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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 has become a staple episode to help us kick off the season every year as we bring back Patrick Lambie of Inside Motorcycles Magazine to talk about what is new in the industry for 2026. Welcome back, Patrick.
Patrick:Thank you very much. How are you today?
Liane:I am fantastic. I am so happy to sit and talk with you every year about this, but before we get into it, let's remind everybody who is Patrick Lamby and what got you into riding?
Patrick:Okay. Well, as you mentioned, I'm the editor at Inside Motorcycles. I'm also part of the ownership and management team at Hard Knocks Track Days. As far as what got me into riding, I think it was like grade one or two that I visited someone's farm and got on a dirt bike. And at that point, I was hooked, you know, so I convinced my parents to buy me a dirt bike.
Patrick:And then when I was old enough, I got to riding on the street. You know, like so many other people, university and starting a career in a family, bikes kinda got put to the side, but then, you know, I actually was lucky enough to retire from the corporate world quite young and jumped into motorcycles with both feet. And that kinda brings us to here.
Liane:I mean, he had probably one of the best jobs in the world, but I'll tell you, there are more stories about their starting out on a farm on a bike in this area than anywhere. I got one too. So it's a it's standard out in these parts. So what is new at Inside Motorcycles since we last talked? You went fully digital last year.
Liane:How's everything going?
Patrick:Well, you know, it's we kind of it's taken a few years to kind of figure out, you know, we're adapting what was a print magazine into a world where print is really dying. You know, even when you're traveling in the airport, you're lucky if there's one little shelf of magazines when you're looking to get something. You know, the good news is we've really started to hit our stride in the digital world. You know, we continue to do all the news from, you know, as I call it, the world on two wheels, but we continue to add a lot of contributors, you know, and now instead of having articles, we have blogs and we have podcasts, you know, but our team of test writers and reviewers is still truly among the best in the industry. You know, we had a really fun 2025 and into '26.
Patrick:I even got to ride to the Arctic Circle this year. So that was really cool. The big thing moving forward that we're learning is people on their phones are scrolling so quickly that just having a Facebook post or an Instagram post or a Twitter or whatever it's called, we're really finding video, like YouTube is making this huge resurgence. So we're continuing to put more and more focus onto video and YouTube content, because that seems to at least slow people down, you know, when they're sailing along, whether it's on their phone or their tablet. So, yeah, things are going well.
Patrick:That's probably the biggest change that we're working on is adapting more and more of our interviews and reviews to be at least incorporate some video content.
Liane:Is there a subscription or pay for what is on the site or is that mostly now taking care of sponsors and sales
Patrick:It's all it's advertiser driven. So, you know, anybody can go to, you know, www.insidemotorcycles.com. That was my plug. Shameless. And it is it's free.
Patrick:There's no subscription. All the content is available. And, you know, hopefully people will continue to come and take part and give us their feedback. You know, it's easy for people just to write on the website. There's a contact button and it comes direct to me.
Patrick:So feedback's important.
Liane:You know, and there are people out there that miss that page turning magazine and stuff, but in all reality, you know, this is where things are going and media has changed so much. It makes sense that you guys are doing more YouTube given that what you're doing is reviewing and showcasing. And so having that visual of it goes with it, you know, absolutely. Well, congratulations on your shift into digital. That's awesome.
Patrick:Absolutely. Right.
Liane:So let's jump into 2026. So what is new and exciting for this year?
Patrick:Well, you know, I think, you know, another whatever, eight months from now when we look back at the '26, I'm worried we may find that it's turned out to be kind of a boring year. You know, manufacturers, they're stuck with all these emission requirements. You know, they're trying to keep their cost of manufacturing in line with price points that the consumers want. You know, they're chasing this kind of elusive next generation of riders who just aren't showing up. You know, and then the other thing is that a lot of the technology has peaked.
Patrick:You know, two or three year well, I've got a 2020 KTM that already had lean sensitive traction control and wheelie control and ABS and launch control. It's kind of peaked. So now it seems to be more erased about getting that technology into more and more the entry point of bikes. But I think, you know, you add in the fact that when you look at Harley Davidson, who for most years, a new model means they put a different color on an existing one. Sorry.
