Aerostich and Shoei

I want to give a five star rating to Aerostich and Shoei Helmets for preventing more injury on my last unpowered low altitude flight of 35ft at 6ft altitude. While the landing was hard and I cracked a vertebra in the neck (not protected by either helmet or back pad) the Aerostich armor in my jacket and pants absorbed the brunt of the impact with pavement.
The Neotec 2 helmet took a heck of a impact and did it's job with flying colors leaving my tiny brain uninjured.

Great products well worth buying. St.

Sorry to hear about your get off, but I'm glad to hear that you are mostly OK, healing well and that the gear did their job. I hope you feel better soon.

Glad to hear you are ok...

SPP

Wow! Glad to read you are relatively fine after the get-off…. Heal up well !

Good to hear you came thru this and are able to ride another day, Steve. Something to consider, a Helite air vest is designed to prevent the injury you sustained, as well as many other injuries. Annie and I have been wearing air vests for over five years now and would feel naked without them.

Enough about you, how’s the bike? Kidding aside, I’m glad you’re mobile without serious injury.

Doug

air system

I am looking into the airbag stuff. Surprisingly the injury to my neck is the spot were airbags and helmets don't cover. In a race car for NASCAR they have the han? neck device. LOL, the only way to really prevent injury is to not ride. At this point, I am not sure if I will get back on a bike again. This is the third time I have crashed. One deer, two cars. The deer was softer. St.

Check the Helite vests, which include a "collar" structure up the back of your neck.

+1 for Aerostich. I crashed in mine after getting U-turned 15 years ago. Short flight, no damage to the 'stich. My Schuberth took a direct shot to the face, but protected me and my Held gloves protected my hands when my Superman Flying pose ended and I hit the deck hands and face first.

Got up and rode home after the cops showed up and ticketed the person that hit me.

FWIW, when I stood up, the driver looks at me and says, "My wife works in insurance and says we don't have to stay."

I told them that if they made a move toward the car, the one I could catch was going to get chucked off that cliff over there.

I was kinda pissed. Glad you're OK, OP, aside from your neck.

Coller

Yeah Dave thanks for the heads up, lol. I will look at the Hellite vest St.

I had one buddy give up riding this year.
Not going to let you do it.

Numbers

Well, Mate, this is number three accident in forty years of riding, Second one on the same bike. I got distracted for a second and crashed, with all the dumb asses looking at their cell phones now driving with their heads up their butts, I don't know if I can risk it anymore. I made the split second mistake, what would have happened if someone had been glued to their phone and hit me going faster with a truck? St.

Don't they say the 3rd times the charm?
You get off that bike and I will give you a punch to the head that even Shoei can't protect.
Message received?

I am really sorry Steve to hear about your third "incident" but relieved that your injuries were not more severe. I can understand your reasons for not being anxious to get back on a bike. It is a decision that we each have to make when faced with an accident and realizing the consequences could have been more life threatening.

For now, take time to heal and let us know how your recovery is progressing.

Paul

Threats

Don't they say the 3rd times the charm?
You get off that bike and I will give you a punch to the head that even Shoei can't protect.
Message received?

LOL, you can't threaten me like that, I am married! I live in fear of a frying pan in the head while I sleep. Reference Annie Lenox's song about accidents speaking louder than words. LOL, no, most likely I will sit the winter out this year and get back on in the spring.

I have to laugh for years I wore my Aerostich jacket thinking it was a size 60L. When I went online to their website I found they only sell up to 54L, Geeze not too long ago I bought a 54L jacket and couldn't button it closed! Come on, please tell me you make bigger stuff. So I fired off a polite email asking and was told, yep that is the biggest we make, no we don't make custom sizes sorry, we NEVER made a 60L. Well, I grabbed my trusty cell phone camera ran out to the garage pulled the size tag out into view on my jacket and found IT IS A SIZE 54L! Good grief, my wife complains all the time about women's clothing sizes varying and I am always saying men's sizes are more stable. BOY am I wrong I guess. LOL

There are some very nice jackets out there and I have looked at Helite's website, maybe in the spring I will get a jacket and airbag yest or a combination jacket airbag. Right now, I need to get the tailor's tape out and write down some measurements. St.

