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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. This week, I've got a couple of really special guests that I had the pleasure of meeting over the winter by accident, but ended up being a great conversation. I'm welcoming Grainger Thompson and Lawrence Teodorescu of the Wild Wolves Canada Motorcycle Charity. They're both directors with the organization.
Liane:Welcome to the show.
Grainger:Thank you so much for having me.
Liane:That's a lot of a lot of syllables for me. So we're just gonna go with Grainger and Lawrence. That works for you guys.
Kirk:I want some. For sure.
Liane:Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. Grainger, I'm gonna start with you. Like, who are you and what got you into riding?
Grainger:So yeah. So my name mine is Grainger Thompson. I was going through a tough time in my life last year, and I had always just dreamed of being on a motorcycle. And so I I ended up purchasing one, and I didn't realize what it meant at the time. But since then, it's just been such a defining feature of my life.
Grainger:I I just I really wanted to to, you know, take on my childhood dream of owning a motorcycle. I'd never been able to do that. And then when I when I went on that bike, the the that was my rookie season and my first time on the motorcycle, and I put down 30,000 kilometers across Western Canada, my rookie season.
Liane:Good lord. I remember my rookie season. I don't think I hit quite 30, but I remember back then it was all about quantity, not quality, and I rode everywhere. So I get that. Welcome to the club.
Liane:Thank you so much. You. Lawrence, what about yourself? What got you into writing? Who are you?
Lawrence:I'm Lawrence Teodorescu. That is my original name. I come from Europe, Romania, born over there. I came to Canada in 2008. Didn't get a chance to get a motorcycle until last season.
Lawrence:I was going through the same same kind of things in my life as well. It was kind of a bad spot in my life last year when I met Ranger. I didn't ride as much as he did last season. I I have to say that, but I hope I I will this season and the next year. I only rode 10,000, so it's not it's not as good as he is.
Lawrence:But, yeah, I got into a motorcycle my first season. I used to ride in Europe back in the day. I used to be a downhill rider back there, and then I came to Canada with that. So I never got the chance to get into motorcycling until last year when I finally pulled the trigger, and I I bought my first bike and joined the community, and it's absolutely amazing.
Liane:Okay. Well, before we move on from this, I need to know, Grainger, what was your first bike?
Grainger:It was a Royal Enfield Super Meteor six fifty, which I still own.
Liane:That nice. Awesome. Lawrence, what about yourself?
Lawrence:My bike here that I bought, the first one was a it still is a Honda VTX 1,300.
Liane:Nice. Those are two awesome bikes. You can definitely go places with them. Happy to have you both here. Grainger, where are some of I mean, god, you guys have been riding in Canada for like a year.
Liane:So Grainger, tell me where's your favorite place you went last year on your 30,000 k that you put on?
Grainger:So my my favorite place is kind of a tie between the Northwest Territories up towards Yellowknife and beyond into communities like Bechuko and Wasee as well as it's tied with Telegraph Creek, Northern BC just before Alaska where I was ride I rode about 300 kilometers of shale gravel on a 183 switchbacks, 20% grades, and no guardrail with a several 100 meter drop to the Toltan and Stokini Rivers below, and it was just life changing.
Liane:I mean, that's quite ambitious for a first time rider and happy that you made your way through that. Lawrence, what about you? What was your favorite place riding last year?
Lawrence:I made it, I think, last year all the way to Jasper. We were supposed to meet there. By the way, you he didn't show up. But that's a different story for a different time. Yeah.
Lawrence:So I was supposed to meet him and Jasper. I made it all the way there. That was pretty much my only solo ride that I've done last year. Other than that, I've been riding in the cities. I've been riding, like, close to Edmonton.
Lawrence:Nothing nothing crazy last year. That's why I only put 10,000 on a bike. But, yeah, that's probably my favorite place is the first place that I had to ride solo by myself is Jasper. Yeah.
