Anyone have a Helite air bag safety vest?

I bought a Helite safety vest, well actually two. One for myself and one for my rider. One wears the vest and then a lanyard or tether runs from the Co2 canister on the front of the vest and actuates the air bags if you leave the bike with force. The lanyard needs to be securely anchored to the bike. For the rider, the grab rails are super sturdy and provide a great anchor point to the rear of the bike. However moving up to the front of the bike and there is really nothing to mount to. So not wanting to reinvent what someone may already have a solution to, does anyone have the vest and have a mounting solution? A pic would be nice. I thought about the hinge on the seat, but that's pretty flimsy.

Interesting idea and I'm all for things that keep me safe.  Don't have one but perhaps the lanyard is big enough to work on the handlebar.  

Looked at the website; saw magazine reviews and a couple testimonials but testing data or certification information is not immediately evident.  Personally, I prefer hard data.  Is there any?

Can you post a picture of what it looks like under your seat? I'll see if the engineers have any recommendations about tether placement. Thanks!

Nichole

Glad to see helitemoto just joined the group. Feel free to respond on the testing and certification data, Nichole.

Bash On! wrote:

Glad to see helitemoto just joined the group.  Feel free to respond on the testing and certification data, Nichole.

I hope this works. I had to screenshot the most important part of their testing because I'm not very computer literate. There is a good study made by the University of Florence, but it's all in Italian so I didn't attach it.

The first attachment is the speed of inflation and what pressure the vest is at during these times.

The second is a slide from Helite's safety report. I thought it was important to show how Helite tests the vests in their own facility.

There are pages and pages of data, but a lot of it is very technical and in French or other languages.

Bash On! wrote:

Interesting idea and I'm all for things that keep me safe.  Don't have one but perhaps the lanyard is big enough to work on the handlebar.  

Looked at the website; saw magazine reviews and a couple testimonials but testing data or certification information is not immediately evident.  Personally, I prefer hard data.  Is there any?

Helite does not recommend the handlebars, I guess for obvious reasons.

A guy near my neck of the woods was hit hard, flew off the bike, hit the pavement hard. First responders were expecting the worst, they were very surprised when he got up and walked away. You may have read his story. Right then and there I made the decision to buy. $600 is a cheap little insurance plan to keep me from hopefully being confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed or perhaps worse should the unexpected happen. Figure I at least owe that to the family. Besides, $600 is really a drop in the bucket compared to an extended hospital stay that could send a person into bankruptcy.

helitemoto wrote:

Can you post a picture of what it looks like under your seat? I'll see if the engineers have any recommendations about tether placement. Thanks!

Nichole

Attached are pics of the bike. As shown in the pics, it does have a nice sturdy grab bar on the side. If the tether were longer, I could make it work for the pilot. The way it is, it's very tight to the vest.wa

Helite does not recommend the handlebars, I guess for obvious reasons.

... Besides, $600 is really a drop in the bucket compared to an extended hospital stay that could send a person into bankruptcy.[/quote]

Actually, if the device is designed to inflate when you have a separation from the bike, you definitely won't be using the handlebars at the time.  As far as inhibiting the steering when attached, the user would take care to install like anything else commonly attached to the bars (radios, GPS, drink holder) to avoid that issue.  I'd be one of those persons to attach it and then forget about it when I left the bike, so I'd want the attachment in my face, so to speak.

Anecdotal evidence is good but that doesn't prove anything to me as there are so many factors that affect crash survival.  I appreciate Nichole's reply, but I need more than a single chart and a single test.  What I would look for are government agencies (NHTSA in the US) or independent testing organizations (such as Snell) that would have validated third-party testing, performance and certification standards.

Others, like you, don't need that and the other evidence is sufficient.  I fully respect that.  Regardless, I wish you safe travels and hope you never need to use them!  

dekare wrote:

helitemoto wrote:

Can you post a picture of what it looks like under your seat? I'll see if the engineers have any recommendations about tether placement. Thanks!

Nichole

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Is there any way you can attach the tether around this bracket in the front? You might have to do a little mechanics work to get to it, but I think this is a good spot because it would come up right in front of you. This will make sure that the vest recognizes the crash as soon as possible. With it mounted to the grab rail it will take too much time away from detecting. This is the same reason we don't recommend attaching to the handlebars.

Thank you for the photos. I will send them to Helite to see if they have a better recommendation than I have.

helitemoto wrote:

dekare wrote:

helitemoto wrote:

Can you post a picture of what it looks like under your seat? I'll see if the engineers have any recommendations about tether placement. Thanks!

Nichole

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[url=https://servimg.com/view/19532379/18]

Is there any way you can attach the tether around this bracket in the front? You might have to do a little mechanics work to get to it, but I think this is a good spot because it would come up right in front of you. This will make sure that the vest recognizes the crash as soon as possible. With it mounted to the grab rail it will take too much time away from detecting. This is the same reason we don't recommend attaching to the handlebars.

Thank you for the photos. I will send them to Helite to see if they have a better recommendation than I have.  

I wouldn't recommend putting the tether around the hinge. It's really a light duty piece of hardware. I'd be afraid in a collision it might be one of the first things to go.

Ok. Last evening I bit the bullet and put the Silverwing up on the rack at eye level so I could see what exactly I was doing. Much to my dismay I found the grab rails are sturdy, but made of a pot metal. I would be afraid that they would ripped off in a collision, possibly making the vest useless.

