Exploratory Study of an Airbag Concept for a Large Touring Motorcycle: Further Research Second Report

Honda has been conducting feasibility research for airbags mounted on a motorcycle. The concept of this airbag system is “To reduce the injuries to a rider when impacting with an opposing vehicle and/or opposing object in frontal collisions by absorbing rider kinetic energy and by reducing rider separation velocity from motorcycle in the forward direction.” The study was reported to the 16th ESV conference in 1998 and the 17th ESV conference in 2001. However, the assessment of injury level using dummies was tentative, as the assessment method on the neck was not firmly established in ISO 13232. Reporting is made this time on the results of 12 cases of full scale impact tests in seven configurations based on ISO/CD 13232, which established the assessment method of injury to the neck, and on the results of computer simulation of 200 configurations, which calculate the process of dummies falling down to the ground. The base motorcycle on which the prototype airbag system was mounted for this study, the GL1800, is a model which succeeded the large touring motorcycle, GL1500, used in the previous studies. Furthermore, to grasp the effectiveness of an airbag in reducing injury potential, while minimizing the potential for inflicting injury, in addition to the assessment tests specified in ISO/CD 13232, full scale impact tests of other configurations and other rider conditions, as well as sled tests were conducted. It was judged from the results obtained that an airbag system for a large touring motorcycle is feasible.