Alpinestars Tech Air Off-Road System airbag - Review

Date reviewed: May 2025 | Tested by: Bikesocial member Martin Foster | Price: £949.99 | www.alpinestars.com

The Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road System is an armoured shirt with a built-in airbag. It includes a full suite of passive CE-certified armour in an airtex stretch mesh chassis for low-speed, low-impact falls and an electronically-fired airbag for higher speed and/or higher impact falls. I live in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with prime off-road riding terrain right outside the door. I own a Sur-Ron Storm Bee and a Sur-Ron Ultra Bee and my riding is a mix of Siberian larch forests and grassy mountain-sides embedded with sharp rocks. A tethered airbag isn’t suitable for this type of riding as I have so many low-speed tumbles that I’d have dozens of un-necessary deployments in a year. However, there is a danger of falling on jagged rocks, pointy trees and rolling down slopes. The Tech-Air Off-Road System had a long development run and testing regime in worldwide rallies, such as Dakar, so I bought the system because I felt it would offer the protection I wanted.

Pros & Cons

Features

The Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road Shirt has airbags at the chest and back plus additional portions of airbag at the shoulders, collarbones and neck.

Shoulder portions lay under, and extend beyond, the shoulder armour and are 4cm thick when inflated.

There’s a neck and collarbone portion of the bladder, as required by the FIM for competition use. This takes the place of a neck brace to limit the range of motion while wearing a helmet. Hyper-extension, hyper-flexion and lateral bending are all cushioned at a certain point.

When I did an ergonomic assessment of head motion with the bladder inflated while wearing my helmet, I found it to be effective but not so limiting that I felt overly constrained. Note that you can NOT wear a neck brace with any FIM-approved rally-style airbag. It’d probably smash into your helmet when the bladder deployed.

Unfortunately, the side ribs are vulnerable, with neither armour nor airbag covering these areas.

I measured the front and rear bladders’ inflated thickness at 6cm. The bladder is a flat cushion style and the semi-rigid chest or back protector will distribute impact force across the surface area of the airbag bladder. This works well in flat impacts (the ground) and point-load and penetrating hazards (round and sharp rocks).

The chest protector has a semi-rigid layer of thick plastic lattice then a layer of impact-absorbing foam and is certified to the highest Level 2 of the CE chest standard, EN1621-3.

The back protector is of a similar construction to the chest protector, except the semi-rigid ‘lattice’ cage is thicker in the centre and has the hump containing the airbag ECU between the shoulders then it tapers to the outer edges. It’s certified to the lower EN1621-2 Level 1.

I would have liked a Level 2 back protector, and Alpinestars has similar back protectors that meet this level, but it chose not to fit one to this shirt.

Using an L2 protector would’ve added some weight, which might be seen as a handicap for professional racers, but would be tolerable for me. 

It’s less of a concern when the airbag deploys, but in a fall without a deployment it’d be nice to have a Level 2 protector– especially if I landed on a rock.

The limb armour is not to my liking as it’s the lower EN1621-1 Level 1. It’s a firm plastic lattice with no foam lining that’s not comfortable and doesn’t meet the higher Level 2.

I replaced it with Knox Microlock Level 2 protectors, which are more protective than the Alpinestars parts and also more comfortable. Almost any contoured pads should fit in the shirt’s stretchy pockets.

A huge selling point for me, due to my remote location, is the ability to perform canister changes in the field. There are two in the back protector hump. This allows two separate deployments with the interruption limited to just 30 seconds while the airbag deflates and the system rearms. You could carry more canisters and change them in the field as it’s a simple operation using a small screwdriver that’s supplied with the shirt.

The fabric portions of the shirt offer no abrasion protection so it should always be worn with an appropriately sized outer layer if there’s any risk of abrasion.

Cut and tear hazards, such as rocks and even an errant tree branch, could easily damage the stretch mesh and potentially damage the bladder.  Some portions of the bladder, especially on the upper arms and lower back do extend beyond the armour. I generally wear a cut-resistant shirt over the top, especially when riding through forests. You’ll need something with at least 4cm extra space all around the chest or a garment that will stretch enough to accommodate deployment.

