Looking for inspiration for a bespoke bike jacket

[Nick in London]

Here's a BMW jacket from the '70s in the pre-body armour era. Very practical. The light panels are to reflect the sun.

 

[Nick in London]

My thoughts are to copy this MM idea of having white on white:

But with a lancer front. No faux sponsors' logos as above. Padding on the shoulders and arms like this:

Front and collar like this:

I like the back of the MM jacket. I'm trying to come up with my own version.

 

[Nick in London]

This is the airbag gubbins.

 

[JMax]

Interesting. Add some LED lighting, like Vanson did to one of their jackets, and you are set for any spill. I think the Vanson has sensors that detect a fall that makes the LED lights start to rapidly blink, so no one runs over you I suppose.

 

[Edward]

How bulky is the airbag bit? I've not seen one of those before. Did see an airbag 'vest' for over the jacket, which attaches to the bike with a pull cord (and, presumably, has led to several comedy mishaps with guys getting off the bike and forgetting they're tied to it...).

 

[Nick in London]

This vid gives you some idea of the bulk

The vests with a tether are great but they take longer to inflate than the ones with accelerometers. If a car pulls out in front of you and your front wheel hits the side of the car, the Tech Air vest has an excellent chance of inflating before your chest hits the car. It can inflate in 45 milliseconds. That's just under 2 feet if your body is flying towards the car at 30 mph. The tethered vests are only partially inflated after 45 ms.

 

[Nick in London]

Yeah

Is there just the one wire in the jacket, between the control unit and the LED? Can you unplug it so you can wear the vest with a different jacket?

 

[red devil]

You need to have the other vest compatible with the tech air system, not sure how easy it is to switch. I just left mine in its jacket.