Helite Turtle Airbag Hi-Viz Vest Review

Hello All-

Here is Moto Mouth #11 - my review of Helite's Turtle Hi-Viz vest, which is a mechanically actuated airbag you can wear over your favorite riding jacket!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI7iFZtuf70

-MKL

moshe_levy said:

Hello All-

Here is Moto Mouth #11 - my review of Helite's Turtle Hi-Viz vest, which is a mechanically actuated airbag you can wear over your favorite riding jacket!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI7iFZtuf70

-MKL

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I was a demonstration dummy for the Helite folks at the Hamburg Rally. I was impressed with how the vest functioned and can see its application to motorcycling and other activities (i.e., immobilizing limbs during downhill skiing crash??). It's good technology, that will likely become standard equipment in the future.

36654 said:

I was a demonstration dummy for the Helite folks at the Hamburg Rally. I was impressed with how the vest functioned and can see its application to motorcycling and other activities (i.e., immobilizing limbs during downhill skiing crash??). It's good technology, that will likely become standard equipment in the future.

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Unreal! I think I saw you there that day. It's a pretty nifty idea, that for sure. Rather shocking the first time it goes off though, right? I censored out some of my more colorful comments, and left in "OH MY GOD!"

-MKL

moshe_levy said:

Unreal! I think I saw you there that day.

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If it was a really good looking guy, that was me.......

Seriously, Moshe, I appreciate your efforts at product reviews. While everybody has an opinion, a thoughtful review can be extremely helpful to fellow riders.

Thank you!

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to do the demonstration and find a way to film it in slow-motion as well.

I looked at both the Helite vest and the Hit-Air when I purchased my own a couple years ago. I apologize if I'm repeating myself now. On another sport-touring forum, one of the member was leading a group when he went straight and the road turned. (He has no recollection of what happened.) Anyway, he escaped with no road rash. The protective clothing and helmet he was wearing did its job.

However...he had something like 17 broken bones in the rib cage, a fractured vertebrae and a ruptured vertebrae. They almost lost him. If he'd had an air bag vest on at the time, he probably would've walked away.

It seems expensive, but one night in the ER will be more than the airbag vest.

The Hit-Air MLV-PY vest I bought seems to do the same great job. Cost is about $520. (I have no connection with them except for being a happy satisfied customer.)

Like Moshe wrote, you won't deploy the vest by just getting off the bike and walking away. It takes a good jerk on the tether to deploy the vest. However I dropped my bike a couple months ago. I was pulling out into a busy intersection when a teenager on a skateboard stepped in front of me. No fault on the teenager's part. He did have the light to cross. But I grabbed the brake and over the bike went. As I'm laying there on the ground against the curb, I realized I felt no impact with the ground or with the edge of the curb. The airbag vest had deployed just like advertised. And after buying a new C02 cartridge, I was in business again.

Chris

daboo said:

It seems expensive, but one night in the ER will be more than the airbag vest.

Chris

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The typical copay on a ER visit is $200. After that, you have the deductible and then the 20% copay until you hit the out-of-pocket maximum. The $550 cost of these vests will come and go in a blink of the eye when measured in ER visit spend rates.

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. I'm trying my best to improve these videos, to try to show the viewers what is sometimes challenging to describe in words (in my articles.)

-MKL

Due to your review, I'm shopping for one.

Thanks!

36654 said:

I was a demonstration dummy for the Helite folks at the Hamburg Rally. I was impressed with how the vest functioned and can see its application to motorcycling and other activities (i.e., immobilizing limbs during downhill skiing crash??). It's good technology, that will likely become standard equipment in the future.

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Just got back from a 5,760 mile ride to the Pacific and back. Wore the Helite the entire trip - generated a lot of positive discussions across all brands of riders.

Never ride without one again.

36654 said:

The typical copay on a ER visit is $200. After that, you have the deductible and then the 20% copay until you hit the out-of-pocket maximum. The $550 cost of these vests will come and go in a blink of the eye when measured in ER visit spend rates.

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He's right you know.

I have a hit-air vest. I'm not going to make a claim it works since I haven't been in an accident with it. I think $500 is well worth the cost against the risk. Any vest is better than no vest. If it only works once it's worth the price.

anglojaxon said:

He's right you know.

I have a hit-air vest. I'm not going to make a claim it works since I haven't been in an accident with it. I think $500 is well worth the cost against the risk. Any vest is better than no vest. If it only works once it's worth the price.

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And, if it survives the abrasion of the slide with the air bladder intact, you can re-arm the vest right there and then and its back in service (at least, that's how my Helite works)!

