Dainese Smart Jacket review | Electronic airbag vest tested

Date reviewed: September 2024 | Tested by: John Milbank | Price: £599 | www.dainese.com

The Dainese Smart Vest on review here is designed to be worn over or under your existing riding kit, and offers a good level of protection in a lightweight, surprisingly breathable (for an airbag) design.

It doesn’t need any connections to the bike, or any subscriptions, so I’ve been using it – along with other systems – for more than two years on an R1250GS, ZX-6R, Zontes ZT350-T and an S1000XR to find out whether it’s comfortable and convenient enough to be worth the money…

Note that the Smart Jacket Lady is also available for women.

To properly understand the certification standards used, and to choose the most protective, please visit our guide to the best motorcycle airbags here

Pros & Cons

Features

The Dainese D-air Smart Jacket weighs 2.00 kg and is made of a polyester mesh that allows air to pass through everywhere that there’s no airbag bladder. The vest is designed to sit over your existing kit, or under it thanks to stretch panels on the sides and wide arm holes.

On the front, the two chest bladders are cleverly folded, so they take up less space on the chest. While obviously they’ll restrict airflow to some degree – and when worn over your jacket they’ll block any chest vents – the mesh outer and 3D mesh liner mean a fair bit of air can pass through and around.

An impressive three pockets feature on the front of the Dainese Smart Jacket, with one on the right chest, and two larger (big enough for a Google Pixel 7 Pro phone) on the waist. This additional storage will be welcomed by anyone who wears the vest over the top of their other gear. The waist pockets sit below the airbag, but the one on the chest sits over it, so be careful what you put in there.

If worn under your other gear, Dainese says that there must be at least 5 cm (2 inches) of space inside the front and rear (before adding the vest) to ensure there’s room for expansion. If you’re in any doubt, check the fit with your dealer.

Dainese states that the Smart Jacket should not be worn on any off-road routes that involve jumps or ‘serious strain on your motorcycle’, and it’s not intended for track use, as the company says ‘the dangerous dynamics professional riders might experience on track are different from those that statistically occur on the open road.’ While an average rider like me has had no problems using this on track, Dainese suggests its £2,249 Misano one-piece D-air leathers (available in men’s or women’s sizes) or its £3,999 Mugello D-air one-piece leathers. It’s not recommended to wear this or any other standalone vest under zipped-together leathers or one-piece leathers unless they’ve been designed for it, as they can lift during inflation and cause a groin injury. To put it another way, they could cause a really serious wedgie.

As well as a women’s version for £599, Dainese also makes the same vest in hi-viz for £524.96, in leather for £545.96, or with long sleeves that incorporate Level 2 (the highest level) type B (the larger size) armour in the shoulders and elbows for £573.30. Harley-Davidson also has its own branded version of the vest, though that costs £754. Ducati charges £619 for its one.

While the connectors and control box are sealed, the Smart Jacket's user guide states that in the event of rain, the airbag should be protected by a waterproof jacket.

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Can you wear the Dainese Smart Jacket with a rucksack?

There’s no issue with wearing a rucksack with the Dainese Smart Jacket, but it’s important that there’s space in the straps for if it inflates, which also means that chest harness bags (like Kriega packs and the new Oxford Atlas) shouldn’t be fastened at the front.

Personally, I find the positioning of the inflators on the back of the Smart Jacket can make it uncomfortable to wear a rucksack at times, especially if it’s under your jacket, but check for yourself if this is important to you.

Trigger method

A combination of accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS are used to detect a crash without any connection to the motorcycle. If your speed drops below 6mph, or there’s no GPS signal, the Smart Jacket senses the vibration of the bike’s engine. That means it’s not suitable for electric bikes when they’re stationary – or if you turn the engine off – as it would disarm itself and could leave you vulnerable. In testing, once armed it stays that way while I’m sat on a running bike. Turning the engine off it saw it disarm within a few seconds, but once I fired up the engine again, the D-air automatically armed again.

I did find that if I sit in just the right position on my four-cylinder ZX-6R I can make the vest think the engine’s off, but in all normal circumstances it stays armed reliably.

The Dainese vest is designed to fire if you hit an object while riding, or if an object hits you at a standstill, as well as in low-sides and high-sides.

Dainese won’t share the trigger and inflation time of the Smart Jacket, though the automotive-style inflator is likely to be around the same speed as those used by Alpinestars and In&Motion.

Dainese’s first airbag system was tested in 2007, and data is collected from any device that’s been sent back to an authorised repair agent after deployment to refine the algorithm.

Can you accidentally trigger the Dainese Smart Jacket?

