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Motorcycle Safety and Awareness
Welcome to Think Bike, the podcast about all things motorcycle and the voice of motorcycle safety and awareness in Alberta. Your host is Liane Langlois.
Liane:Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of think bike. I am happy to bring back Moto Instincts creator, owner, extraordinaire, Leeroy Victor. I don't know how else to describe you, but we had you on last year. You've been helping us out with tips at the end of the episodes.
Liane:Thank you for that. Welcome back to the show.
Leeroy:Thanks for having me, Leanne. It's a pleasure to be here.
Liane:I want to start this one with just a reminder for people of who is Leeroy and what got you into riding?
Leeroy:So, I would say I'm a motorcycle enthusiast who is fixated on making training more accessible and more effective for the motorcycle community, and it's a serious problem here in Edmonton right now, just because for whatever reason, our schools have been dwindling and we were down to one last summer. It's not not a good situation.
Liane:Yeah. Not a good situation, but I mean, welcome to the team and the roster of Moto Instincts. I think I'm sure it's not, we're not breaking news at this point but
Leeroy:No.
Liane:But maybe for some people maybe are living under rock and haven't heard yet that Edmonton has received its second, again, we have two now licensed schools. So what is Moto Instincts and why did you create it? Obviously, the why is the need, but
Leeroy:I I think that what is Moto Instincts is contained within the name. It it took me a while to kinda find a name that I thought would be kinda somewhat cool, but also descriptive for what the the business is or the the school in general. And what I find is that when people get into riding, it's often for the right reasons. It's the same reason anybody else rides. It's for the adventure, the excitement, and for the challenge.
Leeroy:But the the problem is motorcycling, especially when compared to passenger vehicles, it's much more complex. It can be dangerous, and your your gaps in your skill and your awareness can cost you dearly. And the whole idea behind Moto Instincts is to give people the instincts ahead of time rather than learning things the hard way.
Liane:Yeah. That that's very important.
Leeroy:It is, yes. Because I mean, we've all we I'm sure we've either crashed ourselves and learned a lesson or nor people who have done things the hard way as well. So, we just wanna do things the easy way, and Moto instincts.
Liane:Well, and the easy way would be like better training and continuous training.
Leeroy:Yes, absolutely. And we one of the things that I'm focusing on is that the theory of training people better or that I'd be you could call it your end goal of having better more competent motorcycles with better safety awareness. That's great, but the way that you get there is actually training your instructors better first. And while I do have a comprehensive business plan for how I want to address these problems in the market, it starts with my instructors. And over the last couple years, I've been hand selecting folks, and I've been, I would say, refining my ideas about the science of learning and the the psychology behind it, and how you actually take someone who knows nothing about something and really guide them along a path that creates confidence, creates competence, and safety awareness.
Leeroy:And like I said, it starts with instructors, so it's gonna be one of my main focuses as my team members.
Liane:Absolutely, and we have your senior instructor, Kirk Pelletier on in a couple of weeks from this episode, and talk about what it's like to become an instructor and what that process is but for you specifically with Moto Instincts, again, congratulations.
Leeroy:Thank you.
Liane:Big efforts put into becoming a licensed school, can you talk a bit about what that process was like? Besides like, very long.
Leeroy:Yeah. I I would say it was a it it felt like I was climbing up a steep hill with in the dark and I I think a lot of it was that I wasn't able to get my own instructor license initially, so I was doing a lot of it. It kinda felt like like I said, was just walking through a dark room or a dark house, and I just didn't really know which direction to go. And and the problem is that there's a lot of credentials or boxes you gotta check-in order to open a school. And I mean, rightfully so.
Leeroy:It's not it's not child's play what we're doing here. It's quite serious, actually. And so there there was a lengthy process of finding out what I needed to do, who I needed to do it with, not just for the government credentials, but also for my personal success and the success of the business and the school. And then putting that into action through networking and getting connected with the government and just going through all the the hoops that I needed to go through, and it was quite a long process of learning what they what they needed and where I had to do the training. And at the throughout it almost took me the whole 2025 winter doing doing some of these steps.
Leeroy:And I mean, it was even building up before that, but it it was a long process of jumping through all the the right hoops and securing the where we're gonna be doing training and the lease agreement, and then the team members that are gonna carry out the operations plan.
Liane:Well, and we were happy to provide you with a letter of recommendation for the government as well, you know, there seems to be a plethora of schools available in the Calgary area and here we are in Edmonton down to one with the same amount of population and that's really hard for a school like TNT to take that demand on by themselves and, you know, so we're happy to have supported you through this. We're also happy in return for your support for what we do. And, you know, so but you're not doing this alone. You have like the Kirk Palchase, how many members are on your team?