Liane:So going into the Rockies for the first time on a bike is pretty spectacular, so you couldn't have
Lawrence:a I didn't go through Jasper to Banff. I wanted to, but, I was waiting for him to show up in an episode.
Liane:Aw. Well, we'll talk we'll talk about that offline another time. So I guess you're there is a bit of an obsession with the North then. And so that kind of is a great segue into what wild wild wolves is. And, like, let's talk about that first.
Liane:Like, what is wild wolves of Canada, and and what inspired that? Grainger, do you wanna kick us off with that?
Grainger:Yeah. Absolutely. So so with the Wild Wolves Canada, what it what it what it started out as was, you know, me to me being in those places I mentioned in Bechiko and Wahtee and Northwest Territories and just being so unbelievably inspired by the beauty that I saw, but also so heartbroken by the food insecurity and in lots of places, the food scarcity. I mean, the same jug of milk at $7.50 here is $35 in some places in the North Pacific. Wow.
Grainger:With a forty eight hour expiry by the time it gets there to when the milk will go bad.
Liane:Yeah. That's heartbreaking.
Grainger:Really heartbreaking. And so I came back to Edmonton with this real sense of responsibility that I wanted to give back. And so I got together with Lawrence, and I I knew that that, you know, growing up in in Romania, that he had also seen a lot of food insecurity struggles, and I felt like it was a really close and and passionate topic for both of us. And then we had a lot of lived experience, you know, seeing and being in areas where there was a lot of food insecurity. So we got federally incorporated on 09/19/2025, and we are an Edmonton based non for profit that believes in creating long term sustainable community led systems to create self determination and self resiliency in remote areas.
Liane:That's that's amazing. Lawrence, what do you wanna add into that? Because I would imagine, yes, you growing up in Romania, you have a quite a interesting firsthand take of food scarcity.
Lawrence:I was born right after like, I was born a little bit before the revolution in Romania when the communist era was was kind of falling. And my dad actually worked because back in the day, it was a very particular thing for people to speak English coming up out of the communist. And my dad was he spoke English very well. And he got to work actually for a charity coming from The States helping right after the communist start up failed with the food and and clothing and stuff. And I got to see firsthand, like, how he was working and how he was providing for our communities in Romania that were lacking or mostly for clothes back in the day.
Lawrence:That was a very big issue. Food, not so much, but clothing, it was something that they they were lacking very, very much back in the day. So I got to see it firsthand. And kinda when when I met Grainger and we started talking about it, I kinda had that flashback of my my childhood with my dad and seeing what he did. And I was like, you know what?
Lawrence:Let's just do this. Let's let's just get together and just let's just do it. Let's don't even think about it. Let's just do it. I always wanted to do it since I got to Canada.
Lawrence:I had that thing that I wanted to give back for this country that basically yeah.
Liane:But we took in, and now you wanna give back a little bit? That's that's very
Lawrence:kind. Absolutely.
Liane:Absolutely. You know, obviously, like, I hear the passion and the purpose from both of you behind what you want to do. So federally incorporated, does that mean you're officially registered charity?
Grainger:No. So at this point, we we are a non for profit, but we've applied for charitable status. And we're confident that later this summer that we will be achieving that status. And we're doing everything that we can to ensure that that comes through from this from the CRA.
Liane:I would think that the cause and the purpose for what you guys are doing that that's something they might hopefully fast track a little bit because that is, you know, it's really important to support the people up in the territories in in any way shape or form because it is a different world.
Grainger:Absolutely.
Liane:Yeah. So yes. Exactly. So, Lawrence, what does this trip entail? Like, what are we looking at?
Lawrence:So we have two trips. Actually, we're gonna have a trip in 2026. That's gonna be this August, this upcoming August. It's gonna be on the twenty fourth. This one is just for us to basically see the places that we're gonna stay, see the communities that we're gonna ride through, get in touch with all the communities that we're gonna be going through, and try to see how that will benefit the community.
