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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 season six of Think Bike. I can't believe that season six. I've got Bryn Griffiths, our producer with us, and Sean Conner, VP of AMSS. How are you guys doing?
Liane:Season six. Great.
Bryn:Bring it on. Yeah.
Sean:I'm ready to go if I can get out of the muddy alley here. Well, you
Bryn:know what? I mean, it's only April. So, I mean, April 15. I mean, hey. We're fine.
Bryn:Right?
Liane:Bryn, you've been busy. What's what have you been up to?
Bryn:This podcast creation business for companies and corporations and worthwhile charitable organizations is working great for me. It's been really busy, busy, busy. And I also took two weeks and went to Mexico. So I I feel great about the spring, and summer is coming real quickly. So let's get rolling.
Bryn:You know?
Liane:Yeah. You're looking forward to being on your deck.
Sean:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Liane:Sean, what about you off season? How was it for you?
Sean:Pretty quiet, I just kinda put my head down and worked away and no vacations this winter, which was odd for me. I usually go somewhere nice or somewhere warm.
Liane:I mean, we're we're not counting the Calgary Motorcycle Show as a vacation? Those are vacations for us. We may travel to different cities, but it is what it is. Me off season, just adjusting to my new job. As people may have not known, at the end of season five, I decided to move jobs and adjusting to that, and you know, it's been good, it's been good.
Liane:I've been nose down deep in AMSS stuff as well, and you've got our Moto Canada grant going again, and I got our provincial grant going again, and we're excited to have them both supporting us. Breaking news. Plans for this season? I mean, Brynn is gonna be on the deck. Sean, what about you?
Sean:Nothing major. Couple little trips coming up, weekend kind of stuff. I'm looking for another sometime in July to do go around the island, Vancouver Island again. I missed that. I didn't haven't done that last two years.
Sean:So
Liane:Are you gonna do that before or after the raid?
Sean:Sorta yeah. That's where I'm figuring out. Do I go there first and hit Nelson on the way back or vice versa?
Liane:Yeah. Summer plans well, obviously, I run that triumph rally out in BC, the raid, and looking forward to that. Probably going for another world record and a couple more national records at the SALT.
Sean:Right.
Liane:I mean, somebody has to do it. Yeah. May as well be me. So, looking forward to going down. Sean, are you coming this year?
Sean:I certainly am.
Liane:That'll be very exciting.
Sean:I love being down.
Liane:Pardon me?
Sean:It's a week early this year, so the timing's gonna be tighter.
Liane:It feels that way, it's just the way the calendar lands up.
Sean:Yeah, the Labor Day weekend, we always took advantage of that on the way home.
Liane:Yeah, yeah, not so much this year. So, as I mentioned earlier, we were at the motorcycle shows, and I think that we had a we had pretty good spaces at both shows, like we were quite traffic y. How how do you feel, Sean?
Sean:Location wise, yeah, especially being on the corner is kind of nice.
Liane:Yeah.
Sean:You can see people coming and
Liane:Yeah. I think that we would have laid out our booth slightly different with our curved wall being on a corner, but we're learning as we go and, you know, when
Sean:Oh, yeah.
Liane:Trying new things and we'll see how it goes and we'll just keep doing those things for next year. I wanted to bring up something that came up over the winter and it was some legislation changes that are happening in BC that I think is important to mention because here in Alberta, we have a pretty relaxed legislative system. You can go and you can get your license and off you go and have some fun. BC has always been a little bit more on, I think probably because their insurance and registration's all government run, so it's like Brynn and I talked offline a little bit about provincial run insurance and the challenges and pros and cons about that. They're gonna be mandating like full gear for new and novice riders.
Liane:Thoughts on that?
Sean:That's a great idea, I think. Like, I always dress for the slide, not the ride kind of thing. Is it mandating full face helmets or anything or can people still get away with the quarter or half?
Liane:That part isn't clear, it just basically said mandatory protective gear for learners and novice riders beyond just helmets. Expected gear includes motorcycle jackets, gloves, and ankle covered boots. It doesn't even really mention proper riding pants. So I don't know if it's been clearly defined, but how do we feel about that? Saskatchewan had put in mandatory three quarter minimum helmets a while ago for new riders.
Sean:Yeah.
