Airbag technology continues to move forward, with the new Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 Plasma serving riders on street, dirt and tracks, and also going longer between required inspections.
Previous Alpinestars Tech-Air systems might have worked for all these scenarios, but they certainly were not recommended to use that way. Now, the new Tech-Air 5 Plasma can be switched into whatever mode the user needs for that day’s riding. Just the thing a dual sport or ADV rider, who might switch between high-speed asphalt and slow-speed off-roading in a trip, might need.

The other big upgrade is that the Tech-Air 5 Plasma can be inflated six times before it needs to return to Alpinestars for examination. The latest-generation Tech-Air Off-Road vest could only handle four inflation cycles before needing to be returned—but one advantage that vest had was dual onboard gas canisters, meaning you could inflate the vest twice before needing to reload it. The new Tech-Air 5 Plasma only has a single onboard canister; it must be reloaded after every deployment. The previous Off-Road vest would probably be better for enduro racers and other off-road competition, for that reason.

The new Tech-Air 5 Plasma vest recharges via USB-C port and the battery, when new, will last for 30 hours of riding. An onboard LED tells you when the vest is ready for use; to see your battery strength, you can connect to the vest via Bluetooth-enabled mobile app.
That’s only the beginning of the onboard tech. The vest’s airbag is governed by onboard circuitry that relies on six sensors, including two triaxial sensors, that feed 3D positioning data into the system, letting the vest know when it should deploy.

All in, it looks like a much better vest than previous versions, or at least more versatile. MSRP in the U.S. market is $789.95 USD; we haven’t seen a Canadian price tag yet, and we also don’t know the price of the gas canisters for recharging the vest after deployment.