Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 hope you're having a great summer. If it sounds extra noisy on today's episode, there's a great reason for that. We've taped a few shows at the YG motorcycle show at the Expo Center, and today is one of those shows.
Liane:It's been so much fun being here on location, plus great to see old friends and and meet new ones as well. It's also been fantastic to meet a whole bunch of podcast listeners, so, let's get going on this. Today, I've got David Bartell from AdMore Lighting is back, back, back again. I think it was it's been a couple years. And we're gonna talk about what's going on with AdMore.
Liane:There's been some exciting things. But first, welcome.
David:Thank you, Leanne. You're welcome. Nice to be with you.
Liane:We have so much fun at shows. It's it's crazy. Let's remind everybody who is David Bartell, and what is the love affair with motorcycles?
David:Well, I guess there's a long answer to that, but I don't think we have two hours today, so I'm gonna give the short version. But, I am the founder of AdMore Lighting based in Calgary. I started the business twenty years ago because, I was very concerned about my own safety on the road. And I had an idea for luggage lighting and, built my first light kit, and, the company evolved from there, to our current flagship product, the AdMore Light Bar. Yeah.
David:And so, it's great running a business, but I love making a social impact at the same time.
Liane:Yeah. No. Absolutely. And I I mean, I have one.
David:Thank you for that.
Liane:We're happy
David:to hear that.
Liane:And a whole bunch of my friends with similar motorcycles all have one.
David:I remember when you and your friends came to us and and bought from us. Yep. And I think most of you ride Triumphs, am
Liane:I right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're all on Triumphs, and I keep wanting to get a picture of all of us lined up together, and I think the girls did it.
David:You promised me that picture. You better get me that picture.
Liane:It will happen. It will happen. If it hasn't already, it will happen this year. So you were last on season four of our podcast. How's things been going?
Liane:How how are sales? How's how's everything motoring along?
David:So things have been interesting. So season four, I guess, was two years ago. Yeah. So, certainly, two years ago, things were were going very well. Last year, of course, was a very, very challenging year thanks to what was going on south of the border.
David:The US market is a huge market for us, and, we ran across some issues, selling to customers in The US. And, thankfully, our products are manufactured in Canada, so they go into The US under the KUSMA agreement, which is a good thing. But notwithstanding, because of all of these changes, there was so much confusion, when when products did come across the border. They got assessed tariffs even though they shouldn't have and trying to get those reversed and fees reversed. So last year was a very, very challenging year.
David:And, what we decided to do, and thankfully it's worked out very well for us. We love selling to Canadians. We're a Canadian company, so we love Canadians, of course. But to be perfectly honest, we didn't focus on Canada all of these years to the extent that we should have. Yeah.
David:Because we had this massive market to the south of us. So, yes, we sold to Canadians, but didn't focus as much as we perhaps could have. So last year, we said, you know what? We're pulling advertising dollars out of The US. We are going to put those advertising dollars into Canada.
David:We are gonna do every single show in Canada. And it turns out that this past year has been a fantastic year for us.
Liane:It's amazing how that happens.
David:Yeah. It's wonderful selling to Canadians. I mean, this is our market. We love it. Hopefully, America, things change there at some point in the future, and we can rebuild that market again.
David:But for now, we're having a great time selling in Canada, and, of course, to all of our other international markets.
Liane:And I think that that whole thing that has been going on with the tariffs and stuff in in The US, And then people in Canada have been really like, I'm shopping local. I'm buying Canadian. I'm buying you know? And then there you go. You flip your marketing, and all of a sudden, like, all the Canadians are buying it up, which is great because we should be supporting our own, you know, homegrown businesses.
David:Yeah. Leanne, you're reminding me of last year we did the Montreal show for the first time in many, many years. We were a little apprehensive about doing it because, of course, there's a language issue. Yeah. And there's a little bit of tension between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
David:But, anyway, we went to the Montreal show last year. We couldn't believe how embraced we were. Mhmm. Quebecers embraced us. They were thrilled that we were there.
