Honda patents three new airbag designs

Michelle Liew

June 16, 2021

Last spotted in the Gold Wing, Honda may be venturing into more options with its ideas of a motorcycle-mounted airbag.

Honda Gold Wing- the production bike with an airbag system.

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15 year has passed since Honda came out with the world’s first production motorcycle airbag system as an option on the Gold Wing back in 2006. In more than a decade, the Gold Wing remains the only production bike that comes with an airbag. Recently, it was reported that the firm has filed patent applications for three new airbag designs that may be implemented on future production bikes.

Honda’s idea of the airbag stems from the research regarding bike injuries. In 2003, the firm noted that 68% of riders suffer injuries due to frontal collisions. The majority of those injuries are caused by riders hitting cars, the road or any other object. As such, the feasible solution was to install an airbag to reduce harm.

According to Cycle World, the reason for the system being limited to Gold Wing may be due to modelling.

To work out how to make an airbag effective, designers need to be able to predict the movement of the rider during an accident. In a car, that’s easy—the driver and passengers are strapped in place and don’t move about much. On a bike, riders tend to hang off in corners, sit up, crouch down, lean from side to side—it’s a much more physical activity than driving, and one that means there’s no guarantee of precisely where the rider will be, or what pose he will be in, in the event of a crash. The Gold Wing is, of course, an exception to that rule; its seating is designed to be car-like, minimizing rider movement, and thus making it easier to design an airbag that will work.

-Cycle World