Welcome to think bike, the podcast about all things motorcycle and the voice of motorcycle safety and awareness in Alberta. Your host is Leanne Langlois.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Think Bike. I am so excited. Season five, our first official guest. It's become a tradition on Think Bike to talk about the what's new stuff.

And to help us with that every year is Patrick Lamby from Inside Motorcycles. How are doing, Patrick?

I'm doing very well. Thank you and thank you for having me back. How are you?

I am doing great, excited to get another year going here, excited for motorcycle season, excited for everything. Quickly, how was how was your winter? It was freezing up in Edmonton.

It was freezing here, but I did manage to get in the odd ride or too here and there. So it was it was good.

You Calgarians and your Chinooks, mean, we can't compete with that up here. Just to remind people, who is Patrick Lamby?

So I work with Inside Motorcycles. I'm the editor there. I'm also one of the main test riders, so I get to ride a lot of new bikes and test a lot of new gear. Yeah. So that's that's my that's my gig.

I'm the editor of Inside Motorcycles.

Like the dream job for many of us passionate about riding. You get to just go and test ride all these things in cool places and Patrick. Absolutely. So what's new for inside motorcycles? I know last year we talked about how you went full digital, how's that working out?

You know, it's been definitely a year of learning. You know, it's definitely, I miss doing print because print you can be creative, you can build almost every issues a story, so you kind of figure out the flow from one story to the next and make sure it works, so I missed that, but the ability to bring a story, you know, pretty much immediately to your followers, to your readers is unique and we were, I won't say suffering, but we were behind the times because we would go review a bike and it might be six to eight weeks before it would hit the newsstands, meanwhile, our competitors who were all at the same press event, they're following their story online probably while they're on the airplane. So we've caught up, it's been a learning experience, but we're really excited about this year because I think we've gone through all the learning curve and we're gonna hit the ground running this season.

That's awesome. And yeah, that like instant news seems to be what everybody wants. I love a good like magazine still and holding the pages and turning them. And I mean, right now I'm down to one magazine I get from the American Motorcycle Association. And but I you know, it's yeah.

It's just it's different. And I get what you're saying. Like, I've always appreciated the inside motorcycle magazine showing up in my mailbox, but sign of the times and either you stay stagnant or you keep up with the Joneses as they say.

Absolutely.

So let's jump into this. Like every year there's always something that comes out that's new. I mean, I just we were seeing a bunch of posts earlier this year about, the new hundred and $10,000 Harley Davidson. Like, I'm really not quite sure who's paying a hundred and $10,000 for any motorcycle, but hey, here we are. What is new and exciting in the motorcycle industry?

Well, it's gosh, it's probably easier to start with what's not exciting in the motorcycle industry. A lot of manufacturers, including Harley, aren't coming out with a lot of new stuff at this point. You know, Harley's put out some new motors over the last couple seasons, but, you know, their 2025 lineup is for the most part some new paint and some rebadging. So it's definitely, you know, in that front, and they're not unique. There's a lot of manufacturers that are not putting out a lot of new stuff.

The ones that are putting out new stuff, there's definitely a continued trend towards adventure bikes and naked bikes. Sport bikes really seem to have gone they're just either too hard to ensure, too hard to meet the, you know, the emissions regulations keeps changing, it seems almost every year, you know, so like this year, you know, a couple years ago Kawasaki came out with their, you know, their 400 RR, which was big news. This year, Yamaha has come out with the R9, which is a sport bike based on their triple platform, but in general, sport bikes seem to be fading away. I mean, I hope they don't because I spend most of my time at the racetrack, but it definitely, that's a noticeable trend. You know, what is continuing is a lot of manufacturers are relying on parallel twins, so where they are doing that, we're noticing a lot more parallel twins and they're affordable to build, they're a nice dimension, you can build a pretty, you know, a good bike around them, but those are kind of the main trends, I mean, your favorite company, of course being Triumph, you know, they're bucking the trend, I mean, you know, jumped in with both feet into the motocross world and you know, they did it, you know, they were serious, the fact that they, you know, brought Ricky Carmichael on board to help design a bike, you know, and then they go out and actually win a Supercross event in their, you know, their first year, you know, and they're not, they're taking a lot that they're learning there, I mean, they put out their new Scrambler 400, they really are, I would say, yeah, they're the ones who are almost going against the trend and they're really pushing hard.