I’ve not had any accidental deployment with the Smart Jacket, and reports of it happening are hard to find online, though if it did occur, the system would undergo a detailed analysis, and if it was found to be a malfunction, it would be repaired under warranty.

The Dainese Smart Jacket uses two inflators to inflate

Protection & Certification

As with any airbag that can be worn over the top of your gear, you need to consider abrasion to the vest in an accident. Some (like the mechanically-triggered MotoAirBag) are designed to offer abrasion resistance, but there’s not as much protection for the airbag bladder housed inside the Dainese Smart Jacket if you do slide down the road with it on the outside.

However, there are a few things to consider:

• In urban environments, impact injuries are more likely than sliding

• On open roads, the most dangerous impacts are likely to occur before sliding

• An impact after a long slide is less likely to be as serious

• The chest and back are not considered critical areas for abrasion

However, the safest way to use an airbag like this (and the least likely to see it damaged beyond repair) is to wear it inside your riding kit.

While there’s no official certification standard for electronically-deployed airbags, Dainese has used the impact requirements of EN1621-4 (the standard for mechanical airbags), to help riders compare the protection offered. The Smart Jacket meets the requirements of the highest Airbag Level 2 at the chest, meaning it transferred less than or equal to 2.5kN (compared to the requirements of a traditional passive Level 2 amour, which is ≤9kN), and Airbag Level 1 at the back (≤4.5kN). Dainese’s figures indicate an impressive result of 2.11kN (mean) at the chest, and a fractional miss of Level 2 at the back with 2.58kN.

The chest is a ‘divided’ design, meaning that the two front bladders are split, but the gap between them is very small, so offers great protection across the front. To meet the requirements of EN1621-4, the gap must be no more than 40mm.

The rear is a ‘central back’ design, which means it doesn’t cover the shoulder blades, though it is still fairly wide, covering 19cm.

The airbag bladder is unique to Dainese, being a clever microfilament design that controls the expansion of the bag

Two channels run over the shoulders to feed the chest bladders, but these don’t inflate very thick, so any support they give to the head is more limited. Note that no airbag typically offers much useful protection to the collar bones, as breaks here tend to be caused by impact onto outstretched arms.

Head support varies across airbag systems, but it is well worth considering. I spoke to Consultant Spinal Surgeon Mr Ivan Vidakovic, who told me that in an accident a rider will naturally tense their neck muscles – which can give some protection to the spine – but severe movement forwards, backwards or even to the sides could result in spinal injury (that could lead to paralysis), so neck support can be extremely valuable.

Unique to Dainese is the microfilament design of the airbag bladders, which sees millions of tiny threads internally connecting the front and back of the bag. This results in a bladder than can fill evenly and extremely firmly (thanks to the two argon canisters that fire together), while not distorting like a traditional tube.

The Dainese airbag system stays fully inflated for at least five seconds, and deflates fully after about 30.

From April 21 2018, all new motorcycle clothing is deemed to be Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). To meet this legislation, it must be tested to a recognised standard. For more information on the new laws, click here.

Check the inflator on the lower back doesn’t get in the way

Comfort on and off the bike

The mesh construction of the Dainese Smart Jacket is impressive, allowing air to pass through wherever there’s no airbag bladder, and around the inside thanks to the 3D mesh. While of course wearing it will still have some impact in hot weather, Dainese has done an admirable job in making this surprisingly airy.

Velcro straps at the sides of the waist allow adjustment in the fit, and the amount of stretch means that my usual size large fits comfortably over my jackets, as well as under them.

When I first started wearing the Dainese Smart Jacket I thought the inflators – which sit around my kidneys – were a little more noticeable than I’d like, but now I don’t really find them much of an issue. Whether I’ve just got used to them, or the 8kg or so of cake I’ve put on has added a little comfort padding to my back I wouldn’t like to say, but they’re fitted inside a pair of wide, curved plastic cases, and backed by a dense foam that, combined, should spread the load in case of a crash and are certified to offer at least Level 1 protection in an impact without the bag deployed, which means that in testing, less than or equal to 35kN was transferred.

Worn under other kit, the Dainese is a touch more bulky than the Alpinestars Tech-Air 3, for instance, so check your sizing. It’s also potentially a little more noticeable when worn over other gear, but not uncomfortably so and either way, the ventilation can be welcome in hot weather.

A clever design feature of the Tech-Air 3 is a hidden strap in the rear that allows you to bundle the vest up for storage. Bundled up, it measures about 35 x 23 x 14cm

Convenience

The Dainese Smart Jacket airbag vest doesn’t pack up as compact as the Alpinestars Tech-Air 3, but it can be folded enough to tuck into your luggage.

The magnetic trigger secures inside the left of the vest to prevent it arming when hanging up, which is handy, but it doesn’t always find its place when zipping closed, so occasionally needs a little attention to get it sat correctly.

