Dainese Smart Jacket D-Air Vest is a light, breathable, rechargeable airbag for downhillers

Written by Tyler Benedict May 04, 2020 8:43 a.m. ET

dainese air bag vest for mountain bikers and motorcyclists

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We’ve seen commuter airbag “helmets” before, but nothing quite as practical as the new Dainese Smart Jacket D-Air airbag vest. Built using a lot of their motorcycle protective gear technology, it’s an entirely new way of thinking about impact protection. And it’s light enough, flexible enough, and breathable enough to wear while mountain biking. Here’s the quick video run through:

Called the Smart Jacket, it’s actually just a vest. And it’s thin enough to wear under a jacket, long sleeve DH jersey, or just a t-shirt. What separates it from previous attempts at inflatable airbag body wear are two things. First, it uses air to create a firm protective panel, not an “airbag” that surrounds the rider.

Second, it’s completely self contained. Prior motorcycle versions had some sort of tether to the bike, so if the rider was ejected, it would act as a ripcord to activate the system.

But how does it work?

The Dainese D-Air vest uses seven integrated sensors that measure it’s movement 1,000 times per second. Powered by a USB-rechargable battery, it’ll give you about 26 hours of protection.

Once triggered, it blasts a mix of helium and argon gases to inflate a micro-filament filled chamber covering the back and chest. It inflates firm enough to equal the impact protection of seven Level 1 back protectors.

What’s the catch?

Well…the price. Retail for the vest is $699. And if you trigger it, which seems likely if you’re pushing it hard on the downhills or bike park trails, a reset and airbag replacement is $299. Which kinda puts it out of range of practicality for mountain bikers for now, but we love the idea. And, you know, things trickle down.

Dainese.com

Tyler Benedict

11,206 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com. He has been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel to killer riding locations throughout North America.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler loves family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part to make his bikes faster and lighter.

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Gillis

3 years ago

First, why they aren’t using available everywhere C02 cartridges.
Second, why is it one time use? $300 for every use is ridiculous.
Third, if you crash, but are able to continue the run, does it stay inflated or are you now without any protection? That would be a fail.

Jon

3 years ago

You can’t use COTS CO2 carts because there’s no consistent way to open them — you’d have to pre-puncture and deal with leaks / inconsistency or use pyro, neither of which are suitable for health-and-safety items.

Ivan Monells

2 years ago

I’ve got a DAir smart jacket. I was using the jacket with updated firmware version. According to their user manual, the airbag can’t trigger if you travel at less than 10Km/h AND you are not riding the bike.
In my case, I was neither, moving at 10 km/h nor riding the bike. Actually, I was stepping out my bike, just storing the helmet at the vault when suddenly the airbag popped. The airbag triggered in an specific situation the manual says it must not do it.
As I was basically “doing nothing” when the airbag was triggered, this worried me a lot, because it can also trigger when you are riding and cause an accident. When the airbag pops, it’s a really abrupt move, so it can easily make you fall from the bike.
I contacted Dainese Spain and I was expecting, not only to repair my DAir Smart Jacket for free (it was in guarantee and obviously the product did not function correctly), but also to download the data from the jacket to understand what went wrong. They told me that it was my responsibility, that I needed to pay 250€ (half of the cost of the product) to reequip the airbag, and they where not interested at all in getting data or understanding what when wrong to patch their product.
I’ve got two DAir jackets, I decided to sell the one which is still working and I will not repair the faulty one because I really can’t trust it. I will look for another solution. Alpinestars and Ixon has also good alternatives.