Inside MotoGP, elbow on asphalt at 210 mph

In MotoGP, a most strange sport, compact, highly fit men, most of them Spanish, Italian, Japanese, or Australian, maneuver 350-lb., multimillion-dollar motorcycles around Formula 1 tracks at 210 mph while wearing computerized suits that inflate when they fall off at speed. It feels as though you’re watching Tron live, and the crashes are just as spectacular. Driving these things requires a lot of nerve, as well as generous levels of Euro-style machismo. The riders of MotoGP can’t walk down the street in Barcelona or Milan without being followed by screaming fans. They’re like some sort of unholy marriage between Daft Punk and Apollo astronauts. In the United States, they’re just guys walking down the street.

Though the riders are extremely skilled, the sport, like F1, also involves a rarified level of technology. Eight of the MotoGP riders, the ones who drive for Honda, Ducati, and Yamaha, the teams that actually have money, wear high-tech suits made by AlpineStars. The suits have airbags that can deploy across the collarbones — broken collarbones are the sport’s primary hazard — as well as the shoulders and hips, and down the length of the spine. The airbags get orders from sensors and software that can detect an accident coming within milliseconds, as well as digital lights across the arms that allow riders to monitor whether or not they’re working properly. When they do inflate, they’re effective and subtle, and deflate just as quickly. In previous iterations, riders were wired up like an EKG patient and after accidents would lurch down the burnout area like Michelin men turned zombies. These suits are much cooler, and have saved lives.

During a demonstration at the MotoGP race around the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, I saw how the suits include synthetic polymers at the elbows and knees, since part of the sports involves keeling the bikes over at 65-degree angles. The riders drag their elbows and knees to find out how close they are to the ground. The answer is usually: Very close. The suits are well-vented and made of leather.

“Either cow,” said the demonstrator, “or kangaroo.”

“Kangaroo?” I asked

“Yep,” said the demonstrator, who was Australian. “Jolly old kangaroo from the good old Outback,” he added, without a trace of irony. “The really expensive suits have the kangaroo leather. It’s a lot more durable."

After that revelation, we went on a tour of the Ducati garage, which was hidden from the public by a labyrinth of synthetic walls. The bikes are proprietary technology, and the top teams wage a steady algorithmic arms race. We arrived at an opportune time, because the mechanics and engineers had the bikes stripped away of their padding and fenders, and we could just see the underpinnings. Wires stretched all over the room and we could see the central computers of the bikes blinking and churning out data, like Robocop between missions. Across the garage, a team of lab-coat wearing engineers looked at the numbers, while an equal number of mechanics lovingly polished the shock absorbers like they were fine shoes.

“OK, you guys,” the Italian Ducati garage manager said, shuffling out after five minutes.  “Enough for you. The bikes must have secrets.”