Race suit airbags the future?

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Hi, I just got a Dainese Mugello R D-air suit. BUT I cannot find the interior plug to charge the system. It may be the same location as for the Misano suit. Does anyone know where it is? Thanks in advance, Gianni
 
Hi, I just got a Dainese Mugello R D-air suit. BUT I cannot find the interior plug to charge the system. It may be the same location as for the Misano suit. Does anyone know where it is? Thanks in advance, Gianni

You have to take the inner suit liner loose on the inside at the top right below the neck, the plug is in there slightly offset to one side on the inside of the hump.
 
I'm not saying the A* system is "bad", just that it's not as good as D-Air. How much of a gap there is is up for debate, and A* will certainly win the marketing war since they're marketing Ninjas and Dainese are marketing pre-schoolers. The actual bag is not the same tech as D-Air, it's an offshoot of their failed prior Tech-Air product that was so bad they pulled it. Imagine having a big balloon wrapped around you, when you land on one side the air is pushed over to the other side and you get very little actual impact protection. That's how it worked. They knew that wasn't going to fly for long, so they tried to copy the D-Air fiber-reinforced bag technology, and got sued. Now they've changed it by sewing channels into the bag to keep it from overinflating, creating air channels instead. It's still not anywhere near as elegant as the D-Air bags. The D-Air bags inflate across the entire surface area of the bag, but only inflate to a specified thickness due to the internal fiber reinforcement. This is the big deal, and the main patent and it was a brilliant design.

D-Air bag:
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Tech-Air bag:
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The only think I am thinking is that it seems like the Tech Air vest has a lot more airbag protection area, wich leads me to get the impression that this is a good thing. I.e there is great padding on the sholders and on the ribs under the arms. Isn't that better than on the D-Air?
 
We had a mishap on a club ride earlier this year and a couple of people went down; one was wearing an airbag jacket and one was not. They both went down hard but the one wearing the airbag jacket was 100% okay and the other person, sadly, was not. I looked at all of their gear afterward and decided it was time for an airbag suit, especially with all of the track time I do.

I tried on all of the various suits from Alpinestars and Dainese and looked at everything. In the end, I went with the Mugello. It is the best combination of fit and protection for me, and the overall quality of the Dainese offering just seemed better to me. Hope that helps.
 
The Alpinestars system is the best solution. It's transferable between suits, gives the best coverage and is easy to use.

The D Air is probably as good, but not as user friendly.

All other vests are very poor in comparison, but are often cheaper and simpler to recharge.
 
The Alpinestars system is the best solution. It's transferable between suits, gives the best coverage and is easy to use.

The D Air is probably as good, but not as user friendly.

All other vests are very poor in comparison, but are often cheaper and simpler to recharge.
Yeah, but could the race vest be used with another jacket?
 
The only think I am thinking is that it seems like the Tech Air vest has a lot more airbag protection area, wich leads me to get the impression that this is a good thing. I.e there is great padding on the sholders and on the ribs under the arms. Isn't that better than on the D-Air?

Definitely makes sense from a marketing perspective. If a small airbag is good, a bigger one has to be better, right? Ironically, in the new top-end Dainese D-Air suit, the Mugello-RR, Dainese has gone back to the smaller airbag setup with only the upper area bags and not the rib-area bags. According to Dainese, this was due to looking at actual crash data and determining that the lower area bags didn't actually prevent injuries and were restrictive in airflow through the suit for really no safety benefit. A* has gone the opposite direction, with full coverage airbags. Dainese places a lot of emphasis on the "donut" bag that prevents neck injuries and collar bone breaks, which the A* doesn't have. A* has larger bags that cover more area. At this point in the market, I think both systems are "good" and way better than not having an airbag suit at all. The newer-style A* airbags are way better than the ones from a couple years ago, they're still not as good as the Dainese bags due to the lawsuit and patent Dainese has on them. I'd wear either suit and feel safe.
 
I’ve got an A* airbag race suit. Had it 2 yrs
Downsides:
Cost
When not wearing it, it feels heavy.
Upsides:
When wearing it you can’t tell it’s there.
Had my airbag module serviced over the winter - turn around 1 week.
My 8stone dog knocking me over doesn’t activate it.

Happy to answer any specific questions/take pics etc.
 

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