There’s a feature worth noting that I haven’t used yet. A compartment in the back protector has the attachments to install a hydration bladder with up to three litres of capacity.

There are no pockets for stowing nicknacks. I’ve never seen them in this type of armoured shirt so it’s hardly a serious omission. If you’re wearing an outer jacket you could use those pockets.

Sizes available are S to 2XL. I’m 187cm (6ft 1.5in) tall with a long torso, weigh 90kg (14st 2lb) with a 115cm (45in) chest and 90cm (35in) waist. The size guide put me in three different categories - L, XL and 2XL! I reasoned that height would be the most critical and chose the XL, which works fine for me due to the very stretchy main chassis fabric.

A quick test shows the airtex mesh has four-way stretch of at least 50-70%, so it should accommodate variations in body circumference measurements and allow room for base and mid layers to fit underneath, which I’ve found to be true.

The length of the body and sleeves are generous and can be tucked into trousers and gloves for a little more security.

I was able to test fit a few different outer garments by inflating the airbag with an air pump. Alpinestars has an inflator adaptor for bladder pressure testing and they specified 0.3 bar (4.2psi) as the pressure of the bladder for testing, although I believe the inflated pressure with a canister would be a lot higher. I’ve found the adapter to be very handy to assess whether outer layers work with the shirt.

There are externally accessible armour pockets on the elbows and shoulders, which makes it easy to swap or remove the limb armour.

The armour pocket material is palpably sturdier than the rest of the stretch mesh chassis, but is not claimed to have any abrasion protection.

You could remove the limb armour if you’re wearing an outer jacket with its own armour, but I tend to wear simple shells and/or insulation layers and keep the armour in the shirt. The armour is already close to the body so that’s generally a better location for safety. 

The back and chest armour are sewn into the chassis and are not replaceable. I think the chest and back protectors are sufficient for my risks, either on their own or in tandem with an inflated airbag. Research and common-sense show that rigid or semi-rigid protectors spread point loads very effectively across a large area of bladder. Without a load spreader, there’s the risk of the bladder bottoming out on point loads (rocks and trees) and not reducing the impact load sufficiently.

The shirt is quite heavy - my size XL weighs 3.6kg - but that’s not much more than my regular armoured shirt with no airbag, which weighs 3kg.

Can you wear the Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road System with a rucksack?

Backpacks should be safe provided they don’t restrict expansion of the airbag, so avoid tight chest and waist straps.

Trigger Method

The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is in the back protector, which has a removable hump. This is a tried and tested set of electronics with three accelerometers and three gyroscopes. There’s no GPS chip, so speed must be calculated with some slick mathematics. Most of the room in the hump is taken up by the gas canisters, accompanied by a single Li-ion battery and a tiny screwdriver, which is needed to release the canister’s electrical connectors when replacing them.

With electronic systems it’s impossible to be specific on intervention time because of the highly variable detection time. Intervention time = detection time + inflation time. The user manual claims total intervention time could be up to 200 milliseconds (ms) if you’re seated and up to 300ms if standing. The algorithm needs patterns to deduce that you’re going to crash, and that takes time - even at 1kHz (one calculation per 1/1000th of a second).

Alpinestars quotes average inflation time as 52ms, depending on the size of the airbag. I take comfort that once a crash of sufficient severity is detected the inflation is about as fast as it can be.

I’ve had at least 11 falls while wearing the shirt and only one resulted in an inflation. This was a downhill tumble with some rolling. Whether I needed this deployment is debatable, but you can only guess that after the fact - and artificial intelligence can’t know what sort of hazardous ground you’re going to land on.

In the case of my deployment, I landed on soft forest ground after trying to bunny hop over two fallen trees. Forward speed was low but my fall height was quite high. The impact was comfortable and the biggest sensation was the bang from the pyrotechnic canister. It’s loud!

I have dozens of these falls every year and I’m sure some more will result in deployments.

Generally, the algorithm gives me confidence that it can ignore most of these frequent tip-overs on tricky technical terrain. Also it ignores small jumps, bumps, wheelies and rear wheel slides with rapid changes of direction.