Patrick:No. But the reality is to do a new model in kind of the current economy, a new model means you gotta retool a factory, you gotta do all this. It's a big undertaking to put out a new model. And, you know, when you look at like even last year, I forget Harley's sales fell in double digit percentage around the globe, you know, and they've really struggled with trying to find that next consumer, you know, because a lot a big part of their customer base is old white guys. And, you know, old white guys just by nature are dying off kind of things.
Patrick:So, you know, and that's just the reality that they're dealing with. So I think, honestly, looking back, it could be. I do think there's gonna be some big winners in '26. I think Aprilia is gonna do really well. You know, they're kind of the affordable Italian option to Ducati.
Patrick:You know, they tend to be like a base model Panigale v four. It's like 32,000 out the door, you can get the base model of Aprilia RSV four for under 25 out the door kind of thing. So there's savings there. Triumph, your favorite brand. I really think they're gonna have a good year.
Patrick:I think they've got, you know, this new single cylinder 400 lineup that's gonna do great.
Liane:You know, I sorry to sorry to interrupt you on that because that was one thing that I noticed at at the bike show, which then I went to our dear friend Ian McKinstry and I said, why did we decide we're no longer making a Thruxton, but now we're making a Thruxton 400? I'm very confused, but
Patrick:Did he have a good answer?
Liane:No, I think he just laughed with me because you know, it's easy to confuse me, but Thruxton's have always been one of my favorites. Yeah. Not a riding style that is conducive to my old lady body anymore, but to have like it come out in a 400, it still kinda lives. But so go on with your thoughts.
Patrick:Yeah. No. I can't bend. And the Thruxton Thruxton 400 is a gorgeous looking machine, you know, and saying, like, they've got the Street Triple seven sixty five RX, like, that's a bike that I was ready to buy when I saw it at the bike show. Like, it's just stunning.
Patrick:It's well built, you know. So I think they're gonna have a good year. Royal Enfield, I mean, you know, in 2025, they had over a million units sold worldwide, you know, and that comes from if you were to go back fifteen years in their history, they were about a 100,000 units sold worldwide. Right. So they've just become this, you know, behemoth kind of thing.
Patrick:The other one is Yamaha. I think they're going to have a great year. You know, they came out with the R9 a year before, but they didn't have a lot of them available. So this year they've got like a full production of them. You know, they've taken the r seven and totally updated it with a full suite of electronics and a quick shifter.
Patrick:All other sport bikes and other models come with their seventy fifth anniversary delivery. So I think they're gonna have a good year.
Liane:Yeah. We we love Yamaha at AMSS.
Patrick:You know, then I do think, you know, on the other side of the coin, I think Harley's really struggling to develop that new customer base. Yeah. Indian motorcycle, you know, new ownership kind of work? I don't know. It's it's early days.
Patrick:Think Who bought it? Basically a hedge fund kind of thing. You know, it's an investment company bought it and it's I think there's value there. But I think, again, they're in a very declining market. Brands like Suzuki and Kawasaki have little or nothing new coming out.
Patrick:So I think, you know, they're gonna keep their loyal people. But, you know, I had people even back at the bike shows asking me, you know, what bike they should buy for the track, you know, and they're asking me like, should they get the Kawasaki, their 600 model, the ZX6R, and I'm going, it's a great bike, but its electronics are so outdated. Like, they just haven't updated, you know, their models. So I think it's I think those are gonna be the the tough ones. And I think the wildcard in '26 is going to be CF Moto.
Patrick:CF Moto, you know, they've got a full line of the bikes. I've looked at them, we're queued up to start testing them very soon. But, you know, their price point, I think with the exception of their fully blown adventure tour, everything else is $10 and under. When you look at what's on them as far as components and technology. They're pushing hard in North America.