In the search for something structurally substantial in a world of plastics, I ended up attaching right to the frame. The locations I chose are shown in the pics. I was hoping the tethers would be removable for transfer to my other bike when I did decide to ride it. Not going to happen. Safety before convenience I guess. Estimated project time: 1 hour.



After installation



During installation showing the tubular frame attaching locations.

dekare wrote:

Ok. Last evening I bit the bullet and put the Silverwing up on the rack at eye level so I could see what exactly I was doing. Much to my dismay I found the grab rails are sturdy, but made of a pot metal. I would be afraid that they would ripped off in a collision, possibly making the vest useless.

In the search for something structurally substantial in a world of plastics, I ended up attaching right to the frame. The locations I chose are shown in the pics. I was hoping the tethers would be removable for transfer to my other bike when I did decide to ride it. Not going to happen. Safety before convenience I guess. Estimated project time: 1 hour.



After installation



During installation showing the tubular frame attaching locations.

Great job on the install! I would recommend picking up another tether if you decide to ride with your Helite vests on another bike. Going to the frame is always the most ideal. I'm glad you were able to access it and mount the tethers. Thank you for posting the pictures of the install.

Bash On! wrote:

Helite does not recommend the handlebars, I guess for obvious reasons.

... Besides, $600 is really a drop in the bucket compared to an extended hospital stay that could send a person into bankruptcy.

Actually, if the device is designed to inflate when you have a separation from the bike, you definitely won't be using the handlebars at the time.  As far as inhibiting the steering when attached, the user would take care to install like anything else commonly attached to the bars (radios, GPS, drink holder) to avoid that issue.  I'd be one of those persons to attach it and then forget about it when I left the bike, so I'd want the attachment in my face, so to speak.

Anecdotal evidence is good but that doesn't prove anything to me as there are so many factors that affect crash survival.  I appreciate Nichole's reply, but I need more than a single chart and a single test.  What I would look for are government agencies (NHTSA in the US) or independent testing organizations (such as Snell) that would have validated third-party testing, performance and certification standards.

Others, like you, don't need that and the other evidence is sufficient.  I fully respect that.  Regardless, I wish you safe travels and hope you never need to use them!  [/quote]

We would love to have government agencies perform independent testing on airbags. We have even approached them and offered free product for them to do this. Helite has to balance R&D and testing costs with the cost of the vest. At $629 I have riders asking me "how I sleep at night" charging so much for a safety device to protect riders. If we had even higher investment costs because of testing (which is extremely expensive) then the price of the vests and jackets would have to be much higher.

If you had a chance to feel the vest inflate, I think it's much easier to understand after that how effective a product like this could be. I agree that more data would be great to have, and I hope we will have more testing in the future. In Europe they are building a European Airbag Commission to try to standardize airbag technology, but the engineers at Helite tell me it's kind of a joke right now.

Pictures of the attachment straps are fine. Can you take pictures of the vest?

Easyrider wrote:

Pictures of the attachment straps are fine. Can you take pictures of the vest?

They have pics on their website. I don't know why their models stand with their arms out. Looks weird.

Is helitemoto a Silver Wing owner/rider, or just on here to plug the Helite air bag vest? Because all 5 posts have been about it, where's the usual Introduction post?

It is the manufacturer, note the email name and city in the contact info from the website.

Reach us using the contact form below, or call us at (510) 595-3302. Send us an e-mail at nichole@helitemoto.com. We are located at 1365 63rd St. in Emeryville, California, 94608 and open 9-5 Monday through Friday. Please call ahead to make an appointment.

It's not like their hiding it........

While it is forum courtesy to post an Introduction Helitemoto was only responding to several posts about their product. So IMHO they can get a pass.

That said, AFAIK the OP never posted an Introduction either so hopefully he isn't shilling for Helitemoto.

Tim

Sorry for not posting an intro. No Silver Wing in my garage.

There is a lot of information about airbag technology, so when I see a forum sending members to the Helite site I register mostly to answer questions.


It was not really necessary to introduce (even though you did make a post to introduce) yourself since you are really just answering questions on your product. And I have encouraged vendors for the Silver Wing or just for riding to post on this site. You are producing a product to help reduce injuries so that is good IMO. I did respond to your introduction and maybe one day I will ride up there.

Also, do you know about the following scooter sites:

www.maxi-scoots.com
www.burgmanusa.com

I would think they wouldn't mind you posting there as well. The burgman site probably has 10,000 members and I would think there are a at least a couple of people with your product. On both sites though you may want to make an introduction post just so things go smoothly. Thanks, Jeff

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

While it is forum courtesy to post an Introduction Helitemoto was only responding to several posts about their product. So IMHO they can get a pass.

That said, AFAIK the OP never posted an Introduction either so hopefully he isn't shilling for Helitemoto.

Tim

Tim, Different strokes for different folks. Not everyone is into talking about themselves, such as a formal introduction. Really, what does it prove? It certainly doesn't prove someone is legit. Anyone can post something that's not true. I'd rather talk about my latest interest and that's the Silverwing I bought in August. If you want to search my posts, I've shared a number of things about it. I'm kind of a safety nut, the Helite vests made a lot of sense to me. Not everyone shares the same values I do. But lets not burn someone at the stake for embracing the latest safety technology, asking a question, sharing a solution and wow, having a representative of the manufacturer respond. I'd take that as a compliment!