Leeroy:My core team has has five members and we were training our or we have trained our our group of our, I guess, you could call them core instructors. So we we're around eight or nine currently. We are looking for future instructors and ways to expand our operations so that we can better service the community and the needs that of riders in the Edmonton area. So if anyone's interested, feel free to look up Moto Instincts, we can have that conversation. But I I would say that things really started to progress in positive ways when I was introduced to some of the the other the investors that were took interest in actually giving some some oomph to the some financial oomph to what we were doing, And then and also Clarence and the Alberta Motor Transport Association has been quite accommodating for allowing us to work in in their space because they're a huge organization that and they're more focused on the commercial end, and we're coming at the the problem, which is insufficiently trained operators, is what it boils down to, and we're coming at it from the the classic side.
Leeroy:And so there there's a lot of synergies, but they have done us some huge favors, us to work with them up by the airport.
Liane:Yeah, so you got your your big space and it's and it's great and a clearance of Blackjacks is attached to pretty much everybody that you needed Yeah. To to get attached to. So what what does this mean for Edmonton and area riders, specifically?
Leeroy:Well, I think that, like we touched on, the training capacity was quite low. So you I'm not sure what people are doing, but I mean, your only options are learning from a friend or just winging it, which are not the greatest.
Liane:Both are not good options. One better than the other, but still not both are not good.
Leeroy:Yeah. Absolutely. And so I I think that a lot of companies focus on the learn to ride aspect to it, and that's where we're gonna start as well. But we do have plans to support skill development for people who have their class six license as well as refining their skills for the the actual road exam. We are looking to get our online academy completely polished up and and released.
Leeroy:So with there's a lot of there's a lot to motorcycle riding. It's not just here's a bike, and now you can ride it and off you go. I it's more of a lifelong journey, and Moto Instincts is kinda it shares some of my values with personal development and really gaining excellence in your craft, whoever that might may be. And with motorcycles, not everybody has this attitude, but the the skill ceiling is quite high, and whether you wanna increase your safety or you wanna increase your skills, there's a lot of ways that Moto Instincts, once it's built out, is going to be able to just help folks do what they wanna do under the the riding umbrella.
Liane:Yeah, no, exactly, and I think that is one of the things that is going to set you apart is there is advanced rider training at other schools, but you, correct me if I'm wrong, when you were developing originally, it wasn't necessarily for that learn to ride. It was more for that advanced, that lack of advanced. Correct?
Leeroy:That is correct. The the main issue that I saw initially was that motorcycling is complex, and a learn to ride course is obviously where you need to start, but you can own anybody can only learn so much so fast, and you have to on on top of the human beings, if you consider us sponges, you can only absorb so much water before you have to take a breather, and that's with regards to knowledge. And then with skill, you have to refine that over months or years, I I would say. And so the the main problem that I saw is that you get your you get your learn to ride course, and you get your class six even, but then at that point, that's where a lot of the actual learning starts. The the first few steps, I would say, are potentially the easiest.
Leeroy:And the problem is that when you're doing all of your learning and you're trying to push your this is a really dangerous one, actually. It's trying to push your skills, but you're on public roads, that can really lead to to bad accidents. And so initially, I had started on focusing on the gap between a class six rider and a what you would consider a veteran seasoned rider who is competent and also aware of the danger around them. Whereas, when you first get your class six license, you're neither of those. And a lot of people mistakenly think they are, as soon as they have their class six.
Leeroy:So you're just getting started, buddy. And so, that was kind of the main goal of Moto Instincts, was to kind of fill that gap, because there's nothing there currently other than YouTube, really.
Liane:Yeah, no, there isn't. I would say that that continuous learning in motorcycles is no different than any other profession out there. Like I belong to CPHR Alberta and I have to do continuing education to keep on top of legislation changes or labored law changes or whatever else. And in motorcycling, things are always evolving, technology's always evolving, gear is always evolving, and your skills need to keep up with all of those changes as well. So it's kinda nice that there's going to be an option and now, like, as a registered school, licensed school, to be able to offer that to people.
Liane:Do you feel that like people who are gonna come up through your learn to ride probably would stick through for more. How are you going to attract maybe more experienced riders into understanding this advanced training is gonna be something that would benefit them?
Leeroy:To to put it simply, marketing, that's not lame. So so I think this is this is one of the problems, Leanne, is that often what the goal is is safety, and safety is important. Nobody wants to get hurt. But motorcyclists did not get into riding to be safe. They are they're chasing adventure.