Lawrence:Right now, we're just gonna set the the trail basically for 2027 when we're trying to get a 100 riders to the Arctic Ocean. That is our goal. That is our mission. That's what we wanna do to bring awareness for everything that's happening and everything that they're struggling with and everything. We just wanna make a big event out of this.
Lawrence:And going to all these communities, just wanna have kinda like a small parade going through. So something that will benefit the community
Grainger:Mhmm.
Lawrence:And something that will encourage the writers to kinda get involved with this. Like, kind of we're trying to build two things. We're trying to build a strong community here in Edmonton that will basically help us in gathering food and donations to be able to to take it to the north. So that's kinda what this is kinda how it's gonna look like. We do have the support along the way because we're trying to do this as as safe as possible.
Lawrence:So we are trying to have recurring recovering vehicles. We're gonna have to try to have people that they are trained medically with us. That would be a great a great thing to have, and we're trying to do that. Satellite phones and everything that it's everything that we can to keep it as safe as possible. Then we're also gonna try to divide this ride, this big ride in 2027.
Lawrence:We'll try to divide it in two groups because we want to be inclusive for everybody no matter what type of motorcycle you have. One is gonna be 50 people to Dawson City, and that will be all pavement. And then we'll be from Dawson City to Taktayatak, that will be gravel. So that will be the people that they have and they want to. They have the capabilities with the motorcycle, and they want to take that road.
Liane:To continue on.
Lawrence:Yeah. To continue on. Yeah. So we'll have two recovery vehicles, one that will go to Dawson and one that will go all the way to. It will include more logistics and more stuff along the way.
Lawrence:We'll have to have some fuel in in there somewhere. We're gonna have to have some food in there somewhere. So, yeah, it's it's a lot of planning, and that's why, initially, we are thinking of 2026 when we started this project, but then looking at it and seeing, like, all the things that we have to actually have with us and actually have to plan, we decided to push it to 2027. That will make more sense and will get us a lot more time to actually plan and come up with all this stuff.
Liane:Well, if there's a lot going on here for Grainger, do you wanna add to that?
Grainger:Yeah. So I think Lawrence did a great job of explaining it, but I just wanted to add that we've partnered up with some really incredible people, including Sean O'Donnell from Arctic Moto. He runs a a really incredible tour tour company running tours from Whitehorse in the Yukon all the way to the Arctic Ocean. He's ridden the Dempster Highway dozens of times and is really skilled and knowledgeable about the land in the area. He's been an incredibly supportive and and insightful resource and has agreed to put his entire business at our disposal.
Grainger:So he he is gonna be actually meeting us this year at the BC Yukon border and riding with us to Dawson, and then next year, he's actually gonna come all the way to Edmonton and ride with us from Edmonton to Tukteok, giving us extra motorcycles, extra support vehicles, extra tools, bringing mechanics. I mean, Sean, I can't just can't speak enough about Sean and his efforts, and he's just a really incredibly community oriented rider and just loves to give back to the to the community. And yeah. So having a guy like that join us on the ride is just completely invaluable, and I feel like that makes this ride really, really safe, really, really organized, and gonna make this an unforgettable experience for the riders who are coming with us and the communities that we're gonna be engaging with as we're riding through to the Arctic Ocean.
Liane:I think I've met him a couple of times. And if it is who I think that it is, that is a huge add to you guys, especially on the safety aspect of it because to have somebody who knows the terrain and knows the roots and knows like the fuel shortages or, you know, like how tough it can be. What's the best time of year to be coming through there? All of that stuff and the communities might need a little more extra support. Lawrence, you want to add?
Lawrence:Yes. Wanted to add the fact that we are going to have at least two sessions of training for people for gravel that will happen in 2027 at the beginning of the year. So they kind of have the idea of how it is to ride on gravel with their own motorcycle. We will have probably some some more experienced riders and probably some teachers as well that they do teach motorcycle school to come and actually teach them how to ride a motorcycle in those conditions and what to expect and how to control the motorcycle in those environments and everything. So we're trying to do that.