Patrick:So I think the only challenge is gonna be quality, and that's not gonna really be determined until you know, two or three years from now when we see how they're doing, if they've got stability in both quality and how they do as far as dealer network and everything else to make sure you can get maintenance and parts and everything, so.
Liane:Well, I would mention that I did talk to CF Moto at the bike show as well. To the standing of CF Moto, we have in our salt racing team at JKR, two little Papios as our pit bikes that have been down we've had them down there for two full seasons at the salt running down there on like salt and not I I I'm not sure if they've ever been washed, but Right. Oh. They they, like, ran last year like a gem, and I can't wait to get back on it again this year. I love running around the pits with that.
Liane:What about our friends at Honda?
Patrick:You know, they've got I think they've got this new e clutch setup, which I think is pretty cool. You know, they continue Honda's big things are obviously the Africa Twin and the Gold Wing, of course. The Goldwing, the current model, it's getting a little long in the tooth. You know, it came out, I'm guessing ten years ago, can't remember exactly. I remember riding it when it came out.
Patrick:But, you know, so it's getting a little long in the tooth. You know, Honda is huge, obviously. I sometimes wonder how much attention the power sports division gets compared to the automotive side of their business. Yeah. Because I think there's, you know, when you talk about a company like, say, Harley, you know, or Triumph or even Ducati, you know, they are standalone, they're a motorcycle company.
Patrick:And yes, I know Ducati is owned by Audi and VW,
Liane:but Triumph has a car, but
Patrick:Yeah, but you know, an entity, they are motorcycle companies, where Honda, I sometimes wonder, because it seems some years the powersports side gets a big push, other times it doesn't. You know, I think they've pushed hard on their competition side, especially here in Canada, you know, where they put Ben Young on the fire blade, you know, he managed to bring them a championship in their first year. So hopefully there's gonna be more coming on that front, you know, and they push their powers, you know, definitely their racing programs in Europe and even in The US are huge. So I think they're there. I think it'll be to see what they come out with as they roll forward and where they really put their focus.
Liane:Yeah. It seems like there's a lot going on, but yeah, I do, I agree with you. There's some people that might struggle a little bit with their demographic aging out of riding and trying to find a way. I know Harley has tried to find different ways to get at different markets, but maybe someday they'll figure it out because that is a longstanding brand. Last year, we touched a bit on the tariff issues that were pending.
Liane:Do you see still some concerns or issues with that?
Patrick:I think the big concern and even when I talk to people in the industry, is the uncertainty. Tariffs are here one day, then they're gone, then they're back, then they're here, then they're this percentage, they're this percentage, they apply to this, they don't apply to that. In that particular instance, if you are a Canadian company where your product either comes through The United States or you're reliant on either components from The United States or in the case of Harley, the entire bike from The United States, it's gotta be taxing. Just trying to deal with it, it's a real wild card. And I think especially even when you get to the dealership level, it flows all the way through.
Patrick:I know there are companies like Harley Canada who, you know, they're a division of the mothership, but, you know, they still have to work with their dealer network and, you know, they try to minimize it, but there's only so far you can go to minimize that. So it is it's a reality for the foreseeable future, but I think the biggest challenge isn't the quantum, it's the uncertainty.
Liane:Yeah, yeah.
Patrick:I do think there is an offset to it because talking to, I was in a dealership a couple months ago and they were telling me that they had had an amazing start to the year as far as sales volumes. And we were chatting about it and they were comparing it to, you know, whatever it was, three years ago when we were in the midst of Covid and how people were kind of going, well, I can't travel anywhere, maybe I'll buy a dirt bike or, you know, we're always wanting to have the family in the side by side. And, you know, I think there seems to be a bit of a trend towards not traveling so much and staying home and spending your hard earned money at home. So I don't know, that's purely Speculative. Hypothesizing.
Patrick:Yeah. But there is definitely, you know, there seems to be a trend kind of mirroring, maybe not as substantial, but what we kind of experienced during COVID with people starting to spend money at home and rather than saying, we're going to Disneyland, it's like, look kids, we got you dirt bikes and we're going out trail riding. So that could be a positive for the Canadian industry. I think, as I said, there's a couple more years of this that we have to endure.