You know, other brands that are continuing, Royal Enfield continues to surprise me, they were really busy last year, in 2024, it seemed like every couple of, you know, almost couple of weeks, but there was a new model from them, so they're pushing, but a lot of the brands that we're used to seeing new stuff from, they're slowing down and I don't know whether it's just that they've peaked as far as their use of technology, you know, Ducati is, they're really good at, you know, they came out with a V4 engine and then they leveraged it, you know, throughout their platform, then they came out with their V2 platform and they've leveraged that really well, so, you know, this year they've come out with a V2 Multi Strata and they've put the V 4 into the D of L lineup, so they are continuing to push forward, but not at the same pace that they were, so it seems like some of the brands like Ducati have, you know, they're still moving forward, they're not stagnant, I think they've had a bit of a plateau as far as their technology. So, sorry, it's kind of a long winded answer to the simple question.

No, no, no, that's perfect. I mean, I just, like all these things running in my head. So, you know, yes, I'm very like my of course, my favorite brand is Triumph and stuff. It's by you know, AMSS is sponsored by Yamaha as well as Riverside Honda and Skidoo. So it's nice that Yamaha is coming out with the new r nine.

And I have as well noticed this move from, you know, the the the sport bikes were the craze for a bit and everybody was doing that and now everybody seems to wanna get off road and adventure bikes.

Mhmm.

And I don't know if that's for maybe the comfort and the distance you can go as well as you could ride anywhere.

Mhmm.

What's your thought on that?

I mean, living in Alberta and in other places where I get to ride, the ability to have a dual sport bike and you know, whether it's just that you wanna be able to, if you do hit a bit of gravel, just you don't have to turn around or for people who are more serious about their off road riding, it just opens up. I read somewhere the correlation of gravel roads to paved roads in Alberta, frightening, it's like, it's multiples of gravel for paved roads, so if all you're ever gonna ride on is pavement and there's amazing roads everywhere in Canada and North America obviously, but they're just touching the surface. You know, we did a story a couple years ago in the Penticton area and we had been there and done like a touring story couple years before and then we went and I loved it, but then we went back and did like a dual sport tour and there was so much more to see. So I think, you know, that's one of the things you don't have to go out, there's so much more variety that you can look at even from a price point.

You don't have to go and drop 20,000 plus on a BMW GS, you know, you can for well under 10,000 get a decent dual sport bike, you're not gonna go around the world like Charlie and Ewen or anything, but you know, you can take it for all kinds of day trips, you can go out for a weekend on it, so I think, yeah, there's a lot of appeal and yes, the comfort thing, and we've talked before, the demographic of motorcycling is aging, there's not as many new riders coming in and trust me, as you get older, it's a lot more comfortable to be sitting upright rather than bent over on a fancy sport bike. So I think there's a lot of things that combine to it, but definitely the versatility is a big one.

So with that though, I know earlier in the year there was rumors circulating regarding KTM and their potential not being around this like, and that happens. Other brands we've seen go by the wayside, like victory and things like that. And, you know, it's hard when you lose a brand that's always a difficult thing to do because people have invested their lifestyle into that brand. I don't know what I would do if Triumph up and quit, but

