In June French apparel manufacturer IXON entered into a partnership with In&motion, a wearable smart protection system specialist, that has seen IXON riders in MotoGP start to test a new In&motion airbag system that will, eventually, become available to all riders buying suits from IXON.
Initially developed for the ski market, the In&motion airbag vest was unveiled in 2014, and motorcycle racing has been the second application for its technology that the company has developed.
In&motion has been working on the technology for several years already, with IXON racers contributing to the development of the algorithm, acquiring data in practice and race conditions. Meanwhile IXON and In&motion developed an interface allowing an easy integration of the In&motion airbag in the suits while preserving the pilot comfort.
Several riders, including Bradley Smith of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team, have been wearing the new airbag solution since the start of the 2016 season under their suit.
Epidemiological data has been captured and used to develop a new airbag design that is able to cover vulnerable and regularly injured body areas – such as the thorax, shoulders, back, etc.
IXON racing service, a major player in several racing championships such as MotoGP and FSBK, as well as riders such as Bradley Smith (MotoGP), Xavier Simeon (Moto2) and Gregory Leblanc (FSBK), have been involved since the conception of the system in order to make sure the fit and ergonomics were all that they needed to be.
The In&motion technology is a multi-purpose platform which has been adapted to motorcycle racing through the development of the detection algorithm to deliver a reliable solution that offers efficient and effective protection.
The technology embedded in the In&box measures movements in real time and is able to identify serious falls to trigger the inflation of the airbag in less than one tenth of a second (100 milliseconds). The company says that “on the one hand, the airbag can absorb the shock energy and on the other hand, it limits trauma to the spine and vital organs.
Special attention was given to the airbag design and its integration in the suits. The In&motion team says that riding comfort must not be compromised in order to improve the protective performance – the two are complementary to each other.
Pierre-François Tissot, co-founder and CMO at In&motion says that “it’s fascinating and exciting to work in such a context of high level motorcycle racing. Riders are used to take into account the technical environment related to their motorbike. Thus, it was easier to have them involved since the very beginning of the new airbag system development, and their feedbacks enabled us to rapidly come to a first suitable solution.
“Several riders already successfully adopted the airbag, and we have seen inflations during heat races and during official races. This way we are able to develop a system that genuinely is specified by users, for users”.
Pierre-Francois told IDN that the product will be on show at INTERMOT and EICMA, and that the next stage in development will be to use the same rider-involved approach to developing the road- going version of the system and plan production scale-up.
IXON
www.ixon.com
In&motion
www.inemotion.com
