Honda to ship airbag-equipped motorcycles

It's taken 15 years of research and tons of testing, but Honda is poised to roll out the first motorcycle equipped with airbags. The bags will respond to four sensors mounted on the bike's front fork, and can inflate within 60 milliseconds of a head-on collision. The first bikes to sport the new system will be Gold Wings shipping in the U.S. next year, and we imagine that the same bikers who refuse to wear helmets will quickly disconnect this to prove that they really are impervious to injuries.

[JT Mill @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

This feature will probably go away the second someone gets knocked off their bike by an airbag. This does seem like a good idea though, but really, it's not like there's a Volvo of bikes, when you get on you know it's a risk.

[Matt3454 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

istead of flying off the front wont the motorcyclists just be propelled back now?

[super_structure @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I'm all for safety features and I can imagine that Honda has done quite a bit of research into these airbags. That being said, is it hard to imagine one these things going off and knocking a rider clean off their bike. I mean, these thing bruise and break people's noses in cars. Oh well, I'll reserve judgment until I see some more on how they work exactly.

[aleandro @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

how will those work?

[arthur @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

If an Airbag Suit deployed, that would be good.

[Jayson Elliot @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I'm pretty sure most of the bikers who refuse to wear helmets would also refuse to be seen riding a Honda Winnebago, er, Goldwing.

[blue is faster @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

^1. Part of the point is getting knocked off the bike...well, at least what they're planning for. A head-on collision and you're over the front of the bike like nobody's business (and you get all up in someone's grill). So, if you can halve that speed by using an airbag, the potential for serious injury is dramatically reduced.

They're not meant to stop you like a traditional car airbag...think of it almost as a trampoline that slows you down. But again, it's not so much the airbag knocking you off the bike - it's the inertia and lack of a seatbelt. Either way, an accident that would require the deployment of an airbag on a motorcycle, you are leaving that bike one way or another.

Another thing to note is that Honda said these will not be placed on sport bikes due to the differences in the placement and style of the controls.

[PixelBrat.com @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I'm a biker and commend Honda for taking strides to improve our safety... however I can't see this being of much help for anything but frontal impacts. Most of the time bikers experience more danger from others who don't see us so things like getting T-boned won't be remedied by an air bag. Better than nothing I guess.

[Howard @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I believe BMW was looking in to this. The purpose of the air bag was to prevent the rider from going over the bars in a t-bone type accident and having their femurs snapped in half. It was also supposed to keep the rider from being ejected further into traffic.

[Rodger Donaldson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

arthur: There's an airbag jacket readily available. If you come off your bike it inflates the body and a neck brance.

Jayson: Indeed. In fact, they don't ride motorbikes at all. They ride Harleys.

[WOV @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Yeah, it is interesting....the reason, btw, you get bruised and beat up by the airbag is that you meet it going forward - it isn't sending you backwards.

Though, jesus, I dunno. People seem to either A) kind of tip it and slide around and get like an avulsion and a misplaced sense of invincibility or B) get just so effing effed up from so many mechanisms (person v. bike, bike v. pavement, abrasion on payment, launch followed by a fall from height, femurs on the handlebar, torsion injuries on the roll that there's no helping them that I'm not sure about the efficeacy of an airbag.

Maybe the inflatable jackets would help, I could see that, but in general riding an ambulance up on a motorcycle crash feels like rushing towards the Hindenburg with a socket set.

[Boynamedsue @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

not really related. I was lanesplitting across the bay bridge into SF and a car pulled right out in front of me. I dodged it, went into a wobble, got control back and then just barely stopped short of a minivan.

I bitch the guy the hell out, he goes for his wallet and i think he's going to try to buy his driving karma back. Instead he pulls a badge and asks if i wanted to F*** with him now. I laid into him with redoubled vigor. effing cop, trying to hide his inept driving behind a badge. He turned all shades of red when i told him what to do with it.

[jason @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I don't know much about motorcycle desig, I haven't taken 15 years to study the effects of a motorcycle airbag on rider safety, and I don't have a multi-million dollar company riding on my ability to make safe products for the consumer (one's that I won't get sued over). I also don't have a history of innovative product design...

BUT

I'll still complain that the airbag is a stupid design that's going to knock people off their bikes, trigger without a reason, and cause lots of unintentional damage. Because, hey, you know, they probably didn't know what they were doing when they designed this and haven't taken into account my hastily-thought-of reasons of why this won't work.

It's like the new Revolution controller. Give the poor engineers/designers/smart folks the benefit of the doubt. Wait until you see it, or see how it performs in the wild, before forming firm conclusions.

Cheers...

Jason

[epp_b @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Oh yeah, this'll work real great as your flying over the roof of a car. Yeah, uh-huh.

[Morwan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Being knocked backwards off of your bike is better than flying over your handlebars and being sandwiched between your bike and the other vehicle. Or flying over the top of your bike and having it land on you.

The worst accidents happen when the bike lands on you. If being knocked off your bike is inevitable (as it would be in a head-on collison), having something that just prevents you from being smashed by your bike is good enough.

That said, I sincerely doubt that Honda would put out an airbag that did nothing but that. They have brilliant engineers with high standards, and I don't think they'd let something like that go.

[Gleb Serbin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

the only thing i would fear is having it inflate at the wrong time like at the end of a wheelie. but then these are going on the bikes that are almost as big as cars. you need to realize that these arent superbikes, theyre the 500++++ pound 2-wheeled suitcases which are ridden by guys who are themselves half the weight of their bikes. the airbag will stop em from breaking their nose on the windshield when they rear-end someone but not from a serious accident of any kind.

[PeeBee @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I saw crash test on the local news demoing this. From what I saw it worked quite well.