My oh my. Now they’re taking the danger out of motorcycling! Honda has just announced that they’ll soon be launching the world’s first production motorcycle equipped with airbags. The new Gold Wing, due to go on sale in about a year’s time, will be fitted with an airbag module containing an airbag and inflator, crash sensors to react to sudden deceleration, and an ECU to interpret whether there’s a collision about to occur, and whether the airbag should be deployed or not. When the airbag does inflate it will theoretically absorb much of the forward energy carried by the rider, reducing his velocity and hopefully lessening his injuries before he eventually stops.
There have been previous efforts to produce airbag technology for motorcyclists, with the most promising involving an inflatable jacket that springs into action, turning the rider into a sort of Michelin Man lookalike when he parts company with his machine. An advantage that this system offers over the Honda effort is that the rider doesn’t actually have to HIT anything to be protected. More riders are killed or badly hurt through simply falling off and then sliding into obstacles than are in collisions with vehicles. Still, If I had to ride my motorcycle into something solid I’d rather fly into an airbag than into the handlebars or the car. Hitting the ground or anything else afterwards would still be seriously not-fun though.