Hit-Air airbag jacket - just arrived, not yet deployed

This Hit-Air jacket just got dropped off by a courier twenty minutes ago and I thought you'd like to see what it was all about. The one in the pic is a short-sleeve waistcoat designed to go over your jacket or leathers and it retails for £259.

On the front is a gas cannister which is triggered by the cable you attach to your bike which, given a hard tug, will deploy.

I know several companies that have spent years developing this type of technology and if you watch MotoGP you'll have seen Lorenzo's airbag going off in his leathers (if you pardon the expression) when he crashed at the Brno MotoGP.

I think airbag protection is quite controversial, I've certainly seen massively differing opinion on the forums and the usual topic is 'what if it goes off when you don't want it to?', which it could do and that could be an inconvenience, but I know that if I were to crash, I'd welcome as much protection as I could get.

It's great to see new manufacturers offering air-bag technology and I don't think it'll be 3 years before we've got them as options in our leathers and textile jackets. Currently Hit-Air offer this waistcost, a full-on jacket in men's and women's sizes.

We're going to set this one off once we've roped the office secretary into wearing it. We'll video it and post it up here next week, so check back for that. I've got £5 on her screaming the whole way through...

For more information or to buy direct from the official UK distributor call 01732 865552 or email sales@wildandwicked.com. Wild and Wicked are also the official UK importers of Draggin Jeans and Gerbins heated clothing

UPDATE: We've now let the Hit-Air airbag jacket off. So click here to check out the video.

By Ben Cope