David:They were thrilled that we're a Canadian company, that we manufacture in Canada. We did so much business with them. There was a lot of hugging and high fives, and so we Canadians, including Quebecers, we've all come together. We are all Canadians, and so it's been fantastic.
Liane:Well, even as a as a French Canadian myself and I have family in Quebec, I can say we're a stubborn group of people. And while we may not have our, you know, may have these issues with the rest of Canada and everything should be bilingual, when it comes down to it, Quebecers are still Canadian, and they're gonna choose Canada over The US
David:Absolutely. Any any day. So we saw that in space. Yeah. It was great.
David:It was great.
Liane:So what has been, like, your best seller? Like, I know so many people at the Light Bar. Is that, like, the the big deal?
David:Yep. Yep. So as I mentioned at the start of the podcast, we started out making luggage lighting. We did that for the first couple of years. So many of our customers loved the luggage lighting and then said, you know, I don't always ride with my luggage on my bike.
David:Do you have lighting that I can put on the bike that'll be there permanently? And so that got us thinking, and in 2008, we were we released our first, multifunction light bar. It was an 11 inch light bar. It was fairly chunky. People loved it at the time.
David:It was pretty cool. But within a couple of years of of that launch, we released our first eight inch light bar designed to go just over just under the license plate. That's our flagship product. We are now on the fourth or fifth iteration of that light bar, which is, like I say, our flagship product, and that's the Light Bar Pro. And multifunction light bar, Bosch accelerometer sensor to detect rapid deceleration.
David:When we take our hands off the throttle or we downshift, our motorcycle slow down very quickly, but our brake light doesn't come on unless we touch the brakes. So our light bar will come on in any one of those three situations. As long as we're slowing down, the brake light comes on. Yeah. And then finally, the fact that it's Bluetooth enabled.
David:We learned over the years that not only do motorcycles motorcyclists like to customize their motorcycles, they wanna customize their lighting for crying out loud. So with the Bluetooth enablement, you can download our free app, connect to the light bar, you can adjust the brightness of the brake light, how many times the brake light flashes, how quickly it flashes, the sensitivity of the accelerometer, and so many other things.
Liane:That was the funny thing. Last year, I had a friend of mine riding behind me, and, and his wife has a light bar on her bike on her Bonnie as well. And he was like, man, your your light, like, flashes a lot. And I said, well, it's my light bar. Like, I engine brake.
Liane:This is like, I'm I'm grateful for that because I am such a hardcore engine breaker. Now people see that I'm slowing down, and I noticed an absolute difference right from the word go.
David:We we we almost every week, we get an email from a customer saying I installed that light bar on the back of my bike, and I can't believe how much further behind cars are staying behind me. Because, unfortunately, there's so many distractions on the road right now. People aren't paying attention. They don't pay attention to your stock brake light. But when that light bar comes on, they put their phone down and they say, woah.
Liane:What are
David:they doing? And that's exactly what you want. You want them to pay attention, move further behind, and that's exactly what happens.
Liane:But then it annoys some people who ride, and they're behind you. And then I was that day old when I found out there was an app. You never told me about the app when I bought it. And I was so mad.
David:Well, you
Liane:didn't ask.
David:Yeah. So that's one of the things we learned over the years too is that people want that deceleration functionality when they're riding on their own. But sometimes when they're riding with their buddies, their buddies say, you know, we were going into that turn. Why'd you put your brakes on? And the person with the light bar says, I didn't put my brakes on, but we were slowing down so the light bar activated.
David:Well, that's really annoying. So now if you're gonna be riding with your buddies and you've got whiny buddies, you can go ahead, just connect. It takes two seconds. Connect the app to your light bar, toggle off accelerometer sensor to make your whiny buddies happy, and you can go riding. And then once you're finished that ride, you can toggle it back on again, and you've got the benefit of the accelerometer sensor.
Liane:I think the best part of it that that whole exchange with my friend was, he went and got his wife to screenshot where her settings were and send them to me so that I could connect to my light bar and and set it to her settings. Have I done that yet? No. Why? Because I like my light bar the way that it is.
