest constantly monitors the rider’s trajectory. A color-coded LED light confirms the system’s armed status, and a hard-to-miss haptic buzz indicates it’s ready to go. These vests can also be paired to an app, but the app is not required for regular use, and the vests operate completely independently of a smartphone.
Once armed and actively monitoring your ride, in the precise millisecond that the algorithm detects "a disturbance in the force,” if you will, the airbag will deploy by inflating an oversized protective cocoon around the rider in about 30 milliseconds.
For reference, the average blink of an eye takes about 200 milliseconds.
For more granular, model-specific detail on these Tech-Air products, check out their respective product pages for Tech-Air 3 Leather, Tech-Air 3 Canvas, and Tech-Air 5 Plasma. For more of a general category overview, scroll on.
Tech-Air 101 - What Sorcery is this?
Alpinestars autonomous airbag vests work through a combination of built-in sensors that are in constant communication with an onboard ECU, which contains a pre-programed game-plan of precisely if/when the airbag will deploy. Once fully charged the Tech-Air 3 and Tech-Air 5 vests will run for 40 and 30 hours, respectively, until needing USB-C power-up.
The sensors are comprised of a tri-axial accelerometer and a ti-axial gyroscope, working together to provide realtime, omni-directional data to the “brain” of the operation, which in Tech-Air 3 vests is located in an organically shaped plastic pod that tucks in comfortably along the wearers side.
In other vests the ECU and canister (or canisters) are located in the center of the back protector. The Tech-Air 5 Plasma houses its argon canister and ECU in the center of its built-in back protector.
The mechanics and engineering behind the product is complex, but the bottom line is simple: Layer a Tech-Air 3 Leather or Canvas Vest over your existing armored riding shirt, or full motorcycle jacket, and you instantly multiply your level of protection.
The real secret to the Tech-Air sauce is its proprietary algorithms, which the company has developed through 20+ years of data acquisition in different specific environments; which lets the company provide different modes for track, street, or off-road use.
All the sensors' collective inputs are constantly monitored by the CPU to see if they amount to A) “just riding along” or B) “Oh shit, pull the ‘chute!”
These sensors transfer information every millisecond, which we all know is 1,000 times a second. And in the instant that the computation of said sensors senses trouble—BLAM! The airbag deploys.
When the system is triggered, a shot of compressed argon gas rushes into the vest’s bladder system faster than the riders back can fully arc, say, when rear-ended at a traffic light; or before a rider can be thrown into/over the handlebars after T-boning an obstacle; or in the instant they’re thrown into the air after high-siding—well before impact with the ground.
Alpinestars estimates a Tech-Air vest reduces the amount of energy of a crash by up to 95 percent. In layman’s terms, it says an inflated Tech-Air vest is equivalent to 18 standard Level-1 back protectors, or about 9 Level 2 back pads
Ride Modes — Different Strokes for different Folks
The most impressive data divining work that Tech-Air engineers have managed to accomplish is to not just to have a functional autonomous motorcycle airbag system, but to be able to fine tune it for different types of riding.
It’s important to separate ride data between track, street, and off-road, because physics of riding in those very different environments is going to be different enough to affect how the system needs to react.
By closely recording riders in a range of environments (track, street, dirt), and analyzing the minute data points that happen in the instant a rider crashes, is rear-ended, or otherwise loses control of the motorcycle, Alpinestars has been able to calibrate more exactly when to deploy its airbag.
Also, critically, it’s been important to log data while the user is “just riding along,” to help train the algorithm to know what constitutes normal physics or motorcycle riding. And then when to deploy; and as importantly, when not to.
In essence, all that onboard wizardry boils down to a simple binary switch. Go, or Don’t Go.
The Tech-Air 3 platform—namely, the new Leather and Canvas models—is set for "street" mode only, which we like because it’s by far the most common use case we see.
With the latest Tech-Air 5 Plasma vest, for the first time Alpinestars offers all three of its ride modes in one product. Select from Race, Street, or Off-Road modes, and you’ll get a custom matching algorithm at the push of a button.
In "Race" mode, a relatively low-speed, 25 or 30mph low side will likely not trigger the system to fire at all, and that’s intentional. These sorts of “crashes” are fairly routine on the track, and for a rider wearing a full leather suit with armor on a closed course, this event does’t warrant a deployment.
But the same set of sensor inputs while wearing a vest set to Street mode, the most sensitive ride setting available, will trigger a deployment.
A few years back Alpinestars released its off-road specific vest, largely aimed at pro-level rally riders. Dakar racers since 2023 have been required to run an airbag while on the course, for example, and while the vast majority or racers chose Alpinestars’ Offroad system, it’s such a highly specialized niche that we havne't had it in in our catalog, until now, because the offroad mode is included with the Tech-Air 5 Plasma.