Liane:But that's as far as they went.
Bryn:Well, you gotta think this is good for safety. Right? Yeah. So therefore, I gotta think that Alberta Motorcycle Safety Society is in favor of giving it a shot. Right?
Liane:Well, yeah. I mean, in that side, yeah. I'd be originally, when I was reading this, I'm like, man, they're so focused on gear. Why don't they focus on training? But BC has a different licensing program than we do in Alberta that is a lot more stringent.
Liane:They're even making some changes to that. Like they used to fast track class six riders for like experienced car drivers. They would fast track you through to a motorcycle license. They're not doing that anymore. They're going to go back to graduated stages of, you'll see the L or the new, the N or whatever they put on the cars in BC for learner restricted and then a full class six.
Liane:So they're even changing up how their licensing system is. I feel like in Alberta, at minimum, we should at least have mandatory training.
Bryn:Well, that's one thing. There's nothing wrong with doing everything else the way I see it.
Sean:Yeah. It's a start.
Bryn:Yeah, exactly. Let's start somewhere and then let's broaden our approach. It can't just all be about training. Making sure that the riders are better protected if they do fall or get into an accident is important. How do we get medical assistance to, to down riders, that type of thing?
Bryn:I think it's way more than just training. We do focus a lot on training, which is great, but I just think that there's way more that we could be doing. And I hey. If BC wants to give this a shot, I applaud them. I think it's great.
Bryn:And I'm not a rider, but I think that you've gotta just you've gotta look at it all. You can't just look at one or two things. Right?
Liane:Absolutely. Sean, your opinion?
Sean:Yeah. I agree a 100% for better equipment. That just reminds me that I need a new full face helmet this year, and they're not cheap, but you can put add them to your insurance, which is nice. So if you do go down and hit your head on that, and you're fine, the helmet's not, insurance covers for a new thousand dollar helmet. Like, that's a great idea.
Liane:And I think that's one thing that people don't understand, and and we touch on it. We will be touching on it. We do have some answers in our mailbag tips from Klondike Insurance about ensuring your gear specifically for that reason. You're right, we spend a lot of money, especially at AMSS because we need to walk the talk that we're doing. And so all of my gear is insured.
Liane:If I go down and I can't wear that gear anymore, I'm getting it replaced and it's not costing me now. Now, it might cost in my insurance premiums, but, you know, that's the give and take of everything.
Sean:Well, yeah, gear is not cheap.
Liane:It's not. And especially good Good
Sean:gear is not cheap.
Liane:Cheap gear is cheap.
Sean:Cheap gear is cheap. Yeah. It is. Sadly get what you pay for. Correct.
Sean:And what is your head worth?
Liane:I mean, you only got one and you kinda need it.
Bryn:Yeah. Yeah. There's no going back on your head. You know, it's the same thing too where I I I saw a family of four and the kids were all and they were on they were on bicycles. Right?
Bryn:And the family for the two kids were they were all dudded up. They had the helmets. They had the, you know, the the smart gloves. They had the pants, that kind of thing. And mom and dad had absolutely, like, no helmet on.
Bryn:They were in you know, they and I'm thinking to myself, you've got to be able to be taught properly by your parents. You can't just say to do it. You've gotta also follow your own advice. And, you know, I I always I see it every year. I see it every year, and it just bothers me.
Bryn:I think that it's so important that everybody get it.
Sean:Let's get it.
Bryn:Right? So, anyway, I digressed. I do that frequently.
Liane:You know what? I love the opinions from the non riders on our podcast specifically because, well, you are you are a demographic that we want to pay attention to us and your opinions on what we're doing matters.
Bryn:Absolutely. And you know, when you see somebody who is on a motorcycle who maybe isn't doing the right thing, isn't wearing the right stuff. I mean, I can't correct that. This is the importance of, AMSS is to to spread the message and get good quality people on. And we've done that over five seasons and just looking forward to another six season where I, as a regular car driver, can learn so much about how you think.
Liane:Yeah, no, exactly. Let's talk a little bit about season six. So last year, we decided to expand our mailbag segment to be a mixed bag and include some tips from Moto Instincts. Sean, do you think that was a good addition to the episodes?