Liane:If it annoys you, I'm sorry. But I honestly like, I I am not even lying how far back vehicles are from me, like, just from the brightness of the light bar in the first place. And then, yeah, having that, you know, chronic engine breaker habit, which isn't a bad habit to have, but it is when we decelerate so quickly compared to vehicles, and it's like that flashing light. It's like, oh, woah. You know?
Liane:And and off they go.
David:You know, Leanne, you just reminded me of some added functionality that we just added in the last, several months. Yeah. And that is the light bar is very bright, in daylight. So when you're riding during the day, it's noticeable. It's very bright.
David:The problem is is it's too bright at night. And so we have a light sensor on the light bar that detects that you're riding in the dark, and it cuts the light brightness by 50% because we don't wanna be blinding drivers behind us at night.
Liane:Oh, like those LEDs in the hopped up trucks, and they're right in your rearview mirror, like the blinding light.
David:You don't want that.
Liane:Exactly. That's annoying. You don't wanna be annoyed.
David:No. No. Exactly.
Liane:You wanna be seen.
David:You don't wanna be annoying, and you also don't wanna be dangerous. And having too much bright light at the back of the motorcycle could be blinding, could be dangerous. So we cut the light brightness by 50% when you're riding in the dark, it's still very bright, but not blindingly bright.
Liane:So are you saying I have to buy a new light bar now?
David:No. Because you've got the Lightbar Pro. Oh. So you've got that functionality. That's one of the cool things about the Pro.
Liane:So it automatically does that?
David:Yeah. Well well, you better check to make sure that you've got the latest firmware on your light bar. Can help you if you want, but it's very easy to do. Just connect your phone to your light bar. It'll say there's an update available.
David:Click update, and you've got the added functionality.
Liane:You know what? I'm gonna do that as soon as I get home.
David:There you go.
Liane:Yeah. Okay. So we've talked over the last couple of years about, like, new products that have been in development that I was pretty excited to see coming. Can you tell us where there's where that product is at and, what it's all about?
David:Well, the very exciting new product for us is are the AdMore LightBands. And, I wanna say these are a labor of love. We've been working at them now for this is four years. Very, very exciting product. Nothing like it on the market today anywhere in the world.
David:It's patent pending, and, we've already done a preproduction release. Feedback from customers have been fantastic. We'll be doing full production release, this summer, later this summer. And, basically, these are armbands. They're light bands.
David:They can go on your arms. That's the most likely place to to put them, but you could conceivably wear them on your legs as well. Mhmm. And they integrate with the Light Bar Pro. So they're Bluetooth enabled, and, whatever your bike is doing, they will do.
David:So if you're in taillight mode, you're driving that you're riding down the road, they will be in taillight mode. You apply the brakes. They will flash in red and go solid. And if you put a turn signal on, whichever, turn signal you've got on, that side will flash in amber. So very noticeable and totally integrated with the Light Bar Pro.
Liane:I got a dumb question.
David:There's no such thing as a dumb question.
Liane:I don't know.
David:Unless you're gonna come up with the first one. I don't know.
Liane:Could be. You know, I'm a record breaker. Is there it's gonna sound so dumb. Because they're armbands. Yep.
Liane:Do they have a left and right? Or if, like, if you mix them up and you put the signal light on, you got the wrong one on the wrong arm?
David:Actually, not a dumb question at all. So so they come in a pair. And when you pair them, you pair them to the left or the right. So and there's a a waterproof sticker that comes with it that you apply to the armband. So when you put them on, you'll know this one's the left, this one's the right because they're automatically paired to left or right.
Liane:Okay. So not a Not
David:a dumb question, Lianne. Not at all.
Liane:Thank god. Thank god. Because, like, I'm like, can you adjust to turn so if I put my right on my left, then everybody's gonna be wondering what the hell
David:I'm doing. You probably don't wanna do that. The intent is not to confuse other drivers on the road.
Liane:Exactly. We and there's enough people out there that don't ride very well
David:that's these people. Exactly.
Liane:There's enough bad drivers out there.
David:There are.
Liane:There are. Okay. So one of the biggest exciting things was a little show on CBC. I think it's called, like, Dragon's Den or something like that.