Leeroy:They want excitement, and they want prestige. And at the end of the day, that's what I want to give them. It's you don't for example, you don't take an advanced cornering course. You you wanna take a a course that gives you more more understanding about cornering, and usually, people want to increase their lean angle or their speed. And we're not out here trying to get people to race on streets or to carry as much speed as you can through a turn.
Leeroy:But the thing is, even something like advanced training, I I do think that a lot of schools offer their their advanced courses here and there, but the problem is riders don't get into riding to do more work. And if you anything that's called training or a course or anything like that, it just seems like extra work. And so it doesn't actually tap into what riders want. Even if the end goal is the same, the way that things are presented, it it's kind of it's what's in it for them? Everyone's a little bit selfish.
Leeroy:And so I I do think that with Moto Instincts, we understand the riding community better than other schools out there. And it's not just because you need to ride, but it's because there's all these other things. You want adventure. You want competence. You want excitement.
Leeroy:All that stuff ties into what I would say is some clever marketing, and I'm hoping that brings some folks in. And I I think to your point earlier, once riders have interacted with the folks of Moto Instincts, we are, I would like to think, hold a a much higher standard than what you would generally experience. So not only do you get the results you want quickly, but it's also a really friendly learning environment, and it's just it it makes it much a much better experience when you are gaining the skills and the results that you want, while also being encouraged and supported throughout the process.
Liane:Yeah. Because you're going to kind of limit what the ratio is of instructors to students to make it a little more intimate versus just farming people through, and again, I'm not saying that's what other schools do, but I know when I was doing my rider training course, and we're not gonna say how long ago that was, there was, you know, we had two instructors for our group of like 10 to 12, and I think you're going to cap that a little bit better.
Leeroy:Yeah. So our ratio is one to three is what we're gonna be sticking with, and that allows more one on one time with instructors if if you want questions or you need clarification. But also, if somebody is struggling in a traditional setting where there's isn't the labor flexibility to take that person aside and really give them the attention they need, The traditionally, what would happen is the person like, I so I've seen this before with, say, someone who takes whatever program it is, and they don't completely understand the first exercise about clutch control. And then they do the rest of their twelve hour program of however long it is, and they don't even understand one of the key components of riding. And so what I've found in my experience is that if learning is is kinda like a a skill tree or connect the dots, dominoes, whatever you wanna call it.
Leeroy:There's a sequential order of learning, and it creates a neural pathway throughout your nervous system. And the thing is, if one of the first few connections is broken, it means that you can never properly develop into the fully developed motorcyclist that you wanna be. And that's one thing that we are intimately aware about, and we're trying to build it into our our operations plan where we not only have a one to three ratio, which gives us fallback options, but we also wanna or we will be offering private lessons. It's actually one of the one of our more common or one of our more popular booking styles is for if somebody doesn't want the pressure of a big class, doesn't want the time constraints, and they wanna work more at their pace without all these extra eyes looking at them and potentially feeling judged, it allows us to work in smaller groups where you can do all of your learning that way if you you so want to, and we do find that as quite popular.
Liane:So I'm gonna I wanna go back to your phrasing of courses feel like work, Yep. Yes. I wonder if that's why they because essentially, a track day is a course, but track day sounds really exciting.
Leeroy:Exactly.
Liane:Yeah. So yeah, you're gonna have to come up with something creative in marketing like that, but I wanna be clear and have this explained for people. Your advanced rider training is not a track day. What is the differentiation between the two, in your opinion?
Leeroy:It's a good question. I would say the biggest differentiators are track riding is a safe space for you to explore the limits of your machine, and I would say that our advanced training is a safe place, safe space for you to explore particular skills that relate to road riding. And it's not to say that you can't learn things at the track that will translate to the the street, but they're different environments.
Liane:Oh, absolutely. I know that I was taught some skills at a at a track day once down in Montana that did translate back to the road, but in rarity, I guess. Like, you know, on the track there's a specific focus and a specific skill that you need, whereas on the road, it's a different focus. Like, you have to worry about what they call the furniture, the cars, the trees, the signs, the whatever, right? So it's a little bit different on that.
Liane:I'm excited for all of this to continue to evolve. Weird question, are there some personal factors that you experienced that made you wanna create all the Moto Instincts programs?
Leeroy:Which ones? Are you talking about the more
Liane:Like did you did you have some personal oopses on motorcycles that made you go, I should create a program that, you know, might help people avoid doing things that I've done?
