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The two suits I’ve used were designed for the airbag system and both have a significant amount of stretch panels built in to accommodate the inflation of the vest. But…. It’s important to recognize that even with these expansion panels when the vest is inflated it will restrict your breathing. I hadn’t thought about this before my “off” and my inability to take a breath after tumbling to a stop (sorry Acotrel- we don’t always get to choose how we crash- you are right that a low side slide is far preferable to a high side) caused me a few moments of panic before I realized what was happening.The trouble with panic is it’s really hard to stop panicking once you’ve begun. The Alpinestars vest deflates in about 30 seconds so it’s not really an issue if you have programmed your brain to know that after the unsettling ground/sky/ground/sky/ground/sky event you will be tightly squeezed. By the time I had gotten really worked up over not being able to breath I was able to breath, and my heart rate was able to come back down a bit.If you do decide to adopt an airbag system, I think it’s probably helpful to “pre program” your brain to this reality. Doing do would have saved me a moment or two of horror.
The two suits I’ve used were designed for the airbag system and both have a significant amount of stretch panels built in to accommodate the inflation of the vest. But…. It’s important to recognize that even with these expansion panels when the vest is inflated it will restrict your breathing. I hadn’t thought about this before my “off” and my inability to take a breath after tumbling to a stop (sorry Acotrel- we don’t always get to choose how we crash- you are right that a low side slide is far preferable to a high side) caused me a few moments of panic before I realized what was happening.
The trouble with panic is it’s really hard to stop panicking once you’ve begun. The Alpinestars vest deflates in about 30 seconds so it’s not really an issue if you have programmed your brain to know that after the unsettling ground/sky/ground/sky/ground/sky event you will be tightly squeezed. By the time I had gotten really worked up over not being able to breath I was able to breath, and my heart rate was able to come back down a bit.
If you do decide to adopt an airbag system, I think it’s probably helpful to “pre program” your brain to this reality. Doing do would have saved me a moment or two of horror.
