ABS, cruise control, built-in speakers. You name it, there?s a bike with it these days. And it?s all tech that?s trickled down from the world of four wheels. It seems that anything a car manufacturer decides to incorporate into their models eventually finds it?s way onto a showroom motorcycle. And that goes for everything from comfort, to performance to safety upgrades. And the latest news from Piaggio, is that they are working on airbags to go on your motorcycles and/or scooters.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Motorcycles having airbags. Honda have, for quite a few years now, been dabbling with different variations of airbags on their behemoth Goldwing. But let’s face it, the Goldwing is closer to a car than it is to a normal motorbike. The fact that the Piaggio Group are working on an airbag system, suggests that, airbags on bikes may, at some stage, become more mainstream.
This new system has been designed by Swedish company Autoliv, a worldwide leader in automotive safety systems. Their airbags, which mount to the bikes frame, can deploy in milliseconds; although they don?t say how many milliseconds. And at this stage it?s unclear how the triggering system will work. Will there be a GPS system similar to the airbag in some leather suits" Will it be triggered by a lanyard, like some horse riding airbags" Or will there be crash sensors on the bike, similar to those on a car" I?m sure we?ll find out soon.

Polish off

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