Leeroy:Absolutely. What the I actually started before I was working with any writers in person, I I created a you can almost call it a manifesto, but it was a and and so it was a a course that was written specifically about risk management, and I would say the most important course or chapter in the the initial writings was the the 13 deadly risks of riding. And what these are is they they are habits or actions that directly will cause motorcycle accidents, And several of those are are direct result of either I've had two crashes, and I've also watched my brother crash, and one of my friends when he was riding with me also, he he crashed. Thankfully, none of us were really seriously injured. But the point being is that I I think that while motors riding motorcycles is quite complex, it really does boil down to a lot of the same fundamental building blocks, whether it be skill or mindset or habits.
Leeroy:But these little things will make or break you in the long term. And I I think that's what really the focus of the course is, whether you're more focused on your skill development or your safety, it all starts in the same place.
Liane:Yeah, I hear you on that. So something that I learned while I was at the Calgary Motorcycle Show was our dear friends at Toucouille Motorcycle School are changing their approach to certain things within their program where they are actually no longer offering a refresher course and they're instead doing like specific skill enhancements instead of a full refresher. And I had mentioned to them that you, basically you and Trevor Deck need to have a conversation because I had said, well this is kind of what Moto Instincts is built to do. You teach the course and then you have these little workshops outside of it. And it's nice to see that another school's kinda picked up on that because I feel all the other schools are just staying kinda standardized.
Liane:Do you think the evolution of training is going to lower kinda these fatality statistics, the serious injury statistics? Like, do you think that that evolution that you guys, you and Too Cool are going through is gonna have a positive effect on those stats?
Leeroy:I do think that it it will. The how much effect it has is to be determined because the part of I I would say part of the problem is that a lot of those accidents come down to attitude, and you can train people's you can give people skills that can teach them to do things, but it's really hard to train somebody how to think or how to have a a positive attitude. And there's always gonna be a demographic of people who see stuff on social media or just think that they can do it themselves and go out and do the the thing that ends badly. I I will say, though, that interacting with with riders at the beginning of their journey, it does allow you to point them in the right direction before they have any any biases or any what tainted information coming, say, from social media or a friend who likes to ride fast or take risks and these sorts of things. And it's one of the main things I I would like to do is point people in the in the direction of personal development and, like we were talking about before, acquiring new knowledge and always working on your skills.
Leeroy:And if you can do that, if you're always trying to essentially improve your game, the the game of riding, that I think is what translates to less injuries and less fatalities, and just better behavior in general. Because if you, for example, don't know that wearing the so when you're crashing often with regards to helmet selection, let's say, a lot of people will opt for the beanie helmet for the whether it be the way that it looks or for comfort. But if you know that generally, it's the chin that is going to strike something, well, maybe you're gonna choose that full face helmet. And so a a lot of it with motorcycling is ignorance. Part of the problem is that there's so much to know that you you can't learn it in such a small time window, but if you can give people the attitude of personal development, I think that's probably one of the biggest influences that we could have.
Liane:Yeah, that's why we have that Icon helmet on display in our booth all the time with the statistics on it. Yeah. Pretty cool to show that. I really like your approach to this because it's a struggle that I've had for eleven years now with AMSS is safety isn't sexy, and I think that with your new approach to training specifically, which is one of the biggest things regarding our safety as a community, that together we can find a clever marketing way to make safety sexy and it benefits what we're doing as a nonprofit and what you're doing as a business. How do people get signed up for your course?
Leeroy:So you can sign up on motoinstincts.com. We have a booking system on there. Currently, we're feeling out exactly what it is riders want to do. We have you could say our learn to ride courses is the bread and butter, but we are looking always looking to increase, I guess, the what we're offering to the community just depending on what folks wanna learn realistically. So if there's anything that you do want to learn that you don't see on our site or you just want some clarification, feel free to reach out and we'll we'll help you out.
Liane:Awesome. Leeroy, thank you so much. Congratulations again. That was a lot of, discussions, a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, but I think you're bringing a new service into the Edmonton area that perhaps might be the staple for how training is presented going forward, I guess we'll see. Alright.
Liane:Thank you for your time, Leeroy. I am going to ask everybody to hang tight for the mixed bag. On today's mailbag, the question as of late is can you get insurance on a motorcycle in Alberta if you only have a Class seven licence? Absolutely, you can. This insurance can be sold to you through Klondike Insurance with one market being Nordic Insurance.
Liane:They will look at your age and the CCs of your bike. I'm going to warn you though, that premium is going to be quite high. Look at klondikeinsurance.com to connect for more information.
Leeroy:And
Liane:that's it for another episode of Think Bike hosted by me, Leanne Langlois, produced by Brynn Griffiths at Mighty Mouth Communications. If you have an idea or a question for the show, reach out to info@ab-amss.org or find us on all the socials. Always remember to ride smart, ride safe, and think bike. We'll see you out on the road.