Well, somebody who rides KTM and definitely loves their product, it's obviously concerning when you see the brand, you know, in trouble and announcing they're in trouble and not just a little bit of trouble, but you know, trouble that starts with a B for billions, you know, and then when you kind of stop and look at it from a business perspective, they were putting out so many models, like their lineup, I think in 2024, read was like 55 different models or something that they had in active production. So there's just, they got overbuilt as far as inventory and, you know, they make a great product, make an amazing product, they were one of the brands that were bucking the trend, you know, as other brands were, call it turtling and just hoping for, you know, economy to improve and new riders to magically appear, you know, KTM was, you know, right alongside Ducati and some of it seemed to be the European brands that were really just pushing ahead with new models, you know, hopefully as the year progresses, I mean, they're still, they've showed up at the MotoGP grid, you know, when you follow their corporate press releases, they're working through their process, So I'm very hopeful that they will come out the other side because again, on the adventure bike thing, they are one of the leading manufacturers of absolutely top shelf adventure and dual sport bikes.

Absolutely. And then there's struggle with this question because I don't like to get political on this podcast until we're talking about legislation that affects motorcycle riders. But we started 2025 in a really interesting way with an election south of the border and implementing a president who decided to implement some ridiculous tariffs on Canada. And just because you're in the industry as as and report on things. I mean, they're on again, off again tariffs.

Can't even tell you what's gonna happen in two months if they're gonna be on again or off again, who knows? But how is this affecting our motorcycle industry in Canada?

Well, I mean, it's I mean, first of all, this is very volatile for, you know, and as you said, it's on again, off again, on again, you know, on these products, not on these products, these are like it is, and I think the end result is that manufacturers don't know and businesses don't know, so whether you're a Harley Davidson Canada, I mean, they're probably one of the most susceptible to all of this because their products come directly from The United States and, you know, so far what we've seen is it is a, it's a tariff war, it's, you know, someone puts a tariff, so someone puts a reciprocal one. So for hopefully, you know, Harley Davidson Canada was able to get enough inventory across the border and see where they go because it is, you know, even though I said earlier, and I do think Harley's kind of slowed down a lot on their, you know, their new models, but they still sell like crazy. I mean, they are, you walk into a Harley dealer and half the bikes have sold stickers on them. So from a dealer point of view, hopefully they're gonna be able to get the inventory they need.

You know, there's a lot of products that don't come through The US, they don't have to come through The US, a lot of the tires that we use come from Japan. So it'll be up to the distributors and the retail people to find a new way to navigate or a new route for their products to get here. You know, I personally wear, you want them on the track, I wear a Day and Easy gear, so it comes from Italy, but I couldn't tell you whether it comes from Italy through The US or not And I think a lot of companies will just have to rationalize that, but it leaves, you know, the other thing obviously from the industry point of view is gonna be how willing consumers are to part with their hard earned money in such a time of uncertainty because everything I read, you know, from people who are much smarter than me is that one of the most likely outcomes of all these tariffs, if it doesn't settle down, is gonna be a recession, probably in both The United States and Canada, which is going to then, you know, the industry has seen it repeatedly where when there is a recession or a significant downturn in the economy, the sales of motorcycles fall off because, you know, we're not living in India or somewhere where they are a mode of transportation, they are truly a nice to have here, they're not a requirement.

So I'm hopeful that things are gonna settle down, but everything we saw in, you know, the first so many months doesn't give me a lot of confidence right now, I think we could, I think we're in for a bumpy ride until The US gets to their midterm elections and then they have to settle down and actually focus on, you know, maintaining their control. So I think until then, it'll be a wild ride.

Yeah, it is super unfortunate because like all of this trickles down and affects not like the consumers as well as organizations like ours because now we have corporate members like Yamaha, Riverside Honda, you know, who are like, oh, I don't know if we can spend that money. And you know, in supporting initiatives like AMSS. So then we get put in a position where we're like, oh, can we afford to run our program? You know, and things like that. So it's a yeah, I think we're all hoping for the best and expecting the worst and whatever, wherever it lands.

All I know is it's really nice to see people pulling together and like standing up for what they feel is right for them. Absolutely. Yeah. And you're right. Like motorcycles aren't a necessity in Canada.

