THE HONDA GL1800 GOLDWING is the first production motorcycle in Australia to be offered with an airbag as a safety feature, but since its launch in September last year, little has been heard.
This week, in the first ‘real world’ evidence of its worth, the technology saved a rider’s life in Germany.
“I crashed into one of the trees lining the street behind a small ditch,” the rider, 57 year-old engineer Willi Hansel, told the German press.
Hansel said that the force of the impact destroyed the front panel of his Goldwing, snapping the left fork leg and smashing the engine.
The German motorcycle enthusiast said that although he did incur serious injuries in the accident, he believes the airbag saved his life.
“Although it is never a good thing when a motorcyclist gets injured, this is a fantastic story in many respects,” Honda Australia General Manager for Motorcycles,Tony Hinton, said.
“We have always been confident that the airbag would do its job and save lives. Of course, it is difficult to test every scenario, however Honda engineers were very particular about this invention because of its incredible significance as far as safety.”
“If the airbag saves even one life, as it already has in Mr Hansel’s case, it is well worth the investment.”
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As a rider I’m all for increased safety on motorcycles, but I still can’t conceptially see how this airbag will save you from anything. Surely the momentum of the bike and rider will cause the rear end to come up in a perfectly head on crash, throwing the rider off the bike, or in the more likely glancing crash the bike low sides instead. Either way the airbag may absorb some of your bodies energy, but none of the bikes energy which will then be transferred back into you during the crash.
I guess the key difference between how they work in a car versus a motorbike is that in a car you are restrained by a seatbelt, meaning all the airbag has to do is absorb your forward (or sideways for curtain airbag) movement. On a motorbike you aren’t, so its more probable that you won’t hit the airbag dead on, making it ineffective. Nothing in this story makes airbags on bikes seem more effective than I previously thought, its just this guys opinion that he survived due to the airbag.
Personally I’d be much more impressed if Honda and other manufacturers stopped wasting development money and time on questionable safety devices like airbags on bikes when much more effective and proven technologies like ABS and traction/stability control remain expensive and confined to a few select models.
Tom, yes, fair points all, but I would think the real question is whose buttocks the airbag is modelled on.
Tim
Lol, yeah that too. ‘I was saved from certain death by crashing into someones pillowy a*se cheeks’. Body of an adult, mind of a child. Good times.
Hey Tom,
I think due to it’s low centre of gravity, the goldwing is one of only a few bikes that does not have a tendancy to ‘flip forward’ in an accident and as such an airbag will actually work and has some merit.
Honda are designing a new front suspension geometry and ‘crash structure’ on some of their new bikes in the hope they can stop them pitching end over end if you hit something, and again, the airbag would then come into play.
I’m in two minds if I’d rather get flung over the bars and possibly over the offending car/obstacle; or if the bike stays low and hit the airbag…
Dunno.
Hilarious! It looks like a Big Momma bending over in front of you waiting for your face to be buried. Sorry. But it’s so funny. Is there a special reason it was done in flesh tones?
It’s a great incentive to not have a crash… maybe let riders know that the Cheeks of Life also emit a methane-ish smell when they deploy. It’ll be like crashing into a pillow of stink.
I love peurile humour.
Bazz,
I think there’d be plenty of methane-ish smell anyway!
If Honda have indeed reworked design and geometry to stop the forward tuck, that “Emergency Booty” would at the very least stop alot of that plastic, alloy and lexan from gutting you as you exited the vehicle in superman mode, and lets face it, its a goldwing, you already have your undies on the outside. Legs are still gunna hit the bars unless you initiate a timed “jump” negating the airbag altogether.
Though most people lock on to the bike, get target fixated and break wrists,thumbs in the first stages of frontal impact. In fact the target fixation is WHY they hit the thing in the first place. Unless your going fast enough to almost cut a car in half with your body and bike.. You can miss most things by getting off the brakes LOOKING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO and commiting. If you cant take your brain around the obsticle, …what chace do you have of getting the bike around it? Your no longer ballanced or in control, simple as that, You might as well be sitting on the pillion seat with the cruise control on sipping a cup of tea.
As for a frontal impact against a tree?.. Dont stare at the damn thing and you wont hit it lmao.
Hell bailing out is a valid option even, Get a dirtbike and ride it hard (No not “Big Air”) you’ll soon learn how to hit the ground in the least painful way lol. You’ll quickly learn to control a front end lockup under brakes at the very least.
Ohh btw, this guy may have ate dirt from a front end lockup before he hit that tree if not for the Anti Lock Brakes…. Not knowing his experience or seeing the location this is all speculation, but an experienced rider would kick himself for getting target fixated, Of that I’m certain.
Much easier to go for the Hit Air airbag jackets! Far more body, neck and spine protection.
On September 5, 2009, two days before this article came out, my wife and I were riding our 2009 Deep Blue ABS (but not airbag)Goldwing back to Knoxville, TN from Asheville, NC (not too far from the “Tail of the Dragon”) when an oncoming driver failed to yield and made a left turn in front of us at an intersection. I was looking to my right checking for anyone entering the intersection and I never saw him before impact. We hit broadside without braking at probably ~30 mph.
I wound up with 7 broken ribs, my wife with 13 broken ribs, scapula and pelvis. We were very lucky, not a single surgery, suture, or cast was needed., The bike was totaled. I am about 90% recovered, my wife is about 75% but in time I expect we will eventually both hit 100%.
We have been riding together since we were dating in college, more than 30 years ago. I took my first MSF course in 1978 and my most recent in spring 2009. This was our first and only serious crash.
I can testify that where I impacted the car and my injuries - the ribs and the bruising, and the damage to the ‘wing were completely consistent with the Honda videos comparing airbag/no airbag impacts. I didn’t break my jaw, but had a knot the size of a small apple on my chin (3/4 helmets).
Our new bike is on order - another 2009 Goldwing (it was an terrific machine)- light Blue Metallic, ABS - no airbag again. I hope I don’t regret that decision. I believe the airbags would probably be helpful in a limited set of accidents like the one we were in, but, in many others they will be immaterial.