Lawrence:I think that it will add to the safety feature of it for them to have at least two rides with us and kind of understand how is your motorcycle behaving in these conditions. I think that's that will be a great thing to do.
Liane:That's that is amazing to hear because the other part of it is people might think these tires will be fine for gravel and it's like, no, you probably need a different set of tires that's more rated for that type of road. So having that ability to get those changes in ahead of time. Again, I as a safety advocate, love all of the safety parameters that you guys are putting around this very important cause. So the sole purpose though really is to correct me if I'm wrong, Grainger raise awareness about the scarcities in Northwest Territories and bring an abundance of like non perishables. I would imagine because it perishables probably won't travel that well up there.
Grainger:Yeah, exactly right. Mean given the timeline that it takes to it's about 3,200 kilometers from Edmonton to Anuvik. Given the timeline that it would take sending perishables is is really, really expensive, and it's difficult to get anything there that has meaning because a lot of times by the time it gets there, you have a very small window to actually get it into the communities. And so, yeah, the the sort of the the the key focus here is to create, you know, an abundance of of of food as and and provide support for these communities as well as creating huge exposure to the realities of what people in Norwich territories are facing. And also to create this moment of national unity, to connect all these municipalities and communities together all the way along the road and to, you know, position them as champions of Northern Food Security.
Grainger:And then also to give it back to the Rider community as well that, you know, everybody who joins us on this adventure, they're part of something incredible, and this is going to be something that people will not forget. And it's it's not a parachute program. This this is gonna be a long term sustainable ongoing effort. So even after the ride has come and gone, we will still remain, and we will be working directly with these communities to ensure that this food is continuing to come in, And this isn't just just a one time, you know, top top up kind of a program.
Liane:Yeah. And so Lawrence, I mean, guys are based in Edmonton. Is there a chance, like once you've run this a couple of times, you know, couple years, 2027, 2028, that you might be able to expand that out to other like provinces that might want to do the same thing and, and have more like a wider reach of wild wolves for for more support. Absolutely.
Lawrence:Yes. We are trying to basically, as we go, we're trying to learn ourselves of what are the necessities and how can we do this to to become a sustainable program. Because right now is what we've seen and what we've heard is that most likely the programs that they're coming there with charities and everything, it's more like a parachute program. Drop it in, and then that's it. We're trying to create sustainability.
Lawrence:And once we do that, we have other parts of the project that we would like to implement for the communities themselves to become safe self sustain and that is the idea. And once we implement all those things and that community itself becomes self sufficient, then we can move to other communities and just have the same blueprint and just translate to different communities and try to to to do that throughout throughout Canada. That's that's that's the idea of it.
Liane:That would be a beautiful thing to bring the whole country together on something, Grainger.
Grainger:Yep. Yeah. And I really oh, thank you, Lawrence. That's that's that's yeah, job. She's absolutely right.
Grainger:And as, you know, really, really well put. But just to add to that, I wanted to say, you know, the thing that also kinda sets us aside is that because we are doing this with motorcycles. Right? And we're and we're using the our bikes as as symbols of solidarity, of freedom, of community, and we're coming together to create real hope. And and like Lawrence was saying, you know, once we once we get these these communities that we're we're kinda focusing on right now, once we get them into a into a place where is a much better food security and there is these sort of ongoing long term sustainable systems in place, then our sort of long term vision is that to see a Canada where every child is fed, every household is supported, and every community is strengthened.
Grainger:And and ultimately, you know, together that that's really been the just a defining feature of this whole thing is that you were really proud to be Canadian. We're really proud to be a Canadian organization helping fellow Canadians no matter what part of the country they may find themselves in.
