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Motorcycles always have that ever-present danger of turning their operators into hamburger should the rider take a spill. Racing crashes are especially nasty, and while leathers do offer protection from road rash, cushioning impacts to the upper torso is key to increasing survivability. Dainese, a manufacturer of cycling equipment, has been working on an airbag system to help riders avoid injury called the D-Air suit. The system relies on accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors embedded in the suit, and when a computer determines there's a need, an upper-body airbag is deployed in less than a half a second. It looks like a similar, although much more complicated design, than the Airbag Jacket by Impact Jackets, which has already saved at least one life that we know about. Of course, this would all be avoidable if people didn't insist on climbing onto a powerful engine supported by the minimum of wheels and zooming around at the highest possible velocity, but what fun is that? Check out video of the Dainese D-Air suit after the jump.

[Source: Winding Road]

Some may view safety technologies such as blind-spot warning devices, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning devices as baby-steps towards the ultimate goal of removing the driver completely from the act of driving. We are not nearly ready to give up our licenses to computers, but enabling vehicles to "speak" to one another so that they "know" where they are might be an acceptable compromise. According to Motorcycle News, Yamaha and the powersports side of Honda have joined forces with 12 automobile manufacturers to make this type of technology a reality. Tests are currently underway in Japan which would alert drivers of impending danger when they might not be aware that a motorcycle is in their line of travel. Still, the next time that we are out for a motorcycle ride, we'll still act as if every other driver is intentionally trying to hit us. It's worked out for us so far.

[Source: Motorcycle News]

BMW has been known to come up with some interesting motorcycle designs, such as the Telelever, Duolever and Paralever suspension configurations. The above image, taken from a recent patent application, proves that the fertile engineering minds at BMW haven't stopped trying to improve the basic two-wheels-and-an-engine ethos of the motorcycle. Using a flexi-frame which pivots and hinges at most any conceivable location, the computer controlled chassis would be able to right itself even when the rider or outside influences would dictate a crash.

We don't have any real specifics to report on, but we'd imagine that some accelerometers and gyros must be in use here... or maybe a Wiimote or two?

[Source: Motorcycle News]