Liane:Unless, but we're not gonna talk about that.
Patrick:That's true. We'll move on from that.
Liane:We'll just move on. No, I agree though that the tourism is definitely down out of Canada. And you know, there's a lot of people are like, well, I'm just not gonna do this this year. I'm going to stay home and spend my money in Canada. And that's great.
Liane:That's great for our economy that does nothing but wonders for local. And yeah, so we are a couple months out from the January late January bike show, the annual gathering of the OEMs. What was your take on the twenty twenty six Alberta power motorcycle and powersports show? It's no longer the Calgary one. It's now Alberta.
Liane:I
Patrick:guess to be as candid as possible. And I think it mirrors a lot of the discussion we had a year ago when we did this similar discussion. The show needs to evolve. It is truly and I've been doing it, gosh, forever, you know, with Inside Motorcycles and now with Hard Knocks. And honestly, and I know there's been going from NMIC to Moto Canada.
Liane:All new stuff.
Patrick:They're they're truly sticking with the same formula and format that they were using fifteen or more years ago. I mean, you know, and it's showing that it's tired. It hasn't moved with technology per se. The manufacturer attendance, and we spoke about it before, is really lagging, and that hurts the show obviously. But then even when you look at it from the people who you're trying to draw into the show to come and look at these products, I kind of paid attention in Calgary, and if I was to go and take my wife, by the time you buy tickets, which I think were $22 each, you pay for parking, which in Calgary is insane.
Patrick:Maybe we wanna stop and have a beer. It's over a $100 by the time, you know, to go to a bike show and then, you know, there's no Ducati. India, no Indian, no BMW, no So there is I haven't done the math, I don't wanna say half the manufacturers are missing, but a good number of the manufacturers are missing. And I think that's the biggest challenge for the show. And then again, it almost ties back into how we talked about inside motorcycles.
Patrick:You know, fifteen or more years ago, I couldn't just sit down at my computer and go, oh, look, I wanna learn about whatever bike. And I mean, you go on the Ducati website and they've even got a button, I think for pretty much every model you can press so you can hear the exhaust. The online world makes it where it's maybe a bit easier for the person who doesn't wanna spend a $100 to go, assuming they take their partner to the bike show, you can do so much research at home, You don't need to go there and necessarily talk to every OEM's booth to narrow down what you want. There's reviews all over that you can read about different bikes and everything. So I do think they're gonna have to evolve.
Patrick:I don't necessarily have the answer of what that looks like, but we were at the Abbotsford show and on Friday they're going, it's ladies night. And first of all, it's not promoted. And honestly, fifteen years ago, Friday was ladies night, but it was promoted. And I know like at Inside Motorcycles, Shuburth helmets would give us a helmet for every show. And we would you know, all the ladies came by, we'd give them a complimentary subscription for a few months and put their name in a draw for the helmet.
Patrick:So it was and everyone did that. It wasn't, you know, it was a big Well, they used
Liane:to give a bike away for late Yeah. Night, the
Patrick:And that's all gone. And it's not it's not necessarily bad that it's gone, but it's like time to figure out what else can Friday night be, you know? So I just feel don't me wrong, I think the people at Modal Canada are working hard. I think it's a tough environment to put on a show, especially when your partner companies are not even willing to come out and support the show. So I do feel for them, but I really think it needs to evolve.
Patrick:Otherwise, I think you know, sooner or later, I don't know how many more manufacturers could stop attending before they'd have to say, okay, we're not gonna have a show. And then you add in that there are regional shows such as the one you have up in Edmonton starting to come up and get a little bit of traction. So all of a sudden, not only is Moto Canada struggling to get manufacturers to attend, but now they've got competition, which they've never really had before. So that's why, you know, I think for them, if I was at Moto Canada, I'd have been using the last three months to assess how 26 shows went and then be figuring out what we can do different for the 27 shows.