All of this is with the airbag in Enduro mode, which is best for slower and more technical riding. In addition, Rally mode suits fast sweeping riding (think dunes) and Street mode, which will protect you even at standstill from front and rear collisions, is for road riding.

I also have the option to turn the airbag off completely in sections where I think I’ll be falling a lot on soft ground and can rely on the passive features. These are top-notch, except for the standard limb armour.

For a deeper dive into the “envelope of protection” plus many sumptuous details and a lot of disclaimers, the user guide is publicly available by clicking here. If you’re serious about buying I suggest a thorough read, but the juicy details of modes start at page 8 (in English).

Can you accidentally trigger the Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road System?

I believe the algorithm is well tuned for off-road use. My two deployments were on soft forest ground at slow to zero speed and not likely to cause injury. However, the algorithm can't possibly know what terrain you might land on. So, I and other TAOR owners I've talked to, sometimes turn off the system when we feel a fall to the ground, even with tumbling, would be soft and not benefit from a deployment.

Protection and Certification

Understanding the protection offered by any airbag is important, but can be confusing with two different safety standards. Our full article on motorcycle airbags explains the test methods and protection in more detail, but this is what you need to know first:

• Tigger method: electronic

• Suitable for use over other kit: Yes (though stretch fit makes this unlikely)

• Suitable for use under other kit: Yes, with sufficient expansion room.

• Certified to impact requirements of EN1621-4: Yes, Level 1

• Additional body armour: EN1621 Level 2 chest, Level 1 back (semi-rigid), Level 1 elbow and shoulders.

• Certified to CRITT: No

There are a lot of components so there are a lot of certificates and levels, but the shirt meets CE for the appropriate component.

The airbag bladder is certified as Level 1 under the impact requirements of the CE airbag test for both chest and full back. This means the transmitted force was between 2.5kN and 4.5kN when hit with a kerb-shaped striker with 50 Joules of kinetic energy (5kg dropped from one metre).

This is not the highest level, but off-road riders tend not to share space with cars. We might hit trees and rocks but usually at lower speed. If we do fall at higher speeds it’s more likely to be a highside or lowside with no other vehicles involved.

Comfort on and off the bike

The Tech-Air Off-Road system is comfortable for a garment of its type. I have a Leatt 5.5 shirt with hard-shell armour, and some soft-armour shirts. The Alpinestars shirt’s comfort is similar to the Leatt, but it’s not as comfortable as a shirt with soft armour. I’m aware I’m wearing it, whereas a shirt with soft armour may become unnoticeable on a ride.

There’s a lot of stretch in the garment material so there are few additional adjustments available or needed. The only adjustable straps are the chest-to-back side straps, which can be adjusted for length to tighten up the girth. They are also stretchy, to accommodate the inflated airbag.

While riding there are no ergonomic limitations. I ride very physically with lots of body movement to wrestle my bikes over and around obstacles. My terrain is very technical, so I need a full range of motion and the shirt gives me that.

I can feel its presence, but I don’t mind that because safety is my highest priority. It’s similar to my attitude with footwear - I wear motocross boots rather than adventure boots because I accept extra weight in return for better protection.

The sleeves are possibly too comfortable and minimalistic and some restraint mechanism for the elbow armour would be helpful. There’s nothing to stop the sleeve sliding up or the elbow armour rotating.

This is a curious omission because the final development model of this shirt had sleeve straps, as do other Alpinestars products for similar riding styles.

I’d accept a bit of strap tension on my forearm to keep the elbow armour more secure. Alternatively, a thumb loop, thumb strap or wrist strap would keep the sleeve from riding up.

There’s 3D mesh inside the chest portion of the airbag and a spacer mesh in the same area at the back, to promote air-gapping and allow airflow between skin and the impermeable bladder.

It’s somewhat effective but I feel there’s an opportunity for somebody to find a better active ventilation or cooling solution.

Mongolia is mainly cold with just a short, warm summer so I’ve generally layered over and under the shirt to block wind and add insulation. I’ve ridden throughout the winter and been perfectly comfortable. In mild or cold climates I think most riders will either be thankful of the bladder’s vapour barrier effect or tolerate it well.

