Tech-Air App

I’ve had the vest for 3 days and haven’t been able to use it. Why? The app. This is a review of the app not the vest. I get the vest home a s fully charge it. I download the app and I can’t pair the vest with the app. The says already a paired. I call and I have to email tech support they won’t take phone calls. They keep telling me to do the same thing and I keep telling them (via email) that it doesn’t work. I call again and I get someone who tells me that it wa likely paired to another phone at some point. So they have to reach to Italy and have them unpair the vest with the previous phone. After that gets done(a day later) the app won’t update the firmware. Again I can’t talk to anyone they make me email them. We are about 12 emails in at this point and I’ve gotten zero help. They keep telling me to do stuff I’ve already tried..”send a picture of this, you must do that to make the download work” and I keep telling them I’ve done this. I’ve given them my phone number and they won’t call me. I’m going on day 4. The reason I can’t use the vest is that it’s in race mode and I won’t use it on the street learning to ride when it’s stuck in race mode. I’m sure the vest is solid but the fact I can’t use it because of an app is stupid. Alpinestars invest in technology for your app or just get rid of it and hire tech phone support so you don’t drive your customers insane with frustration.

I had a similar problem as some of the other reviewers. I couldn’t install the firmware update until deleting and reinstalling the app onto my phone. Then it worked perfectly fine, took about six or seven minutes to install the update. I am still disappointed with the app and confused, because none of my rides display acceleration or top speed. The display looks totally different too I h ave to slide and swipe right swipe left to view my rides whereas in the video online there’s a list of them beneath. I am a bit disappointed, I thought I would be able to view my lane angle as well, and that doesn’t seem possible either, unless it’s available in race mode or something (I’ve only use street mode so far). I’ve read elsewhere online that as long as the vests LED lights follow the start up procedure in the manual, and that the green LED is lit afterwards, the bag is armed and ready to provide protection; so you don’t really need the app to work perfectly. But yes, after having spent over $800 on this thing, it is a disappointing experience. I don’t even know what kind of data is going into the phone from my vest – it could just be using my phones tracking and location to record my ride just like any other GPS. It’s not telling me anything I couldn’t learn from some other GPS app. But I do love the vest itself, but this review is not about the vest!

The update firmware is unreliable. Considering the nature of the app, to update the logic for the airbag that is supposed to protect us motorcycle riders in the event of an accident, I expect the firmware updater to work flawlessly. I’ll elaborate: I primarily run this app on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Since I’ve owned the Tech-Air 5 system, I’ve had two notices that I need to update my firmware. When I plug the airbag into power and attempt to update it, the “update” button is disabled and the screen says I am running the most current version. However, when I download this app on my iPod Touch, I am able to download and apply the firmware update. So I am sure there are plenty of riders out there that think they are running the current firmware if they are experiencing the same bug that I am on the iPhone and not aware of it. I have attempted to contact support via the contact form inside this app and I never get a response. Truly disappointing for a $800 piece of gear.