Two companies – France’s CX Air Dynamics and Sweden’s Mo’Cycle – are now selling airbag jeans for motorcycle riders. They sit flat as you ride, but in a crash, they balloon up protecting your knees, hips, and thighs.
They are the world’s first Airbag Jeans that offer impact protection for the lower body. The jeans are made with water-repellent, breathable, and abrasion-resistant fabric which looks and feels like regular denim.
They are triggered by clip-on cables connecting the pants to the bike which can be reloaded after firing with a replacement CO2 bulb. These pants come in a variety of different types.
The first one comes from a company called CX Air Dynamics with its CX Easyriders, a water-resistant set of Cordura textile over pants designed for commuters to easily zip on and off over their office clothes, folding down small enough to stuff into your helmet when they’re off. They’ve got flexible, impact-absorbing Poron XRD armor at the knees and hips, and the airbags extend from the hips down to the lower shins, albeit with an apparent gap in the middle to let your knees bend.
This pair of pants is expensive at €599 (US$641), but it’s the kind of item that only needs to work once to justify its cost. But the cost is justified by the test video below.
If Cordura isn’t the style for you then our second option by a company called Mo’Cycle has another option in the form of its Airbag Jeans. These adjust the dial away from safety and toward fashion a little, giving a reasonable impression of a regular pair of jeans only with the exception of a pair with a big Velcro flap down each side.
Inside the jeans is the airbag system, which zips off for washing. The airbags here extend only down to the knee, but there are pockets dangling below them with CE-approved knee armor cups in there.
These have also been tested and tried in the harshest of scenarios as seen below.
These are set to launch in a couple of weeks after a crowdfunding campaign but an early bird price of $445 a pair is available for locking it in early.