I wore my shirt in Indonesia in hot and humid weather and it was tolerable on roads at cruising speeds but not exactly comfortable.

There’s no getting around the fact that a bladder will block direct airflow but there is some secondary airflow thanks to the spacer mesh on the chest and back.

During short stops, it was just about tolerable, but it’s preferable to keep stops short to avoid sweating buckets.

For longer stops, you’d definitely want to take it off or at least fully unzip it. For off-road riding with lots of exertion, such as enduro-style in high heat and humidity, I’m making an educated guess that you risk heat exhaustion.

Convenience

When used as a single-layer garment, where there is no abrasion risk, it’s a very convenient all-in-one garment. You could certainly wear it against your skin.

It’s no harder to put on than any semi-rigid armoured motocross/enduro shirt. But it is a bit less convenient than a pure zip-up jacket, such as a shirt with soft armour.

Two straps on the zip side add a few seconds of extra work, but serious off-road riders who want all the protection possible won’t find the shirt a serious impediment to their gearing-up routine.

When you zip up the shirt a magnetic switch automatically connects and you’ll feel a strong haptic feedback vibration on your chest to tell you the system is armed.

You can also visually check the display switch at the lower chest portion of the shirt. A solid blue LED means you’re ready to go and the green LED will display which riding mode you have selected.

I’ve been using Enduro mode for the majority of my rides, except for my holiday in Indonesia when I changed to Street. The system remembers my setting between uses, which is a welcome feature.

If you need to change mode just hold the button once for about three seconds to toggle between modes.

When stopping for a significant break it’s wise to turn off the system. Alpinestars warns that falls and knocks (hugs, slaps, etc) might cause an unwanted deployment. On that, I’ve found it rather forgiving so I feel Alpinestars is probably just covering its legal bases.

To disarm, unzipping the jacket will separate the magnets and a strong haptic vibration will tell you the system is disarmed. Or holding the power button for seven seconds will turn it off. In any case, the haptic vibration is very strong and reassuring. I find it hard to see the display without using a mirror, and dirt bikes don’t have mirrors. If the display is under an outer layer then it’s even more awkward to see, so I’ve come to trust the haptic vibration.

After turning off with the button, you’ll need to unzip and zip back up to re-arm the system. The power button doesn’t turn on the system, it only turns it off.

For long-term storage, shipping or flying (with caveats), there’s a shipping switch inside the back hump. You’ll need to turn this on when you first receive the shirt, and it’s recommended to charge the battery for 12 hours on first receiving the shirt.

The 30-hour battery life makes charging a very rare requirement for me. The shirt is fitted with a very convenient USB-C port on the main switch in the lower chest and there’s no need to remove anything to access it.

Unfortunately my main USB-C charging port was dead when the shirt arrived with me. Alpinestars’ support team were unable to diagnose the problem without me returning the jacket, which was prohibitively expensive when sending from Mongolia.

I took a deeper dive myself and was able to fix it. There was a loose wire from the ECU to the chest power switch, which I reattached. Luckily for me I’m handy with electrical kit, but that’s disappointing quality control from Alpinestars.

It’s worth noting that the USB-C port on the ECU can also be used to charge the battery. This is not mentioned in the manual, but I discovered this when the chest USB-C port was not working. I believe the main purpose of the port on the ECU is diagnostics, but remember you can charge with it too if that need ever occurs - perhaps if the chest port is damaged.

I hope to have my system for four years or four deployments, whichever comes first. Four deployments is the manufacturer’s hard limit due to the stress on the airbag bladder. The manual says the system will refuse to arm after four deployments. It’s counting!

At that point it will require servicing at the nearest Tech-Air service centre, which in my case is probably back in the UK with BKS Leathers. The service would cost around £300 for two new canisters and a new bladder.

Alpinestars recommends the entire system is retired after 10 years.

There’s a phone app (for Apple or Android), which I use sometimes but not often. I’ve never had a problem connecting my iPhone 12 to the shirt when it’s armed. Occasionally I’ve used it to track my ride and then exported the data to Google Earth Pro and I use it to check my battery level more precisely than the LEDs.