Liane:You know, Grainger, this is probably gonna be one of the biggest compliments I might ever pay anybody but and and not to discount your efforts as well, Lawrence, but I have never seen somebody who understands so well, the motorcycle community is, who's been at this for like a year. Like you've got your bike last and you were born to be a part of what our greater community is, which is constantly giving back and finding different ways to highlight issues or concerns and try and resolve them and use the power of two wheels to do so because we make a mark when we roll into somewhere a 100 bikes deep. Absolutely. And that leaves a lasting memory for a community.
Grainger:Absolutely. And and honestly, thank you so much for the incredible compliment. That that's really way too kind. And and I mean but I wanna be honest here that, you know, Lawrence and I, we're an incredible team, but we're a humble layer of many, many, many, many layers that make this work achievable. And the motorcycle community is just an essential part of that.
Grainger:And so for us, we try to approach all of this with humility and with respect, and we try to just give it all back to the community that gave us everything because the same bikes that I feel like saved both of our lives, now we wanna use them to save other people's lives. And and it's just amazing the the unbelievable wealth of support that we've been met with through this community. And I I really feel like there's no other community in the world that can achieve the things that we're achieving on the scale that that that we're looking to do it than than the motorcycle riders themselves. And they're just just the absolute cornerstone of this entire organization and we're tremendously proud to put Motorcycle Charity right on the back of our organizational name so that everybody knows wherever we go that this is born from our love of the motorcycling and of our desire to support and give back to the community that we feel like gave us everything.
Liane:And I got that from both of you and like I said I just happened to meet you guys at a at a ride for dad event at one of the local dealerships and Grainger. You were so busy talking with other people Lawrence and I got an opportunity to talk a little bit more and and don't worry. He mentioned you had a infilled and that that fits in all the British stuff. But but you know, I could tell then even talking with you Florence like that the passion behind what you're doing and just wanting to approach anybody who might be able to help, you know, spread the word and get you guys going. And I mean, I'm just so thrilled to have you guys on this podcast.
Liane:How can Lawrence, how can people get involved?
Lawrence:So right now they can they can get involved with our website. We have a volunteer page over there. They can just sign up and they can send they can send us emails with the volunteer if they want to volunteer for different things that we do. We do have about, if I'm not mistaken right now, Grainger, correct me. I think we have about 30 events coming up this this throughout all the summer, we have about 30 events coming up.
Lawrence:That's correct. And next year as well, we're gonna have a lot of events coming up. So we do do need a lot of volunteers to to help us out with that. We are putting something together. We don't know what format is gonna be on there, but we are trying to do something related to mental health as well at one point.
Lawrence:This is more it's gonna be more for winter when riders are not riding. So it'll be kind of that coping mechanism that we wanna sit together, have a chat, and kinda get together even without the motorcycles just to keep having these conversations and keep having this this thing going forward even without the motorcycle. I know the winter sucks. But, yeah, it's not it's not really we would hate that. But that's that's kinda like what we're looking right now.
Lawrence:They can also donate to us if they want to. They they are everything all the information's on the website. They can we have a GoFundMe. We have they can do etransfers. They can do anything.
Lawrence:They can come to see us at all the events that we have. Everything is listed on the on the website. They can check the events, and they can come there, and they can talk to us. We'll talk to everybody a 100%. And any any means, Facebook, Instagram, if they wanna reach out, just reach out.
Lawrence:We just we we love to have conversations with everybody. We met amazing people in this community that we're every day that we get together and we talk to somebody, we just get blown away every day at the end of the conversation. We just walk away and we're looking at each other, and it's like, does this just happen? And he's like, yeah. This just happened.
Lawrence:Because we we just cannot it's unbelievable, the the the support that we're getting, and it's unbelievable, the people that it's so easy. They look at us and and they say, absolutely. Yes. And and we're just like, we we can't believe it. It's just like this happened, like, with two guys.
Lawrence:These two guys just met and had an idea, and and and it's just unbelievable. This community, it's it's just something that I've never seen.
Liane:It it honestly, I feel it speaks to the character of both of you. Grainger, did you wanna add to that?
