Safety equipment - from China?

What could possibly go wrong...

Buy chinese garbage, get chinese garbage.

These are my concerns also. I have bought a lot of crap from China, but also stuff that is as good, or even better, than the originals they imitate. I just recently bought a camping chair - better than the original.

I also bought a water fiter - which looks like it is far better than the Lifestraw it imitates - with so many more acessories. But then I had second thoughts - I have no way of knowing wether it actually filters the water anywhere near its specifications. Nor have I any way of knowing if the plastics it is made out of is full of carcinogens. It will never be used.

As for the air bags. It is a very simple technology. A pull cord triggers a sprung hammer that punches a hole in a standard CO2 canisters, and the bag inflates in about a second. The vest needs to be able to hold the air without exploding/tearing upon either deployment, or the increased pressure at impact. This should be easy enough to test, even multiple times over.

Even though we have no guarantees that these Chinese items are made to western regulatory spesifications, or tested by reputable organizations, or that they can be held accountable - I'm not ready to write off these chinese vests just yet.

Today I ride without. Since I don't race, a dirt cheap airbag vest - one that maybe even only worked as it was supposed to only 80% of the time - that might still be worth the money. As such a vest wouldn't make me feel braver and ride more reckless, it wouldn't be false security to me. Spending 600 USD for something I'm not even convinced I will be using frequently - that I can't afford. Also, something that only had a 60% chance of working wouldn't be forth neother the money nor the hassle of using it.

In order to be convinced to buy one, I would have to read some convincing and positive deployment reviews. After purchase, I would ofcourse also test the deployment of it before using it myself. I find it strange how people ride with these things and have never tested them. My inflatable life vests for my sailboat - I test and service those no less than every two years.

Buying fakes is something I would not do - and not only for moral reasons, but because fakes are allmost allways inferior to the real thing (materials, workmanship, qyality control, etc). I would also not buy grey market items - products sold either under the original brand or a different brand - but where they use "leftovers" from the original manufacturing and supply some ineferior components to make up the remaining product. I would only buy a white label product or a genuine Chinese brand. Products inspired by the originals, and that don't brake patents???

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I agree that some Chinese stuff is very good - I also have a camping chair bought from AliExpress some years ago that is far and away the best camping chair I've ever had. If you pick and choose there's certainly some good quality and (often) economically priced stuff to be had. But ...

You may have heard the old joke about police response times - "when seconds count the police are only minutes away". If, as you say, the airbag takes an actual second to inflate then I'd have thought it was pretty close to useless. What sort of accident can you envisage where an inflated airbag would make a difference but there's a second gap between whatever sets it off and what you need protecting from? Car ones fill in the 60-80 millisecond range - 10 or 15 times as fast. My guess would also be that you're probably well into the accident before the mechanism triggering inflation is tripped. I suppose at least with CO2 you don't have the potential for a car style bomb going off in your face if you trigger it by accident.

Even now, decades after their introductions, car air bags are treated with some caution by the 'trade'. I used to work (part time) as a preliminary assessor for the car insurance world, looking at low level scrapes and dents type incidents. On (modest) cars more than five or six years old if the air bags had gone off, that was it, the car was written off. I can't imagine any circumstance where a rapid response style airbag would get approval as an aftermarket clothing item for bike use. The CO2 ones bring to mind the cartoon response where the parachute only deploys after the character has hit the ground.

And yes, I do know there's loads of them around and that some people swear by them.

Chinese stuff is not inherently bad. They are used as a production source by reputable western manufacturers, most of the world's big brand consumer electronics comes from there and they have their own space programme. I'll grant you stuff made for the domestic market can be pretty crap but I've bought bits like levers and adjusters and simple electronics direct from there and very pleased with the results.

For more complex stuff where you can't do a visual evaluation I might stick to branded gear, because that's supposed to be the point of brands - you buy a name and by inference the confidence it'll do what it's supposed to.

The subject of airbags is a different issue though. Firstly I wouldn't touch a lanyard triggered vest using a standard CO2 cylinder - for the reasons mentioned above and because it's too easy to forget a lanyard and trigger it by mistake. Secondly I am sceptical about the benefits that even a professionally designed article of clothing can offer. Race airbag suits are designed for an environment where the rider hits nothing more hazardous than the ground. On the road, most serious injuries are lower limbs, head and neck, caused by hitting other vehicles or solid roadside obstacles. A little airbag round the upper torso isn't going to help much with that.

I was wrong on the deployment time. Hellite - a recognized brand touts 0.1 seconds with the cannister. Hit Air touts 300 milliseconds, 0.25 and 0.1 seconds depending on model. Flyastar (Chinese) does it at 0.5 seconds (has both Chinese and European Safety Certifications). Most of the ones I find on Aliexpress touts 0.5 seconds (to be trusted?). Now, 0.5 seconds to full deployment may be a bit long if you hit something dead on while on the bike - like the side of a truck. But, hit the side of a car and go flying over it, then 0.5 seconds should be enough before you hit the ground.

As for lanyard - this is the only deployment mechanism I would ever conscider for everyday road use - not one based on me having to remember charge batteries and also counting on not only the electronics and software working, but also to the deployment mechanisms in addition.

You need a very hard tug on the lanyard to deploy it, so much that the risk of accidentally deploying it is very unlikely - atleast on the tarmac. Offroad, accidentally dropping the bike, with you tethered to it - could deploy it if the tether is short.So,in a close to stand still tumble - you might not be so happy with the airbag. In conditions where this is a risk, running with a slightly longer tether might be a better compromize?

Unlike a car where an airbag is a one time only - motorcycle airbag vests are intended to stand up to several uses...

The main concern is not so much wether a tethered air bag that deploys at either 0.1 or 0.5 seconds is a good idea or not. I'm pretty certain that they protect far better than the plastic pads we wear (which could still be worn). I can see a future where wearing airbags in Europe becomes law (unfortunately). My main concern is wether or not the stuff on Aliexpress is any good. Vests from Hellite for instance is prohinitively expensive.

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Funny thing - one of these manufacturers proudly presents a EU ISO Certicate and test... Dig a little deeper and you find this is for flotation devices and life jackets

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