Sean:Yeah, I do. Because it always gives you something to think about. If it's I'm trying to remember I can't remember what he was saying, but all of a sudden, it just triggers other things in my head. Like, oh, yeah, I should be doing this or this or so it kinda prompts you to think that way, which I think that was his whole point. Right?
Liane:Yeah. Exactly. It's, you know, getting some different perspective out there in a different voice. So they're coming back again this year to help us out with more tips after episodes along with the mailbag, which, you know, we do still get some questions that don't warrant a full episode. However, we've also taken some of the questions from social media that we see all the time and gone to our corporate members to, you know, ask Klondike, ask James H.
Liane:Brown, ask Echelon, ask whoever, you know, what those answers would be. So, I think we're gonna enhance a little bit more again, the participation of our corporate membership because they're the experts in their fields. Why not? Right?
Bryn:Hey. Can I jump in with one other thing too that I've noticed over the five years that we've previously done? And that is the fact that while this is the Alberta Motorcycle Safety Society, we're getting more and more people tuning us in from across Canada and across the world. We've had responses from The UK. We've had responses from our friends in The US.
Bryn:So I I love the fact that we are taking what we do here in Alberta, and we're finding out what's going on around the rest of the planet and how can we bring that home. And I just think that that's the best and most exciting part of doing five years and moving into year six.
Liane:Oh, I love the fan mail. Like, I mean, I'll never stop shouting out Randy from Texas because he was the first to send us the fan mail. And Phil from The UK who, you know, wished that there's a podcast like this that was more localized to them. But at the same time, what we've morphed into in THINK Bike over five seasons and now six is more stories that are relatable. I mean, we knew we do need to touch on some local stuff, changes in legislation or insurance or whatever.
Liane:But at the end of the day, probably 90% of our episodes now, if not more, are things anybody can relate to anywhere in the world, is So, I wanna give you guys kind of like a teaser of a couple of really cool episodes that I think we have coming up. So of course, next week we start with Patrick Lamby. Of course, he's gonna give us his annual outlook on what's new for 2026. We love having him on. I mean, Inside Motorcycles is such a great Canadian resource for motorcycle information.
Liane:But over the winter, I connected with a young lady out of Texas, ironically, because Texas just keeps coming up, who had a collision with a vehicle, and I'm not gonna get into the specific details of all of this, but what I will say is she lost the use of one of her arms. And she's still riding. And the inspiration, like she's just, she's an incredible story, an incredible person to listen to. Getting back on a bike isn't for everybody, especially with challenges of losing some of your mobility, but it can be done and sharing her story is gonna be so amazing. Connected with the guys from the Wild Wolves of Canada charity.
Liane:They're building up this big run to support food scarcity in the territories specifically. And they're out of here in Alberta, which is a pretty cool thing. The road to happiness, which when you have a French accent, could sound a little Too
Bryn:much I can only imagine.
Liane:I'm just gonna say that. He's riding across Canada to find the meaning of happiness on a motorcycle in a documentary film that he's doing. You know, just the Women Riders World Relay is back and that kicked off in January, so that's not a shocker moment, but we're coming into our riding season here in Canada. I have batons to pass, come find me, let's keep this movement going of connecting women across the world. I think it's gonna be a really fun season of inspiration and like, from so many different ways.
Liane:Brynn has a firsthand account of being able to kinda get that full sneak peek. But Sean, what do you think? How does that sound? Are you excited for this year?
Sean:Oh, definitely. Yeah. It's honestly a long winter and it kinda hibernated, and I'm ready to ready to go. The battery charges are on the bikes. It's you know, I'm ready to probably change the oil later today.
Sean:So nice out.
Liane:Yeah. Although
Sean:this is Melbourne, it's nice out here.
Bryn:Can I ask you a question here? I thought about this a little bit over the winter. One of the things that I like about driving on a holiday is these places I stop, like rest stops and things like that. And I was wondering, is that the same for motorcyclists? Are there places you like to stop?
Bryn:And that, you know, as you're as you're riding along, you think to yourself, I another hour, and I can stop by the Kootenai River and maybe just grab a bite to eat. I got something packed away. I I I'm I'm sure that that's not a topic of anything that we're gonna discuss this season, but I'm just throwing it out there because I don't know where that came to me or how it came to me, but is that the same for motorcyclists as it would be for somebody who's driving a car?