David:Yep. Yep. Yep.
Liane:And that was earlier this year.
David:That was in January. January 15 was air date. I remember it vividly.
Liane:You would. I it's still on my PBR to this day. For some reason, I can't get rid of it. I don't want to. Want to.
Liane:I don't I don't want to because it it's fun to watch over and over and over again. Tell me about the Dragon's Den experience. How did that come about? Well,
David:it's it's something that people have mentioned to me over the years that I should do Dragon's Den, but I never really wanted to do it. And, actually, two years ago, two producers came to the Toronto show, came to our booth and said, you're a Canadian company. You're inventing these products, in Canada. And, I said, yes. We are.
David:And they said, we want you to apply for Dragon's And, I told when I came back from Toronto, I told my wife that they had come to the booth and talked to me about it. And, I said, you know, I I don't wanna do it. She said, I want you to do it. I've been telling you for years you need to do it. And, so I didn't apply that year.
David:This past year, I guess, last year, so that was two years ago. This past year, they came again and said that they noticed that I hadn't applied. They would like for me to apply. And so I decided to apply within days. They said they wanted me to audition.
David:And then within days of auditioning, they said they want wanted me to come to CBC Studios in Toronto for filming. And, it all happened so quickly. And, I gotta say that, I'm a former banker, so I spent, twenty three years in banking. I did a lot of boardroom meetings and presentations and stressful situations, but, going on Dragon's Den was probably the most stressful thing I've ever done. It was quite an experience.
David:You're on the set for an hour.
Liane:Oh, jeez.
David:You're getting grilled by the dragons, and and the producers tell you you need to corral them. You gotta make sure that you keep them focused so that you get what you want. So that was pretty challenging. They boil it down to eight minutes, so viewers only see an eight minute episode, but there's a a lot more that happens outside of the eight minutes. But, it was a great experience.
David:And, like I say, it aired on January 15 and gave us a lot of visibility, a lot of exposure.
Liane:Absolutely. What changed your mind about doing it?
David:You know, just, over the years, just so many people saying, you know, you should go on Dragon Center. You should go on Shark Tank. And I just thought, you know, they've approached me once, and now they've approached me a second time. Maybe I should give it a try. And I I I guess maybe I didn't even take it seriously enough, and I thought, well, I'll I'll apply, but it's not gonna go anywhere.
David:It's one of those situations where then I said, sure. I'll audition, but it's not gonna go anywhere. And before you know it, I was on this train that was going a 100 miles an hour, and I'm on my way to Toronto.
Liane:That's crazy. Yeah. I watched that episode myself. I don't wanna give any spoilers away because it is available on CBC Gem.
David:CBC Gem. Yep.
Liane:Which is a free app for anybody, and just look for the January 15 episode. But you without going into the details, kinda had some success, but, there was one guy, one dragon on there that seemed particularly honory. Like, I mean, I I was looking we've known each other for a few years now.
David:Yes. Yes.
Liane:And I'm watching your face, and he's and I'm like, I know what's going through his head and what he wants to say.
David:Well, he just came at me, like, you know, right out of the gate. Just came at me, and I'm like, woah. I wasn't expecting this. And so I just had to figure out a way to manage that because, yeah, he, he came at me pretty strong and was very confrontational, and I just wasn't quite expecting that and certainly not right out of the gate. So you you picked up on my expression, I guess, Leanne, and you could tell that I was a little bit surprised, I guess, we'll say.
Liane:A little, like, annoyed. Yes. A little surprised.
David:Yes.
Liane:And then I think probably my favorite my favorite comment was, one of the lady dragons had said, you know, your sales went from this to this. Like, how? And your answer was, we discovered marketing. And I was like, isn't it great when you market your product? What you can do?
David:And, of course, we were doing marketing over the years, but, I mean, two years ago, we decided to go really full force. And we started doing a lot of, social media marketing, Google advertising, ramped up some of our print advertising. And, yeah, I mean, we spend a lot of money on advertising, a budget that I never would have anticipated that we would spend on on advertising, but, it's got good payback. Yeah. If you've got the right people doing it, it it's got good payback.
