I received the Alpinestars Missle suit and Tech Air Race vest today.
Here are my initial observations, and some information learned so far.
The Missle suit is top notch. The suit is race fit so order a size larger than you might otherwise determine from standard sizing charts. The armor is superb, and the quality seems excellent.
I have Cortech, Alpinestars and Aerostich suits to compare fit and quality against.
The Tech Air system is … interesting.
The manual that comes with the air vest is very hard to decipher, and provides wrong information in critical areas.
For example, it does not provide accurate information about how to charge the system battery. If you follow the manual, you may damage the unit since it instructs that you use a port that had a connector already installed permanently. By the time you realize the recommended charging port cannot be made free, you may have damaged the unit. Go figure.
Assuming you have superior investigative skills to find the contact number, there is a contact in California who is fantastic and he helped me get the unit ready for use.
I challenge anyone to find this information on their own, so I will supply it here:
Mike at Alpinestars California: 310-891-0222
Mike knows the system and is a pleasure to deal with.
The Tech Air Race and Street have significant differences.
https://www.alpinestars.com/tech-air
Once again, it is up to you to dig very deep to understand the differences, the information is not easily available or complete anywhere I looked, or do yourself a favor and call Mike at Alpinestars to get an education.
The Race vest can be configured to run in street mode or track mode. The street vest can only run in street mode, will always fire 2 canisters, and cannot be reset yourself. The race vest in track mode can fire one canister if you fall, and allow to return to riding using the other canister.
Configuring the race vest for street mode (street firmware) allows for airbag inflation in scenarios encountered in a street accident that may not fire the race mode vest.
However, the race vest in street mode will only fire ONE inflation cartridge, not the two found in the street vest.
Mike said protection is the same, but two cartridge firing is a bit quicker.
Frankly, I am not sure how one can be as good as two when it comes to inflation, and I do not understand why once in street mode the two canister firing should not be part of the program.
I honestly do not understand why one would choose the race vs the street system. It is all very confusing to me.
Once you get the vest, you need to create an account. Instructions are confusing. Yet, if you can figure out the Ducati Panigale 959 electronics, you will get the job done with the Tech Air vest, eventually.
Before you begin, charge the vest through the micro USB port on the tailbone portion of the vest. Do not try and charge it at the upper module port as the manual suggests. Do not try and remove the cable the manual tells you to remove. That cable is glued in place.
You can charge the vest outside of the suit, but only when the vest is plugged into the suit do you have an LED light indication on the sleeve of the suit to tell you when the battery is fully charged.
Outside the suit charging has no indication if the battery is fully charged. It took about 5 hours to fully charge my battery using the supplied charger and cable.
Now to configure the vest.
Step 1:
Go here to set up a customer number.
http://techair.alpinestars.com/Account/Register
Use your email address for user name. Not obvious.
Login
Step 2:
Once you have a customer number, you need to contact the dealer from whom you purchased the vest, or call Mike to populate the portal with your vest serial number. This cannot be done by you. They will need the serial number found on your vest label.
Step 3:
Once you have the account configured, you can download Tech Air Connect Software. This software is required to flash street mode firmware to your race vest, and to update race firmware.
Step 4:
The Tech Air Connect Software is easy to use. Flash the current firmware you want to use and you are ready to install the vest in your suit.
Step 5:
The vest installs in the suit with ease. Once installed in the suit, the suit remains comfortable with only a minor sense that the suit is tighter than without the vest.
Step6:
The vest is really complicated to initialize for use once you are ready to ride.
First, make sure the power switch on the back of the vest in on, and all cables connected, before you don the suit.
Do not close the vest upper Velcro until you are helmeted, and ready to ride with the bike running. At that point, close the vest Velcro which initializes the vest, close the suit zipper, get on the gloves, and do all this within 60 seconds so the vest “senses” you are ready to ride and give a sleeve mounted LED green light.
If the light stays red, the unit did not initialize and will not work.
Seriously, there has to be a better way…
The vest needs inspection by the factory every 2 years or after a crash. It can take a month for service. Price unknown.
The manual says the vest cannot be certain to work after 10 years.
One major gripe, protection wise, the vest does not provide neck protection.