Liane:I am gonna say fifteen years ago, ladies night mattered because the demographic of women riders was so much lower and now there is a much higher percentage of women riders out there and it is still important to continue to highlight women in riding in the sense of improving on gear tailored to very different body types and bikes and stuff like that. But I would agree Friday should be something else that if you're gonna do ladies night, there should be something that goes with that because there wasn't anything at all this year. We were allowed to, the one interesting thing we were allowed to do this year that Moto Canada was so gracious to partner with us on was we got to sell $20 tickets ahead of the time for the show where we got to keep half of the proceeds from that. So we kept $10 and then once I collected everything, I wrote a check to Moto Canada for their half of the money we collected. So that was new for us and really excited about doing that again.
Liane:We had a decent like turnout for it. I'd like to see more, but that was something new for us. I know they tried some new things last year. I wish they would have like, okay, this is something, how can we make it better? Like that whole dark room with the neon lights on the bikes could be something really like crazy, insane, good.
Liane:The execution of it last year, I mean, it was just put together, but to take it and build on it instead of just going, oh, that didn't work. You know, like not everything happens in the first year, you know? But overall, my biggest takeaway, that was the best layout they've had.
Patrick:Yes.
Liane:In a long last year, we were all stuck behind concrete barriers.
Patrick:Yep.
Liane:This year, there was thought put into that and we we always have fun because we're always near each other, Hard Knocks and us. But I think that was one of the better layouts that they had for the show for sure.
Patrick:Yeah. No. The layout was really good, and the nice thing about that, it shows that the team at Moto Canada is listening. Yeah. Because I know they got a lot of feedback about the layout, in particular the Calgary layout for the twenty twenty five show.
Patrick:Yeah. So I think that's a really positive. It shows that they do listen and they corrected, you know, what was an unfortunate layout the year before worked out much better.
Liane:Yeah. Definitely did. Another thing that was at the bike show last year too, but it was more about the partnership, but now the fully realized Canadian motorcycle association standing on their own and not being under anybody else. What are your thoughts on the resurgence? I'll call it of the CMA because it's been a while since they've meant something in
Patrick:Canada. Yeah, you know, you didn't put that on the list of things you were gonna ask me about.
Liane:Sorry.
Patrick:No, no, I'm kidding, no, it's fine. No, the new leadership at the CMA is really solid, very dedicated. Their goal is motorcycling within Canada, working to enable competition, you know, supporting people who want to compete at the six days or wherever. So it's really positive. I think they did a good job stepping into what had not been working well.
Patrick:And a change was definitely due to bring you had everyone splintering off into their own sanctioning bodies and organizations. So I think it's a real positive. And so far, over the past, how many months? I want to say about eighteen months. I might be a bit long, everything I've seen coming out of them is really positive.
Liane:Yeah. They have about 27, 28 people sitting on seven different committees. I personally am sitting on three on purpose, not to drive myself more crazy. I felt like it was time now that it's its own standalone organization, the people who are leading it now, believe are the right people leading things now. And I wanna be involved to make sure that On Road is represented fairly.
Liane:It seems to always be off road, off road, off road, whether it's like Moto Canada stuff or CMA in the past. Competition wise, I'd like to see everybody being recognized. I know I'm very there's very few people that race at the South Flats, but I do race under the CMA banner with my FIM license and have a world record. And, you know, they they posted the press release onto their Facebook page. It garnered a lot of attention.
Liane:Wanna make sure that we're not forgetting that hill climbs, you know, things like that. So my whole purpose of being on these committees is to make sure Alberta gets recognized, that they recognize CMA may not be as evolved here, but we are gonna learn more about the resurgence of CMA in a couple of weeks as Lee's gonna be coming on to to talk Oh, good. Things. Yeah. So it was it's important for me to have everybody understand what CMA is and and the direction that they're going now.
Liane:And my hope is they get to a point where they are a semblance of what the American Motorcycle Association is in in The States. To close out, you mentioned at the top that you are part of the Hard Knocks team. And as you know, we love our Hard Knocks partnership. Take it to the track. I think you've you've got some stuff coming up real quick, like, a few days in area in Area 27.