Liane:Well, as a as a former business banker, you know what return on investments are. Exactly. I mean, marketing is an investment on yourself and your product. Switching gears a little bit, you've now been a corporate member of AMSS for a few years now, and thank you for that. But again, what made you change your like, well, convinced to come on as a corporate member and stay on with us year after year?
Liane:You. Oh, thank you. But, really.
David:Well, I mean, that is a big part of it. Just you and and your focus on AMSS and what AMSS is all about. And it just aligns perfectly with who we are. We're just not any business. We are a business that is specifically focused on making motorcycle riders safer out there.
David:So, you know, when we have police officers saying to us, you guys are saving lives out there, that means a tremendous amount to me. Yes. We need to be profitable so we can continue the business year after year. You can't run the business if you're profitable. So, yes, that is important.
David:But the the big piece to me that really gets me in the heart every time is when somebody makes a comment like that. Mhmm. Wanna be making a social impact. We wanna be reducing accidents. We wanna be reducing injuries.
David:We wanna be reducing deaths out on the roads. Yeah. And that perfectly aligns what AMSS is That's all our whole vision. So, it just makes total sense that we are partners.
Liane:Yeah. Absolutely. And then we've got, you know, I also want to thank you for extending a discount to our membership, a 10% discount. So if you are a card carrying member of, AMSS, part of the society as a whole, you can get a 10% discount on the products with AdMore.
David:Absolutely. And we're we're very pleased to do that.
Liane:Plus, it's that little you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I mean, I I I love when you send people over when we're at trade shows. They're like, go talk to that girl over there about her light bar because I'm a very honest person, and most people You tell it like it is, man. Most people know that, and I'm not gonna beat around the bush, and I'll tell it like it is. And, like, this light bar is a product I absolutely do not understand why I didn't have one sooner.
David:Right.
Liane:Like, I really don't. I've seen a lot.
David:It's funny that you should say that because, we get so many customers who once they have the light bar on their bike, they will not ride another motorcycle without it. So we've got customers who trade up their bike every two years, and we'll get a call this one fellow down on The States. I'm getting my new bike. Can you overnight the light bar to my dealer so they can install it before I take delivery of the bike? It's almost like I equate it to it's almost like now if you got into your car, you probably would not drive down the road without a seat belt on.
David:Right? You you'd feel strange. You'd feel naked Yeah. If you didn't have your seat belt on. Yeah.
David:That's how so many of our customers feel. They won't get on a motorcycle if it doesn't have one of our light bars on it.
Liane:Yeah. And that's a that's a perfect thing. I mean, you know, the whole thing about be safe, be seen.
David:Absolutely. That's what it's all about. And for us, it's really exciting. We're celebrating our twentieth anniversary.
Liane:Happy anniversary.
David:Thank This is a big year for us. Twentieth anniversary of developing and manufacturing innovative motorcycle safety lighting.
Liane:Congratulations.
David:Thank you. Thank you. Hard to believe. Twenty years.
Liane:Twenty years. Yeah. I mean, we're 11 in. We got we got a few more to catch up. But
David:Well, hopefully, you never catch us. Hopefully, we're always ahead of you.
Liane:Hopefully, you're always nine years ahead
David:of us. Exactly.
Liane:Alright, David. I'm gonna let you get back to what you need to do. Thank you so much for the time again. I appreciate it.
David:Thank you, Leanne. It's always fun to be doing stuff with you. You're always fun to hang
Liane:around with. Don't tell people I'm nice. No. I'm kidding. Alright, everybody.
Liane:Hang tight for the mixed bag.
Kirk:Front tires don't lie. When you're in traffic, don't just look at the driver, look at their front tire. Drivers might forget their signal lights, but the front tire never lies. If you see that rubber start to angle towards your lane, they're coming over whether they know you're there or not. Watching the wheels gives you that split second head start to react before the car even moves.
Kirk:Using the front wheel characteristics determine the motorist's next move consistently. This is Kirk with Moto Instincts.
Liane:And that's it for another episode of Think Bike hosted by me, Leanne Langlois, produced by Bryn 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.