FYI, throw in the ambulance ride to the hospital (rarely covered 100% by insurance) and that brief ER visit exceeds a $1k

greenwald said:

And, if it survives the abrasion of the slide with the air bladder intact, you can re-arm the vest right there and then and its back in service (at least, that's how my Helite works)!

FYI, throw in the ambulance ride to the hospital (rarely covered 100% by insurance) and that brief ER visit exceeds a $1k

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The Hit-Air works the same way.

Chris

daboo said:

The Hit-Air works the same way.

Chris

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I do not yet see a list of venders planning to be at the SLC Rally, but my guess is there will be at least one vender selling air vests attending.

akbeemer said:

I do not yet see a list of venders planning to be at the SLC Rally, but my guess is there will be at least one vender selling air vests attending.

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Otherwise Kevin, just call Nicole at Helite in CA and mention my name. I had flown down to the AIMExpo in Orlando 2 years go at the behest of my editor (Not ON - different mag I also write for), tested the vest, got one to review, and couldn't be happier.

Never ride without one.

Besides, if they sell 3 more with my recommendation, I win an all-expense paid trip to Toadsuck, AR.

HELITE Turtle vest saved my hide!

March 25th, 2017 was a day I would rather forget. Long story short, I was rearended and thrown violently from my almost brand new R 1200 GS. As luck would have it + ATTGATT + HELITE I landed flat on my bike after a ballistic trajectory launched me up and over the car that hit me. From the waist up, not a scratch or a bruise. The horseshoe collar stabilized my helmet and my neck to the point where the helmet never even hit the ground!

I had hit the top box with my lower back and literally tore it off the bike but the vest had already inflated and I never felt the impact. By all rights I should have broken ribs, pelvis, back and possibly even my neck but I didn't.

Unfortunately, I hit my left femur hard enough to break it, so ended up at UCLA for a week. I work in the mc industry as a Freelance journalist/photographer/PR/copywriter with a personal emphasis on rider safety and training. While I was laying in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling it occurred to me that I have a duty to share my experience with all of you in the hope that the word of this relatively cheap "insurance" is spread wide and far. PM me if interested in a very substantial discount on any HELITE product including the new jackets.

WOW! Hope you're healing well and will be back on two wheels yet this summer.

Thanks for posting. It's one thing for me to say I thought the Helite was the best air-bag vest on the market. It's another thing for your event to put the exclamation mark on any endorsement.

I hope many riders contact you. Getting rear-ended happens too often, and you're survival is a testimony on how the Helite was a 'game-changer' in the outcome.

I and my co-rider both faithfully wear our Helites whenever we ride.

Hope the bike gets fixed up as fast as you do.

ericmotoman said:

March 25th, 2017 was a day I would rather forget. Long story short, I was rearended and thrown violently from my almost brand new R 1200 GS. As luck would have it + ATTGATT + HELITE I landed flat on my bike after a ballistic trajectory launched me up and over the car that hit me. From the waist up, not a scratch or a bruise. The horseshoe collar stabilized my helmet and my neck to the point where the helmet never even hit the ground!

I had hit the top box with my lower back and literally tore it off the bike but the vest had already inflated and I never felt the impact. By all rights I should have broken ribs, pelvis, back and possibly even my neck but I didn't.

Unfortunately, I hit my left femur hard enough to break it, so ended up at UCLA for a week. I work in the mc industry as a Freelance journalist/photographer/PR/copywriter with a personal emphasis on rider safety and training. While I was laying in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling it occurred to me that I have a duty to share my experience with all of you in the hope that the word of this relatively cheap "insurance" is spread wide and far. PM me if interested in a very substantial discount on any HELITE product including the new jackets.View attachment 61916

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I'm glad the vest helped you walk away. But I have to say, your story ending in the offer to make a sale on the jackets and vests sends a "mixed" message.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

I started this thread about 7 weeks before my accident. I believe it is encumbent upon all of us to discuss and promote safer riding techniques and equipment improvements. When I first started riding 44 years ago, I came very close to losing a fatal argument with a very big tractor. As luck would have it, I narrowly escaped. Did I learn from that experience? Nope! Instead, I started thinking that I was invincible and that my luck would never run out. Eventually, witnessing the death of a close friend and horrible injuries to a total stranger, I woke up to the realization that Motorcycling is far more dangerous than we are willing to admit. In other words, my attitude has reversed itself completely.

Some years ago, I began promoting new, safer technologies as they became available. I lead by example, I speak at motorcycle seminar and events and I coach safer riding techniques. I do so without pay, simply in the hopes that lives may be saved.

Little did I know that a potentially fatal accident would befall me just a few weeks after I started this thread.

However, this gave me the unique perspective to that Comes with Personal Experience.




http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/helite-airbag-report-group-all-others-welcome.1202146/