Sean:Yes. I think even more so. Okay. Because you see tend to stop a bit more often, and then if it's a known route, you have your places where you like to stop.
Bryn:Yeah.
Sean:Yeah. Calgary to Edmonton, I do that every other weekend. Lacombe is my place to stop. I don't know why. I just like the town.
Sean:It's it's yeah. And on the way to BC, there's you know, you know how far you can get on a tank of gas. Yeah. I'm gonna get gas here and have lunch here and yeah. You time it a bit better.
Bryn:Throw that one out there, and maybe we'll get some emails on that all the way through the season. Favorite rest stops. Maybe it's an episode later in the year. Who knows? I like I said, just looking for a different spin on stuff because there's so many great topics out there that you know what?
Bryn:We can only think of so many. Right?
Sean:Yep.
Bryn:Our listeners and our listeners, I'm sure, could come up with a few great ideas for shows as well.
Liane:Yeah. For sure. And I'm a big fan of chasing waterfalls. So if if there's like waterfalls that are on the route that I'm on, that's where I'm stopping. Nice.
Liane:You know, and that's the other fun thing about being on a motorcycle is, you know, if you see something, like I know in a car, it's just, it's different when I'm in my car, it's like, oh, I coulda stopped there, and off I go. But on a bike, it's like, I could use a rest, and then you find a pullout that's just scenic, and beautiful, and you end up just, you know, like I would stop at the top of Rogers Pass on my way into Kelowna, or Revelstoke, or whatever, know, Sean's right when we're heading back from BC and he's riding with me, we stop in specific places for gas and like, I'm very routine on certain things so I think I drive Sean nuts with some of that if he's riding with me but there's times where I'm like, oh I know there's a waterfall there and I take a sharp right and off I go. You know. So yeah, if you have any ideas, pit stops, whatever, we can always throw them all together and read them off in our mid year, mid season review or the end of the year. Info@ab-amss.org is exactly where you want to send all your pit stops, whether Alberta, BC, in Montana, wherever people like to go riding.
Liane:Let us know, maybe there's something that we don't know about.
Bryn:Maybe you're missing something, right?
Liane:Or, maybe you want to send it to just us and we don't say it because you don't want everybody to
Sean:won't know about want to you're
Liane:best interested I tried to do that with Sean, 49 in Montana. You know,
Bryn:That's and a special code.
Liane:It's this little like 12 mile road that bypasses certain areas of Montana to get onto Highway 2, which is their Glacier National Park.
Bryn:Right.
Liane:And I tried to like tell somebody that I, you know, I've got this. I don't wanna tell you because you know, it's special and I don't want a lot of people and you, oh 49, you're talking about 49. And I'm like, goddamn it. It's a thing out Yeah.
Sean:Yeah.
Liane:So, before we get any too long in this season opener, I do have some reminders for what's going on this year. So, we have our eleventh annual campaign launch coming out right away. It is again gonna be a compilation of videos from our partners and corporate members just talking about Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. It is funded by Moto Canada and, we're happy to have them participating in our video this year as well, which is really cool. So that will be coming out, onto our YouTube channel, and then hit all of our socials, and we'll get it out as far as we can.
Liane:Look for it there towards the April for sure by May 1. Our Think Bike fifty fifty is coming back starting May 1 for the whole month of May. Let's make this one a big one. It's how we help fund the podcast. So if you guys are really enjoying this podcast, the fifty fifty is a really great way to support it, and you could possibly win up to $10 if we sell out the $50.50.
Liane:So let's let's try and get that up there this year. We've got two Bill Sunday in June, I think it's June 7, Sean, correct?
Sean:I believe
Bryn:it is.
Liane:Yes. The first Sunday in June, we're looking forward to going down there. They have also decided to promote my Canada's first female world record. So, I will be there this year, I was not last year, but I'm coming down this year as a request from the Two Will Sunday folks, and we'll be in with AMSS booth as well, so you if have any questions about racing at the Salt Flats or anything like that, I will be there to answer that. Sean can also answer some questions too, because he's quite familiar.
