I have ridden and commuted by motorbike even when I lived down in London for many years without any accidents. So I consider myself a competent and street smart biker. With the seemingly decreasing standards of roadcraft of other road users, I was experiencing more ‘near misses’ when out and about on my bike. I toyed with the idea of an airvest/jacket and looked at all the options in the market and the pros and cons from the different manufacturers. I decided to go for the Helite Electronic System Vest that has bike fork sensors also and does not need attached to the bike by a tether. I bought it last August from Peter at Airvest UK. It was great service at the time and when it arrived I was very happy with the vest and you really don’t notice it on when riding and it does not impair any movement or feeling of freedom in anyway. It is something that I hoped I would wear and never test out. Unfortunately in April this year I got hit from the side by a car that ‘didn’t see me’ even although the airvest is high viz yellow and my helmet is bright also. I know what it is like to come off a bike as have done some offroad riding in the past and falling off is inevitable and it hurts and does damage. However thanks to my Helite airvest, before I had hit the ground it had fully inflated and the only way I can describe it is like landing on a kidsbouncy castle. When I stood up I realised how much it had inflated and most importantly as a biker, feeling how much it had isolated my neck and helmet from big movements. It undoubtedly saved me from a minimum of heavy concussion and broken bones or much worse. To put it in perspective, I was able to play golf the next day, just feeling a little stiff, but that was it. Much of my bike gear now needs replaced but the Airvest is just a bit markedand I got a new canister for it and fitted that in a few minutes and it is good to go again and the LED lights on the vest tell me that it is fine again. It is impressive how little damage the fall and impact did to the Airvest versus the rest of my bike gear. Thank you Peter and Helite and I will never go out on a bike again without wearing my Airvest.