The new Ducati Smart Jacket is designed as a vest to be worn over, or under, any motorcycle jacket, and comes with Dainese D-air airbag technology to offer extra safety.
Inflatabale crash protection has become increasingly popular for motorcyclists, and it’s very common in MotoGP and other racing series as a way to reduce injury in a crash. And the Smart Jacket is a way to add it without needing to replace your complete riding kit.
Aside from Ducati confusing people by naming it a jacket rather than vest, it looks like a potentially good investment. The Ducati Smart jacket comes in male and female versions, and it’s ‘extremely’ ventilated, so you won’t overheat by adding it to your riding kit.
It’s also light and foldable, so you can easily put it into a backpack or bag. And it doesn’t require any connecting to your bike when you’re riding, so no annoying wires will get in your way.
The system works via an electronic control unit which analyses data 1,000 times per second, and detects dangerous situations such as sliding, high-siding, rear-end collisions or impacts. And the airbag system will then activiate.
When the airbag inflates, the micro-filament structure of the new Ducati Smart Jacket means it expands in a uniform and controlled way to create a shield which wraps around your body and apparently offers protection equivalent to seven level 1 back protectors.
We mentioned that you don’t need to wire yourself into your motorcycle for the jacket to work. All you need to do is register and activate the system online before you use it with the Ducati D-air App for Window PCs or Macs, and then ensure it’s charged via any USB socket. And with a 26-hour battery life, it should last long enough for any journey.
As you might imagine, the new Ducati Smart Jacket isn’t a budget purchase. For some reason it’s not yet listed on the official UK online store, but you can find your nearest Ducati dealer here, and looking at other listings, you’ll be looking at just over £500 or the equivalent in Euros.
With is about the same as the non-Ducati branded Dainese Smart Jacket (e.g. from Demon Tweeks), so you won’t be paying extra to match your motorcycle, or show allegiance to the Italian bike manufacturer, which is nice.
You can find more news and articles on motorcycle jackets and protection, here. Or check out all of our articles on new, classic and custom Ducati bikes, here.
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