RS Taichi first to the shops with motorcycle airbag leather suit

RS Taichi has won the race to get a motorcycle airbag leather on-piece suit on sale with its T-Raps range.

T-Raps, which stands for Taichi Racing Airbag Protection System, has a double air cushion that is stowed under the leather from the chest to the shoulder.

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Rather than collecting a history of data from the rider to analyse when there could be a potential lowside or highside like the Dainese D-Air system, the T-Raps version uses a simpler means of activation, attaching a wire that extends from the speed hump on the back of the suit to the bike.

Once the wire is disconnected from the bike, Co2 gas in the speed hump inflates the double cushion.

Both the T-Raps GP-Max R070 and R100 are designed for racing only, however Ryoji Fujita, International Sales Manager for RS Taichi, said the aim is to release a road-going suit in the near future.

“We have been testing the system for four years, and although this is now for racing we are going to expand in the near future to the road, but it is very secret,” Fujita told MCN.

“We have been doing many tests in the Japanese Championship with our riders, but it does need more development. We are currently looking into a way of removing the airbag once it is inflated to allow the racers to get back on their bikes and keep going.

A design we have should take less than one second to remove the cushion, but we are still fine-tuning this system.”

Don’t expect to get this technology cheap though. The two T-Rap suits currently available for racing cost £1,700!