I mean, look at our weather. It doesn't afford it doesn't lend itself to having a motorcycle for a full year in most places. I mean, Calgary near Chinooks, but but yeah, I mean, it's a it's a luxury item really. And Absolutely. Yeah.

So second year back from post COVID motorcycle shows, let's let's get we like to talk about this. The good, the bad, the ugly of well, first of all, we were down a show in Alberta from the Moto Canada shows only in Calgary this year. Was that a good move or a bad move do you think?

Just and without any knowledge of, you know, what the modal candida, you know, how what their thought process was. I personally think it was a bad move on their part and the reason why I would say that is that the, and I'll probably get it wrong, so I apologize, but the YEG motorcycle show continues to grow and do really, really well and attract more and more vendors, more and more organizations and attract huge crowds and my understanding is they've taken a step where they're actually gonna combine with, I believe, some form of an auto show and actually hold it at the big, one of my, I love the convention.

The Expo Center, yeah.

Yeah, I think it's gorgeous. So I mean, for them to make that move, Moto Canada kinda just opened the door up for them. So I think on that point, was a bad move for Moto Canada. I also know they just when you look at the show itself, a lot of manufacturers, you know, notably like Ducati, BMW, Kawasaki aren't coming out to the shows, so it gets harder and harder to put on a show when some of your major brands aren't there shouldering their part of the cost of putting on the show. But yeah, so I think the move to remove Edmonton, don't know what their logic was, but just looking at the, and it's always easy in hindsight, but when you look at how the YEG show is just taking off, they're filling a void, so that shows to me that the appetite was there to have a show and I think Moto Canada in that particular way, I think they kind of dropped the ball a bit.

Well, and the interesting thing about the YEG show is it's, you're right, it's attracting more and more exhibitors to be there and partnering with the auto show, the auto experience show is, you know, for lack of a better term and and John and Brian's heads are gonna explode when I say this. Was genius. Let's just it it four days is a lot for exhibitors, but still genius. But the thing that like the thing is though, is that like Kawasaki, Ducati, all of that is at the YEG show because it's local homegrown businesses So it's not the manufacturer, but they're still, they're being represented at this grassroots show versus the manufacturer show, which is always very interesting. Now the Motto Canada show though, they did try some new things this year.

The glow exhibit, did you happen to check out the glow exhibit?

I did not because I was working when I was there, so I did not

get So sigh.

Yeah. I didn't get it. I didn't get a chance to see it. Someone had told me where it was and I just never got over to see it.

So for those who didn't get in to see the glow exhibit, they had a area of the floor space at the bike show that was an enclosed completely black room. And my thought process on this when we, when I sat and talked with the team was it's a brilliant idea that requires, a little bit more effort into the execution because while there was like a spider in there in the middle that had some really cool lights on it and one of the, I can't remember which sport bike was in there that had like electrifying paint. So it really popped under black lights. It was essentially a bunch of white bikes with black lights on them. And if you're going to make an exhibit like that, I guess my constructive feedback to Moto Canada would be, great idea.

Let's, you know, fully execute it because I feel it was and and there was not there was a lot of space for not a lot of motorcycles in there. And then on the other side, adding that other, haul in that was purely really off road stuff, and the indoor races, resulted in some carbon monoxide concerns, but but it was again, something new that they're trying and what did I'm I'm sure you've got over for that part.

I did, I popped over, I did not go over when they were racing. Someone, I can't remember who it was, came over and they were going, you know, oh my God, it was like blue smoke just hanging in the air kind of thing, so not very well thought out as far as the execution, but yeah, a great idea because going back to, you know, where we started as far as what are the trends we're seeing, off road riding, whether it's trail riding, adventure riding, or literally competing, is the area that is growing and it's growing because, you know, people can take their kids out, they can do all these things, you know, it's a more, it's an affordable way to get onto two wheels and then so you don't have to leave your kids at home when you get onto two wheels if you're, you know, doing trail riding or whatever, so I think it was brilliant, I think they obviously need to work on the execution, they also need to work a little bit on their advertising because the number of people who would come by, because you were near where we were on that side of the hall, who had no idea that whole other hall was over there.

