Helite Turtle Airbag Vest - Thoughts?

Helite Turtle Airbag Vest seems interesting.

This dude on ADVrider came out of this not dead and hardly hurt form the head up...




Seem's like it does a pretty nice job of keeping a rider not dead.

Also they offer a ADV jacket now... Hmmm.





Helite Turtle Vest in Black

I bought the Helite jacket for this riding season; mainly due to a death of a Canadian rider/motorcycle magazine editor last year who I knew. I wear it every ride. It has it’s drawbacks but I doubt I’ll ever ride without one. It’s hot and I feel they could have done some better positioning of the vents. It’s hard to find decent research on how effective they are, but one study I did see suggested that you need something that inflates faster to survive T-boning a car at 36 mph or above (if you hit the side & aren’t tossed over the hood/trunk). Plus is it protects your chest from impact- a major factor in serous injuries. Now the french motorcycle police are wearing them (From Hit), so hopefully there’ll be some better stats on their effectiveness coming out.

I have the turtle vest. It does add some heat in the summer. The high viz is helpful, and I can stash the vest before going in somewhere. It also lets me put the back protector in the vest, so the jacket is more comfortable off the bike.

I dropped my supermoto on the side of a gravel hill and the vest inflated before I hit the ground, which was almost instant, as I was making a slow U turn. I like the neck and rib protection.

Drawbacks:
1. One more thing to do before you ride.
2. Not sexy looking.