The LEDs show the battery status in very rough increments, but it’s fairly intuitive: green (above eight hours’ charge), yellow (four-eight hours) and red (one-four hours when static, under one hour when flashing).

The user manual says four hours are required to recharge a discharged battery, depending on the USB charger used. The first battery charge may require around 12 hours. A fully charged battery will provide approximately 30 hours of use, but if time is limited a one-hour charge will provide around eight hours of use.

It’s worth noting that I have been able to take the shirt on six international flights, but security asked me to remove the lithium-ion battery and take it in my carry-on luggage. This is understandable due to blanket restrictions on li-ion batteries in checked luggage.

Fortunately, the battery is removable but you’ll need to unplug it from the ECU circuit board. Alpinestars claims it should be sufficient to just switch it off on the ECU, but my experience was different.

Build Quality

The build quality is excellent with flawless stitching and materials choice. However, just like similar garments, the area likely to wear most quickly is the main chassis of lightweight stretch airtex. Having said that, I've seen no wear and tear after 9 months of regular use. To make it last longer, it would be wise to wear an outer garment to fend off cut and tear hazards.

Washing

Alpinestars suggests wiping down with a damp cloth to remove mud and insects. If you feel the need to give it a full wash, it gets much more complicated as you’ll have to strip the garment to its core components.

The user manual shows all the steps, but it could be a daunting amount of work.

Even after stripping out everything removable (electronics, bladder, limb armour) you still cannot wash the garment in a machine. You’re supposed to wash the stripped garment by hand, probably in a bathtub.

To avoid such frequent requirement for washing I suggest wearing a base layer and an outer garment that are easily washed and wiped.

The shirt is not waterproof, but I’d say it’s rain-resistant. The back compartment doesn’t have a gasket seal of any kind and I could see water getting in there.

If you get caught in the rain without a waterproof jacket, open the ECU compartment after your ride and let it dry out if there’s any sign of water ingress.

The shirt has no material on the armpits, so the main part that could get stinky would be the back and chest.

If you elect, as recommended, to have the system checked every two years (or after 500 hours of use, whichever comes first) your Alpinestars service centre will wash the chassis for you. Lucky them!

Costs

I bought two extra canisters at the time of purchase because it was cheaper to package them in the initial shipment than buy later. It’s worth noting after four deployments the system has to be sent back to Alpinestars (or an authorised Tech-Air facility) for a bladder and canister replacement for about £300 plus shipping both ways.  If you reach the four-year mark without deploying four times your canisters will likely have expired and will need replacing.

Three alternatives to the Alpinestars Tech-Air Off-Road System airbag

Looking just at airbags designed solely for off-road use, here are some other options…

• The Helite Off-Road Vest appears to take the firm’s e-Turtle technology, adds a second inflation canister, semi-rigid chest and back armour and soft limb armour. It removes the hip portions of the bladder. It focuses on core protection with no active or passive side fall protection at the lateral ribs and no active protection at the outer shoulders. It costs £995.99 in the UK.

• Motocross and enduro clothing company Shot Race Gear has worked with In&Motion to develop a dedicated vest that combines its airbag with D3O chest and back armour. The algorithm has been developed for off-road competition and there are modes for motocross and for enduro, cross-country and rally raid riding. The Shot SRG-1 costs €399.99 plus the usual costs of either buying or leasing the In&Motion ECU that controls it (£400 to buy, £120/year or £12/month to lease).

• If you’re engaging in less animated off-road riding, In&Motion airbag vests are available from several manufacturers, including Held, Furygan, RST and Klim. These have an off-road mode you can select from the phone app, which may suit your needs.

Bennetts BikeSocial has reviewed most of the current systems on the market, and you can find our complete, unbiased buying guide to the best motorcycle airbags here.

Alpinestars TechAir Off-Road System airbag - Verdict

The Alpinestars Tech-Air Off Road Shirt meets all my requirements, with some minor caveats.

The initial cost is high but if I have a serious tumble I want to prevent or reduce the possibility of hospitalisation, recovery time and potentially life-changing injury.

If you’re a dual-sport or adventure rider who traverses a variety of riding terrain I think this system would be a good choice. The three different riding modes should cover you for a wide variety of riding conditions.

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