Liane:We've got For the Love of Motorcycles, June 27, That is our outdoor market at Blackjacks, which is a sister event to Two Wheel Sunday in Calgary. Excited to be bringing that back. We have some new things happening. We're gonna have some some games, some motorcycle games being put on by Moto Instincts, which is gonna be super fun and new, but we'll still have the show and shine, still have entertainment. And then the last of the events that we will be at so far that we have confirmed is, Ride to Reynolds on August 8.
Liane:So AMSS will be there again, promoting Motorcycle Safety and Awareness, and I will also be doing two presentations in their theater, one in the morning hours, one in the afternoon hours, again, about the world record stuff. That will have a whole PowerPoint I need to still create. Ugh.
Bryn:You know, it's my job as producer of this fine podcast to remind you that you're getting close to your time.
Liane:I know.
Sean:To wrap
Bryn:this up. Sean, great seeing you. Glad you, you know, you had a reasonably good winter, and I know we're all gonna have a great spring and summer, so I'm pumped up about that. But Leanne, to wrap up with?
Liane:I want to finish off with, different perspectives. Sean, what's your biggest tip for this year?
Sean:Like riding tip?
Liane:Yeah. We're a motorcycle podcast.
Sean:Sorry. You caught me off guard there. Yeah. I'm okay. So I'm gonna work on this year on on myself is looking further in a corner.
Sean:I kind of well, after my accident a couple years ago, I found myself not looking far enough ahead in a corner. And last summer, doing some pretty tight turns on some really nice pavement, kinda freaked myself out a bit, then I had to slow down. So I need that's where I realized I'm not looking far enough ahead. I'm looking where my tire is going. I'm not looking where I should be going.
Sean:Super good awareness.
Liane:That's really great self awareness. Brynn, what is your tip for this year?
Bryn:From a driver's perspective of a motor vehicle, it's the same as it's always been, but I gotta tell you, I've certainly been awakened over the last few years. So for me, the biggest one is properly gauging the speed of a motorbike coming towards me because they come fast. Right? And sometimes as a a vehicle driver, you don't you don't give them enough credit for the speed that they're coming. The other one too is left hand turns.
Bryn:I'm just every time I hear that it was a left hand turn that took a rider down, it it bothers me. And I I'm far more aware. And if it's one thing that you just it's a woodpecker theory. You just gotta keep banging away at it, and eventually, you'll make some progress on it. So those are the two things for me.
Bryn:Rider speed to make sure that as a driver of a car, I'm ready, and also to make sure that as I'm making a left hand turn, I use the first thing and make sure that I do it safely to make sure that everybody gets through an intersection properly and safely.
Liane:For me, I think my biggest tip for this year is
Bryn:You asked us.
Liane:I know. I just I wanna find a way to make safety sexy, if that makes I mean, it's, nobody likes people telling you to be safe and whatever, but at the end of the day, the goal for AMSS is to make sure that everybody gets home safely to the people that they love. So, for me, it's continuing to walk the talk that we are creating here at AMSS. Like Sean's self aware of his, you know, he had an incident and he's recognized that there's something he needs to work on. I am not a slow speed skills girl.
Liane:I mean, I could probably spend some time in a parking lot with some cones and work on that. I'm just for me, I just want everybody to have the best summer ever and let's make sure that we all get home safely to our loved ones.
Bryn:Don't get cocky. Right? So.
Liane:Exactly. All right.
Bryn:Okay.
Liane:Well, let's do season six, guys.
Bryn:Bring it on. Excellent.
Liane:All right. See you soon.
Bryn:Thanks. What's up? What are we doing first? The mailbag?
Liane:I don't know. It's a, no, it's a mixed bag, I think.
Leeroy:Let's talk about early season riding. Spring has almost arrived in Alberta, but the roads aren't quite ready yet. Winter leaves behind a gift of sand and gravel, especially in intersections and on those sweeping curves. Treat every corner like it's covered in marbles until the street sweepers have done their job in May. Also,
Liane:remember
Leeroy:that asphalt and tires are still cold, which means that you don't have the same grip that you do in July. If you do decide to venture out, it's smart to drive your route in a vehicle first to check for sand, ice, and new potholes. Another great strategy for this time of year is to stick inside of vehicle tracking locations to reduce the amount of sand and gravel that you encounter. And I'm Leroy 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.