After getting myself riding again this summer, time came to accept delivery of my new custom race suit from Ryder Gear. I worked with owner Tony to match the unique (and awesome) color scheme of Random Racing while also sizing to match my body measurements. The result is the most comfortable (thank you, kangaroo leather), best fitting, and most beautiful race suit I have owned. We even did matching gloves and boots.

Besides the suit itself I’m also excited about the integrated Helite airbag. I’ve now raced integrated airbags from Dainese, Alpinestars, and Helite, and crashed in both the first two. I wanted to try something other than Alpinestars after feeling like my airbag did not inflate in either of the crashes that led to shoulder surgeries. I appreciate that like Alpinestars, the Helite bag includes an integrated back protector, so I don’t have to wear anything extra. The Alpinestars bag turned itself on with a velcro/magnetic closure which I occasionally had issues with forgetting to close properly. By contrast, the Helite bag just needs to be turned on once in the morning with a button on the hump and then no extra switch is needed when you put on the suit. This is good as long as you remember to turn it on in the morning (and off at the end of the day) but does have a liability if you forget either of those steps. The Dainese system has the best switch system where the button closure on the front of the suit turns it on – impossible to forget to button up when you put it on, and nothing to forget at the end of the day either.

The Helite bag is also end-user serviceable simply by replacing the CO2 canister which is a feature that should be quite valuable in the event of crash. Both Dainese and Alpinestars require sending the system back to the manufacturer for service.