Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1517587
FEATURE I ALPINESTARS TECH-AIR OFF-ROAD SYSTEM P100 I f you're a fan of MotoGP, then you've surely witnessed riders being launched from their ma - chines while their sophisticated airbag systems deploy midway through the journey toward the inevitable. What you see in those breathtaking moments is the result of more than 20 years of research, millions of kilometers of testing, and thousands of actual deployments, mostly in com - petition at the highest levels of racing—and primarily led by one company, Alpinestars. Since 2001, Alpinestars has been developing and testing airbag technology, and in 2011, they launched its Tech-Air Race to the road-racing community. The Tech-Air Race, like all subsequent Alpinestars Tech-Air systems, is a completely autonomous, integrat - ed airbag system that is inde- pendent of the motorcycle and designed to provide full upper- body protection ahead of the first impact. If the system relied on impact to inflate, it would be too late. Highly advanced algorithms based on years of research and millions of data points combine to make the Tech-Air system function effectively. In addition to race-specific airbag systems, Alpinestars has introduced a series of consumer models, starting with the Tech- Air Street in 2014, the Tech-Air 5 in 2019 and the Tech-Air 10 and 3 in 2022. Now, in 2024, they're offering the first off-road-specific system available to the public, the Tech-Air Off-Road, which is in - tended for use in everything from competition enduro events and rally racing to adventure riding. The Tech-Air Off-Road system incorporates a series of six tri- axial sensors—three accelerom - eters and three gyroscopes—that send information to the airbag's computer every millisecond. So, one thousand times per second the system communicates where it is, how it's moving, and—once it detects something unusual—it deploys the airbag before the rider makes impact. Full inflation takes between 40 and 60 mil - liseconds, depending on the size of your kit (the Tech-Air Off-Road is available in unisex sizes small through 2XL). AIRBAGS OFFROADERS for ALPINESTARS INTRODUCES ITS NEW AIRBAG SYSTEM FOR DIRT BIKERS, AND WE GIVE IT A TRY BY KEITH DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SIMON CUDBY