Helite Turtle 2 vest users, that inside zipper?

[NovaGeeze]

Hey folks,
I just got a Helite Turtle 2 and inspecting it I see that little zipper inside, top center. The zipper slider in my vest has no pull on it, meaning it cannot be opened.
Wondering if that's normal. Not sure if there's anything in there that would need to be accessible. Seems a waste to return / exchange it for that.

 

[Rydinon]

My older vest has no zipper pull either - it looks just like your picture. I think this provides access to the air bladder - not something you will be doing on a daily basis.

 

[NovaGeeze]

Yeah, I thought that might be it. It's also one of those locking zippers (theres a spring wire inside the loop that the pull goes in, and that has to be pulled up for the zipper to be moved.) I moved it up with the blunt end of a thin wire and unzipped, it's just bladder access. So likely that way to prevent people like us from thinking we can use it for storage or otherwise mucking things up.

 

[Rydinon]

Yeah, I thought that might be it. It's also one of those locking zippers (theres a spring wire inside the loop that the pull goes in, and that has to be pulled up for the zipper to be moved.) I moved it up with the blunt end of a thin wire and unzipped, it's just bladder access. So likely that way to prevent people like us from thinking we can use it for storage or otherwise mucking things up.

Did you read my post #3 in this thread?. Fit is important. What size did you buy? Where are you anchoring the tether? I took a used cartridge, drilled it and put an automobile wheel valve on the bottom so I could screw the cartridge in to a vest and inflate it with a bicycle pump. The idea was to be able to fit the vest properly. However, I did it the expensive way by ahhh...testing the vest.

 

[NovaGeeze]

I have a medium. I'm pretty tall and the flap comes down over the top 1/3 or so of my butt. That's over my tailbone, but I suspect when inflated it would ride up and leave that vestigal tail uncovered. I don't think I can do anything about that. The chest is as tight as I can get it and fits a fist inside on each pec if I'm wearing a typical jacket. Helite said not to go to a small to get the chest tighter as it wouldn't be long enough. No way I can go up a size to an L (or an L-long) because the thing would be enormous on me. It's as good as I'm going to get with my tall marathon-runner build.

Mine fits a bit lower than this official photo from Helite, so I think I'm within spec, so to speak.

 

[NovaGeeze]

I have a medium. I'm pretty tall and the flap comes down over the top 1/3 or so of my butt. That's over my tailbone, but I suspect when inflated it would ride up and leave that vestigal tail uncovered. I don't think I can do anything about that. The chest is as tight as I can get it and fits a fist inside on each pec if I'm wearing a typical jacket. Helite said not to go to a small to get the chest tighter as it wouldn't be long enough. No way I can go up a size to an L (or an L-long) because the thing would be enormous on me. It's as good as I'm going to get with my tall marathon-runner build.

Mine fits a bit lower than this official photo from Helite, so I think I'm within spec, so to speak.

View attachment 54231

As for anchoring the tether, I haven't gotten it to the bike yet to figure that out.

 

[salishmoto]

I ride with a Helite and my zipper in that spot also has no pull. I've never even noticed there is a zipper there! The NC is unusual compared to all my other bikes as I could not find a suitable place to attach the tether under the front of the seat as I do on all my other bikes. On the NC I have to attach it to the handlebars. This is OK, as a low side or high side of any magnitude will still yank the tether. ATGATT should now include ATGATT+Vest in my humble opinion!

 

[Rydinon]

I ride with a Helite and my zipper in that spot also has no pull. I've never even noticed there is a zipper there! The NC is unusual compared to all my other bikes as I could not find a suitable place to attach the tether under the front of the seat as I do on all my other bikes. On the NC I have to attach it to the handlebars. This is OK, as a low side or high side of any magnitude will still yank the tether. ATGATT should now include ATGATT+Vest in my humble opinion!

I've not yet attached my tether, but I did explore the bike looking for places to anchor it. After you remove the seat, a tongue on the seat (front of seat, dead center) fits into a 'bridge' just abaft of the frunk. I thought I would wrap the tether around the right side of this plastic bridge, where the bolt anchors the bridge to the frame. You might look at this location. I don't want to use the handlebar because of possible entanglement issues.