Grainger:Yeah. I mean, again, you know, Lawrence just, you know, it blows me away too with what he says because I can feel his passion too. And we, you know, we just have this incredible gelling of we just, you know, we were so incredibly dedicated and just unrelenting in our efforts in this in this operation. And I wanna remind everybody here that, you know, this is entirely volunteer, you know, volunteer run. Right?
Grainger:I mean, neither Lawrence or myself get any remuneration for any of the work that we're doing. Not monetarily, but we get a tremendous amount, you know, you know, where where it counts. And, you know, just to kinda add on one little piece there that Lawrence is talking about is that we're also right now actively looking into how we can add members to our organization. Right? And so that's one of the details that we're working out right now is what, you know, membership packages might look like and what what would sort of, you know, come with that.
Grainger:And there would, you know, be a some monetary administrative fee for that, but we would make as much of that fee as possible going directly to our charitable efforts and directly to the mission of showing, you know, measurable measurable results of food, you know, going directly to these communities and paying for for shipping of the food going to these communities. You know, obviously, inevitably, there's there's always some cost with putting packages together and doing that kind of a thing, but it is just so tremendously important for Lawrence and I, and we stated this from the very beginning that absolutely as much as possible of the money that comes in goes directly back to the efforts and we don't want to see dollars and cents tied up in clerical fees and administrative fees and wages. We want to see real measurable results And and the the real measurable result, what that looks like is is survival. Right? Is is people is children having food in their mouths?
Grainger:Is families having food on the table? And is seeing these incredible communities just supported and strengthened by the incredible everyday efforts of riders and non riders alike who just believe in what we're doing and and wanna help support. So just, yeah, working on putting that sort of organizational piece together of adding members, and and we would love if anybody wants to talk to us about what talking to us about what that might look like. We really happy to have a conversation about that.
Liane:Awesome. And I think you guys are coming to For the Love of Motorcycles on June 27, which would be great. So that's just a few days away And happy that you know, anybody could come out and learn more for sure. What is a Grainger? What's your website again?
Grainger:Our website is called the www.wildwolvesofcanada.org.
Liane:Like that the .orgs are important out there.
Grainger:They are important. Yeah. And you can also reach us on on our our Facebook and our Instagram, Wild Wolves of Canada Motorcycle Charity, and our our email, www.wildwolvesofCanada@Gmail.com. And, yeah, we we would love to to to speak with anybody who wants to reach out.
Liane:Awesome. Lawrence Grainger, thank you both so much for your time today. I was like excited to get you on here and help promote what you guys are doing. I think it's extremely important. You both very much belong in our motorcycle community and and keep doing the great things.
Liane:And I can't wait to see you guys take off with this whole adventure.
Grainger:Leanne, honestly, you so much for having us. It's been an incredible pleasure to be here with you, and it's just amazing to be able to get the word out. And thank you so much for everything that that you're doing, that the that the AMSS is doing, and that, you know, everything you guys are giving back to the motorcycle community. It it's just really incredible.
Lawrence:Yep. Thank you for the invite, Leanne. It was absolutely amazing. Thank you.
Liane:Great. And I'll see you guys soon. So everybody else, hang tight for the mixed bag.
Kirk:Hey, riders. This is Kirk from Moto Instincts, and here's another helpful tip. Riding in the rain. In Alberta, if you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes, but be prepared for that rain. The first fifteen minutes of a rainstorm are the most dangerous as oil and grease rise to the surface, making the road incredibly slick.
Kirk:If you can't pull over and wait it out, be extra smooth with your inputs and operate by a factor of two. That is two times the following distance, two times the braking distance, and half of the braking or acceleration power. By operating at a 50% raise, this counteracts the roughly 33% loss of friction from the wet surface. In addition to a focus on gentle operation, remember that water will strip heat from the body dangerously fast, which can lead to hypothermia without proper gear or while on rides over thirty minutes long. 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.