So some people may know that I have crashed while wearing my air vest. The popular questions are, 'Did it inflate?', and 'Is it still usable?' Maybe this will help. The first crash I had was in th the warm up lap in the battle of the twins with Dean Drolet's bike. I crashed at about 50km/hr in the enterance to corner#2. I wasn't sure if the vest hit the ground in that crash because there were no marks on it and I couldn't see any damage to my leathers as well. My second crash was on a hot,dry day on the Friday before the August race weekend. I crashed in Corner#8 from a low side. My racing leathers received new damage as a result of the crash. There is now a hole through one layer of leather in my leathers on the medial side of the knee pad. There are also new minor abrasions on my leathers in the shoulder area and down the arms. The Hit-Air vest inflated as it should. The vest did make contact with the ground as I ended up sliding over asphalt for about 6 feet on my right side and then 3-4 rolls in the compact dirt at the edge of the track. Even though the inflated vest provided the protection and rigidity that I'm looking for in a crash, I was still able to maneuver my arms to pick up my bike seconds after my crash. Irreversable Damage to the vest? None! There were surface abrasions on the right and left side of the back of my vest. There was no evidence of touching the front, and that would make sense as I kept my arms close to my chest during the rolls. After cleaning the vest off in the pits with compressed air and patting it down with my hands, the vest sustained no damage at all. The abrasions came from the dirt and removed easily with the compressed air.