Liane:What's going on out there?
Patrick:Yeah. So we're kicking off basically our twenty sixth season with we're going to be running for the first time the Academy twenty seven. So Area 27 has the Academy twenty seven for cars and it is an extremely high level, well attended program with attendees from throughout North America and even beyond. They've asked us to undertake to run a similar program for motorcycles, which is honestly a big honor for us. So that's where we're kicking off the season.
Patrick:This year, we're just doing one school, one Academy twenty seven. We wanted to have the chance to run one and then work with the ownership team at Area twenty seven and the management team there to say, now that we've done it, how does it fit within your program and make sure that we kind of have a good trajectory rather than saying, hey, we're gonna do three schools here and have to start trying to pivot if it's not fitting with their vision. So that's it. And then right from there, next day, we're right into track season. We got a couple days there.
Patrick:Then we're back out to RMM, Rocky Mountain Motorsports in just North Of Calgary late May, and we will be running there in conjunction with our track days. We've got four of our track dynamic schools that we're gonna be running there this year. And I think all told between Area 27 and Rocky Mountain Motorsports, I think we've got at least fifteen days of just track time that we've got for our customers with the potential to add more yet in '26. So it's going to be a busy year.
Liane:I am going to try my hardest to get down for an RMM day sometime this year. It should be a little bit easier for me to do that, especially if it's on a weekend because I do wanna come see the track. I don't necessarily need to get on it, but I do wanna come. Oh, I don't know. I'll forget my gear at home, I'm sure.
Liane:I don't know. We keep talking about putting me on a little 300 and letting me go, which probably is where we need to start.
Patrick:We actually do on, especially on the weekend days, we will do parade laps at lunch where anybody who and we get a lot of people out for them. Yeah. As long as they've come on a street legal motorcycle and they've got just, you know, a helmet and a jacket, we take them out and lead them around the track for a lap or two.
Liane:Okay. Mean, for that.
Patrick:And it is, you know, just to set the expectation, it's thirty, forty kilometers an hour, but you get to see the whole track, which you really can't see just from the paddock area. So it's it's a way to see it. You get to experience the elevation changes and everything. So at a minimum, you have to do that, or we can do a two up with you, and we can take you out on one of those.
Liane:Who's who am I going with?
Patrick:Well, we could probably maybe Rob or Matt or but we have a bike that is set
Liane:up as we kill me. I'm totally down. I'm down for both of those. We'll figure it out.
Patrick:We'll figure it out for sure.
Liane:Anybody looking for any information on Hard Knocks website is once again?
Patrick:Wwwhardknockstrackdays.com, and NOx is n ox, and daysiswithazed.
Liane:Yes. Because we're very fancy. You could also Google and then it will take you there.
Patrick:Yeah. Just please Google us, and as always, right on the website, if there's any questions, there's a contact button and anyone can reach out to us. We monitor that site daily, so we will always get back with any questions that anyone might have.
Liane:Fantastic. Patrick, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate this. Maybe we'll see you back this season. Maybe not.
Liane:We'll figure it out.
Patrick:Absolutely.
Liane:Alright. Thanks, bud. Everything else, hang tight for the mixed bag. On today's mailbag, we've gone to the experts at Klondike Insurance to answer the age old question, why is my insurance pricing different from other people's pricing? This seems to be a question that comes up on Facebook or Instagram or whatever all the time is what are you guys paying?
Liane:And nobody understands that that really depends on you. So our friends at Klondike Insurance say pricing depends on many variables, age, insurance history, how long have you had your classics license, convictions, bike claims, accidents, your postal code, where you live and the CCs and type of motorcycle. And you gotta remember some bikes have a surcharge premium due to their speed capabilities. Again, this information brought to you from our friends and corporate member Klondike Insurance. And that's it for another episode of Think Bike hosted by me, Leanne Langlois, produced by Brynn Griffiths at Mighty Mouth Communications.
Liane: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.