The battery lasts up to 26 hours of use from a full charge, which isn’t as good as some of the competition, but will likely be enough for a week of riding for most users, and charging from flat takes about four hours. The battery life is clearly displayed during the boot-up sequence, so it’s no problem to notice that it’s gone to yellow when putting it on, and charge it up later…

While not a user-serviceable item, it’s good to see that the 2,400mAh battery should be replaceable if necessary

Accessing the charging port is unnecessarily fiddly as you need to unzip the bottom, move a mesh section out of the way, open a Velcro flap then lift a silicone cover off the USB-C port.

Registering and updating the Dainese is also a chore as there’s no smartphone app, and everything has to be done by downloading the Dainese D-air road application to your Mac or PC. You’ll get an email if an update’s available, then need to plug the vest into the computer.

A shipping mode can be activated through the computer, or via a recessed button tucked to the side of the USB-port.

To be fair, I’ve reviewed the Dainese Smart Jacket very late in its life – it’s been on the market for a long time now – and I’m sure the company will address things like this in a future road product as the race systems are already entirely wireless (and have user-replaceable inflators).

Build quality

As you’d expect, the build quality of the Dainese Smart Jacket is very good, though the clunky charging port access could have used more thought. Otherwise, the mesh build and three pockets make for a decent bit of kit.

Washing

The Dainese Smart Jacket should only be cleaned using a damp cloth and conditioner-free soapy water (which must all be removed with fresh water). The airbag bladder and main control unit can be removed, but some electronics and wiring remain in the vest, so the plugs must be covered with a bag or tape, and it can’t be submerged for hand-washing.

Given the mesh construction that can collect bugs, it’s a shame this can’t be more easily – and thoroughly – hand washed.

Costs

At the time of writing, the Dainese Smart Jacket airbag vest retails at £599, with street prices at £475.75. There are no ongoing subscription costs, and while a service is required every three years, this is free.

Servicing involves checking the inflators, wiring, bladder, seams etc, as well as updating the software if necessary. This can be done at the Dainese UK distributor – Nevis – or at Bike Stop in Stevenage, Infinity in Camberley or Bridge Motorcycles in Exeter.

If the airbag is deployed, the bladder and two gas canisters need to be replaced by Nevis, which costs £239.95, but accidental deployments are very rare, and if one did occur, Nevis would look closely at the data to see if it’s a warranty issue.

Worn over the top of my favourite Spada Temper Trucker jacket, the Dainese is comfortbale and unrestrictive

Three alternatives to the Dainese Smart Jacket

There are plenty of options when it comes to motorcycle airbags, and the tech is constantly evolving. This review will also shortly be updated to include a video guide to all the main products on offer, but here are some other electronic versions to consider…

• Alpinestars Tech-Air 3, £519.99 | The Tech-Air 3 is an Airbag Level 2 chest and back protector that can fold up extremely compact thanks to its lightweight design, though it’s not got the highly breathable mesh construction of the Dainese Smart Jacket. Read the full review of the Alpinestars Tech-Air 3 here.

• Alpinestars Tech-Air 5, £669.99 | The Tech-Air 5 offers more protection than the Tech-Air 3, but that of course comes with a little more bulk, and it’s only designed to be worn under your other kit. Read the full review of the Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 here.

• MotoAirBag V4 | This is a mechanically-triggered system, though it uses an extremely clever ‘Fast Lock’ that allows full freedom, then locks during violent movement to allow for very fast activation. Fully certified front and back to EN1621-4 Airbag Level 2, it’s abrasion resistant and can be worn as a vest over the top of other gear, or on its own as a mesh jacket with the removable armoured insert. Read the full review of the MotoAirBag V4 here.

DO NOT be tempted by cheap airbags sold on the likes of Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Temu and Facebook marketplace. These are often rebranded cheap flotation devices that do not inflate quickly enough to offer protection. Read our report of dangerous and illegally-sold airbags on Amazon here.

These are just three of many alternatives – you can find all the airbags we’ve tested here  and be sure to regularly check for the discounts available through Bikesocial membership.

Dainese Smart Jacket review: Verdict

By certifying to the requirements of EN1621-4, Dainese has proven the impressive levels of protection offered by the Smart Jacket. The mesh construction adds a little bulk to this airbag vest, but it also makes it impressively breathable, fitting very well under or over most of my kit. The charging port is a little awkward to get to, and the lack of over-the-air updates can be irritating, but overall this is an excellent piece of motorcycle kit and comes highly recommended.

Do you own this airbag? Tell us what it’s like, or ask us questions about it at bikeclub.bennetts.co.uk.