Now User Serviceable
Besides the smart styling of the new Leather and Canvas Tech-Air 3 options, and the broad versatility of the Tech-Air 5 Plasma, the best part about the latest Tech-Air range at large is the ability for the owner to service the system at home.
Replacement (or spare) Argon cartridges are readily available, and currently in stock at Union Garage as of this writing. And what’s more all these V2 Tech-Air 3 vests come with a blue anodized aluminum test valve—just screw it in in place of the air canisters, hook it up to a normal bicycle pump, and easily verify the integrity of the bladder.
This can also be a useful feature for test-fitting the vest under a riding jacket, if that’s how you’re planning on using it. Pump it up and try it on to get an idea of how it's going to feel and function in the field.
A Brief Backgrounder on Other Motorcycle Airbags
Early motorcycle airbag companies like Hit Air, and Helite, pioneered the category in the late 90s and early 2000s with tether-based systems, by which riders clip themselves to their bike via a cable that, once yanked with sufficient force by a rider falling off a bike, mechanically triggers deployment of a protective airbag cocoon around the rider.
It was about this time Alpinestars started investigating the category. And the Italians almost immediately decided that a mechanical trigger wasn’t fast enough to guarantee deployment before "first impact"—that all important aspect of any motorcycle crash. To make the product work, they needed to go wireless.
This decision delayed the company’s entrance to the category for years as they started a ground-up R&D project to come up with what we now know as “Tech-Air.”
By 2004 Alpinestars was using electronically triggered airbags in testing, and actively collecting real-time ride date from riders on racetracks and city streets alike. All the while the company was building a dataset that would lay the groundwork for an algorithm that, ultimately, determines when to deploy an airbag. And as importantly, when not to deploy.
Alpinestars Tech-Air product first debuted in Moto GP racing in 2009—where airbags are now mandatory for all participants.
And in 2011 the company released its first Tech-Air product available to the motorcycling public…. or at least to the motorcycling public riding on private race tracks.
In the ensuing years the company would release a range of street, race, and later off-road specific versions.
Other companies, including KLIM and Dainese, also produce wireless airbags meant for motorcyclists, but we’ve found each have their pitfalls, and have stuck with A* as our sole airbag offering.
>> The KLIM technology is licensed from company called In & Motion, which started out making airbags for equestrians 2014. Besides not having as long a track record or as deep as motorcycle dataset as Alpinestars, we don’t like the fact the Klim airbag doesn’t deflate on its own after deploying.
Alpinestars vests naturally begin to deflate automatically after 5 seconds. But with a Klim vest, the airbag stays fully inflated until the user unzips the vest and locates and unscrews the air canister to get the pressure to release. When we “blew up” an employee in our store as part of a product demonstration, they found it hard to take full breaths while the vest was deployed. And if you’re off in a ditch, in shock or unconscious, that seems like a bad feature.
>> We also decided to also pass on the Dainese D-Air system. Not only does Alpinestars have a better and longer track record in the field, but we haven’t heard great reviews about Dainese battery life, and Dainese’s reliance on GPS as a data point in its triggering algorithm seems problematic.
In fact our first Alpinestars Tech-Air Street customer from several years ago was a Dainese D-Air customer who was experiencing issues with his vest turning off accidentally in New York City traffic. He returned the D-Bag, happily bought the Alpinestars, and never looked back.
>> We've also decided to pass on the various tether-based systems. We won't rule them out in the future, because having one on is going to better than having no airbag on in a crash. But in our job as curators of quality motorcycle gear, we feel like the advantages of Tech-Air vests warrant an exclusive place in our airbag offerings.
*It should be noted that REVIT makes its own airbag, but it basically amounts to a re-branded Tech-Air system, at a slight premium.
All Roads Lead to Tech-Air
The advent of the V2 Leather and Canvas airbag option allow riders to wear Alpinestars Tech-Air overtop of their existing motorcycle jacket or riding shirt, making it's easier to ride with an airbag vest than ever.
Just layer over your existing armored riding shirt or motorcycle jacket, and you significantly up your level of protection on the road.
For greater coverage, and bonus riding modes, the Tech-Air 5 Plasma, the company offers its lightest airbag system to date, with push-button switchable modes to cover track, street, or dirt riding—all in one product.
Although to note, you'll need to make sure you have a Tech-Air compatible jacket, or race suit, with enough stretch to accomodate the airbag. Otherwise, it's like putting a firecracker in a trashcan, and with nowhere to go the pressure of an airbag could potentially harm the rider.
All the more reason we're so fond of the new Leather and Canvas options. In stock now at Union Garage. Questions? Get down to the showroom to try on a Tech-Air airbag in person, or email us at support@uniongaragenyc.com.