I've modified my riding habits pretty heavily after getting hit three times inside about 4 years from 2002 to 2006. I got hit twice from the rear in San Francisco and once I got U-turned about two or three miles from my house at the Big Rock for those that are familiar with this area.

So I stopped riding in the city and gave up commuting. I stopped riding in urban and most suburban environments and have pretty much given up any kind of riding where there's a significant number of cars. We have moron tourists here that are utterly flummoxed by roads with corners on them, especially when they're a few hundred feet above the Pacific. I've come sailing around the corner on 1 and found a tourist stopped in the road, standing beside their car taking pictures. About 15 years ago, a guy was riding his K75 and encountered an Irish tourist coming the wrong way down 1, like they were in Ireland, and was killed in a head on.

So I get up and leave the house early, heading to the rural reaches of my county. I try to be home by 10am, which is when the tourists have made it out of the city and up the coast a ways. it's a bit better than during Covid. The trailheads and roads were full of folks trying to figure out what to do with their kids, so they'd head out to the boondocks en masse.

Well, most have gone back to Kidville and the traffic is notably lighter, so I'm more willing to go for a ride and stay out longer.

Take your typical inattentive local drivers and then add tourists that are completely over their head and riding here in the Golden State can be a treacherous mix. Don't be afraid to adapt your riding if you need to. Mission One is always Get Home Safely.

Helite

Dave, do you wear the airbag outside of a jacket, inside, or do you know anyone who has purchased the Helite Touring Jacket? I love Aerostich but I am really looking at Helite now, If their touring jacket is as robust as Aerostich and waterproof, and LOL fits me I think I may go that route to replace my jacket. St.

I wear my Helite over my riding jacket. If the weather is cold, or raining, it is still worn over my jacket but under my rain coat. I have a slit in the rain coat to the feed the tether through. There is a new model that does not require a tether; it is electronically monitored and will activate the jacket automatically when leaving the bike quickly. I few years ago I had a parking lot tip over and the teaher does not activate unnecessarily for these type of incidents.

My only regret with ordering the jacket was I went with hi Viz which reflects very effectively onto the GPS, making it difficult to read. Black masking tape over keys areas of the vest solved that problem. Besides the high Viz, I do have additional lights on the bikes.

Having said that, on one occasion in a parking lot a driver told me he was able spot the vest from a decent distance.

Hi viz

Yeah, my Aerostich was high visibility yellow. LOL, didn't help here because it was me who didn't see what I needed to be looking at. Thanks Paul for the feedback. St.

I should add Steve that the Helite vest is rather heavy to put on and wear walking around. However, once I am on the bikes, the weight disappears.

Both bikes have a "Buckle Up" label at the ignition and almost all of the time I do attach the tether. Fortunately I have the habit of checking the tether once I begin moving. Good thing as occasionally I forget to buckle up and then pull over to secure the vest to the bike. I'd hate to be badly hurt in an "incident" without the vest tethered as then my kids would tell each other that they all told the old man he'd get hurt one day riding. I'd hate to prove them right.

STEVENRANKIN said:

Dave, do you wear the airbag outside of a jacket, inside, or do you know anyone who has purchased the Helite Touring Jacket? I love Aerostich but I am really looking at Helite now, If their touring jacket is as robust as Aerostich and waterproof, and LOL fits me I think I may go that route to replace my jacket. St.

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My buddy wears his over his gear. I’m looking at the Alpinestars stuff, which can go under your jacket and has no tether.

There two, the Tech5 and Tech3. The 5 has better shoulder protection for $150 more than the $600 3.

I like the ability to move it around under different jackets. My buddy wears his Helite, which he loves and has deployed when he hit a deer, on the outside. So far in 5 years, he’s set it off once accidentally, but they installed a new cartridge, repacked it and continued their trip.

First up, I need a new jacket setup and I’m digging the Dainese Corner Carver 3. The Tech5 should work with it. It wants a stretchy jacket or one with a couple inches of internal room, like you’d want for a heated jacket and fleece.