Some may or may not know that I took the plunge and spent a wedge on one of these around early April. Been thinking about an airbag vest for a few months. The Ixon inside leathers one would not have worked as my leathers don’t have the expansion side panels in and 4 sets a bit extreme to alter.
So...someone was at Silverstone with the GP Air vests early April, I tried one on and they were no way near as bulky as they looked. He even showed me what they do with an activation whilst I was stood there wearing it (egged on to do this by Mr C).
That then planted the seed that I needed one. Rob Jones put me in contact with Nick from https://www.lovelifeandride.com/ vest ordered on the Tuesday night with spare gas canisters and it arrived Thursday, the day before set off for Anglesey race meet. 10/10 for customer service.
Anyway, been wearing this at every race/trackday since. Just need to remember to attach and unattach yourself from the bike each time (I will forget one day). The lanyard is attached to the frame of bike, you then attach to the vest and if you part company a 30kg pull will activate vest.
Well, I tested this vest yesterday coming out of Lodge at Oulton, was very wet and I got on the power a bit too early....not the only one to do that....back came round and off I came.
Was very impressed how I got up with no injuries, from looking at the state of my lid I’m sure I’d have done myself a mischief if I wasn’t wearing the vest. I didn’t feel it go off, maybe as I was more worried about the bike. Only way I can describe it was it felt like I was sliding along on inflatable furniture as slid along on the wet grass. Marshal on the post said I looked like the Michelin man when I stood...all happens so fast but slo-mo at the same time. Was very easy to re-set, the cracking team from Smallboy Trackbikes fixed the bike and got me out for race 2.
Don’t think I’d ride on track without one of these now.
If anyone wants one let me know and will send you a link
