Alpinestars Tech Air 5 Plasma

Alpinestars' next-generation airbag system, designed to be worn under your jacket.

A fully autonomous system — just zip it up and it's armed. It continuously monitors the rider's status via its sensors, detecting sudden forces. The system has been trained to recognise scenarios such as "highsides", "lowsides", crash/collision situations and even accidents that happen while stationary at traffic lights. With a full charge it offers around 30 hours of "ride time", and a full charge from empty takes just 4 hours, so even longer trips are no problem. In a crash, the vest inflates to its protective state within 200–400ms and stays inflated for roughly 5 seconds before beginning to deflate — meaning it also provides protection while you're sliding. Note: it doesn't deflate immediately but rather over the course of about a minute, with the vest remaining "full" of air for five seconds to offer the best possible upper-body protection.

The Tech Air 5 Plasma replaces Alpinestars' Tech Air 5 system. Within the Alpinestars airbag family, the Tech Air 5 Plasma is the model we recommend for street use, adventure touring or occasional track use. For dedicated track enthusiasts there's also the Tech Air 7x, which lets you crash twice before the cartridges need replacing and can be fitted "permanently" into an Alpinestars leather suit.

The Tech Air 5 Plasma has received plenty of improvements over the previous model. This is probably the lightest "electronic" airbag system on the market, weighing just ~1550 grams in size M. That means it barely differs in weight under your jacket from, say, a sturdier chest protector + back protector combo. Its fit is remarkably unobtrusive — after wearing it for a moment it feels almost like a t-shirt.

The airbag's design has been substantially reworked to make it easier to put on under a leather suit or jacket, for example. The plastic housing / back protector around the neck area is more discreet and slips under leather gear in particular more easily, without pulling the jacket tight "at the shoulders" the way the previous model tended to do because of the neck-mounted cartridge canister.

The Tech Air 5 Plasma is now self-serviceable: the cartridges are threaded and can be replaced yourself if the airbag deploys. With the previous models (3, 5, 10, race), you had to send the unit to Storm where trained staff replaced the cartridges — but with this and other next-generation Tech Air products, you can swap them yourself. Another new feature compared to the old Tech Air 5 model is that this one is self-washable as often as you like: the bladder and electronics can be removed with household tools, and the fabrics can be machine washed as long as you follow the washing instructions. After six deployments it must be brought to Storm for inspection.

The vest features three riding modes: street, race (track) and offroad (adventure, not motocross/enduro).

Airbag systems have advanced so much over the past five years that they can be wholeheartedly recommended. The advantages over passive protectors are the airbag cushion's significantly better ability to absorb impacts effectively, as well as the coverage of the airbag vest. In this model, for example, practically everywhere there's fabric there's also a bladder — so it can be described as upper-body protection rather than just a back/chest protector.

Features:

• Extremely light for an airbag system
• New flexible fabric construction — comfortable to wear, no wrinkling. Plenty of sizes for all body types.
• Self-serviceable after a deployment (Note: 6 times, after which it must be serviced at Storm)
• Self-washable
• Full upper-body protection — almost everywhere there's fabric, there's also a bladder.
• ~30h ride time, full charge from empty in 4h. USB-C charging.
• Fully autonomous — just zip it up and go.
• Handy Tech Air app for updates via Bluetooth; you can also track the vest's usage hours and other interesting data.
• Sizes: XS–4XL