Yeah. It was kind of like the best kept secret of the show kind of thing, you know, so I think it's a great idea, absolutely it ties into where the market is going and where the demand is, you know, all the big adventure tours like Renadian and all these ones, they were all over there, which is great, but I don't know if they got the same amount of traffic they would normally get when they're kind of interspersed throughout the main part of the show. So I think, Moto Canada is a work in progress.

It was better than last year's show because they did try new things. So I want to give credit where credit's due. Like I love the enthusiasm of trying to figure out something new that's going to bring new flavor into the show. It's just like really thinking through that whole thing and you know, and yeah, it's maybe, I don't know, maybe it's conversations with, those of us that are really ingrained in motorcycling, having conversations with us as like, well, we're thinking of doing this. What do you think?

And having those conversations so they can execute it a little bit better?

No, no, I think, you know, they're at some point they will have to rationalize the shows because there is there's a fair amount of floor space that was empty, I feel like we were in Vancouver or Abbotsford as well as Calgary and there, and definitely from people who were in, at the Toronto show helping me out there, they've all noted that the number of exhibitors is slowly petering off and there's some, like Jeremy Craker from Canmore, who is like a fixture at motorcycle shows for all the years I've been going, so to go to a show and he's not there, you're kind of going, okay, He wasn't there, he's just one who pops in my head, you know, who I look forward to talking to every year, but know, there was a number that were notably absent, so I think, you know, there's, it's gotta be a way to figure out the price point for the exhibitors because it's not cheap and figuring out, you know, what you can bring to draw the crowds to the show.

Yeah, and I mean, the other part of it is as we know, Moto Canada is open to feedback and suggestions and what they do with that feedback and suggestions is their call, but they definitely do listen. Absolutely. Yeah. So season five, here we are. First guest.

I love it. I love it, Patrick. I love having you on as my first guest every year because we get to like set the stage of like everything that's new, nothing coming. I'm gonna have you back in a few weeks and talking about the electric craze. We kind of teased it last year and never got to it.

And we didn't talk about electric at all on this one. So let's focus that on a whole another episode in a few weeks. Thank you, my friends.

Forward to it. Thank you.

Awesome. Alright. Everybody hang tight for the mixed bag. On our mail bag today, have Sarah in Calgary and this is a question that comes up every time around this year is when do you get riding again? So it is very important to note that everybody's comfort level and experience is different, so that's gonna depend on you.

With that said, there are things to ensure that you are watching out for as we get going for the season. And this includes things like debris on the road, the gravel out there. I mean, I wait for street sweepers. You don't have to, but it might be a good idea. In those puddles that are out there, there could be ice underneath still just depending on what the temperatures are when you get out there.

Shaded areas could also be icy. Roads will be cold in the morning, which is gonna affect the traction on your tires and they take a little bit longer to warm up. So be mindful as you get going. Dress for the ever changing temperatures throughout the day. It could be minus five in the morning to plus 20 in the afternoon.

Make sure you're layering up for that step. And make sure you give yourself some space for outs. Drivers need to get used to seeing us back out there again. And in that case, you need to, you need the space to make sure they're not going to collide with you or you're not going to collide with them. And last but not least, always ride to your comfort level.

And that's our show for today. To make sure that you don't miss out on any of our upcoming podcasts or listen to previous ones, make sure you click on subscribe or follow wherever you get yours. If there's a topic you'd like us to cover or a guest you think would be great on the show, or even a question for the mailbag, let us know. You can connect with us on all the socials. Email us at info@ab-amss.org or reach out through the website at a b dash amss dot org.

Thanks for listening to Think Bike. From us, always remember to ride smart, ride safe, and think bike. See you out on the road.