The Motorcycle Mojo... ft. Alex Grupp

In this episode Harnek and Ian get the privilege of chatting with the one and only Alex Grupp. Alex is the coordinator for the Motorcycle and Power sports department at Centennial College. We learn about the different programs in the department and have a fun discussion about technology in the trade. Be sure to listen until the end to hear some fantastic answers to the famous final questions!

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Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the Talking with the School of Transportation podcast, presented by Centennial College with your hosts Ian Campbell and Harnett Gill. Let's get into it now. And we're back. Hello, everybody. How's it going, Ian? Not too do you hear the horns? Yeah. You got an alarm going on. Guys park their cars over there. This is fun. Yeah. If you're a centennial student, please don't park in the plumbers union. It's uh recommended. They will. They will tow. Yeah. So we're joined today by a very special guest that's been months in the making. We've been waiting here for you for a while. Hello, fellas. Good to be here. This is Alex Grupp, the coordinator of the motorcycle and power sports techs. Motorcycle and Power Sports Product Repair Techniques Program. Oh wow. As well as level one and level two apprenticeship. Nice. Is there only level one and level two apprentice? There's only two levels. Really? Okay. Yeah. Only two levels. Okay. And that's mainly for motorcycle or is that power sport? That is motorcycles only. Gotcha. Yeah, that is motorcycles only. So is that a compulsory trade? They have to go through their apprenticeship? It is a compulsory red seal trade. Awesome. Okay. Except for the safety issue, right? Isn't there a safety thing where if you have your 310s, you can write a safety for a motorcycle? Some gray area there that's not really good? It's still a gray area, as far as I know, because I I think they reversed that. Did they? Yeah. That was a thing, but as as far as I know, sometimes it's, as you may be aware, difficult to get information from the ministry. But um they were trying to take that back. Okay. So you need to do that. Which I think is huge. You need to have it that way. Yeah, I mean, motorcycles have vastly different, you know, steering and suspension components. 100%. So if you're qualified to work on a car, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're qualified to work or not knowledgeable enough. Or not knowledgeable enough, I should say that. Exactly. Just like trucking coach, exactly like so different, uh different trades, different components and all sorts of stuff like that. Um I I have to be honest, I always just look at the motorcycle and mo uh power sports programs, and I just go motorcycle. Yeah, that's a motorcycle program, but there's a lot more to it than just motorcycles. So, what other uh types of vehicles or equipment are you guys dealing with? So we start off with uh, you know, even outdoor power equipment. So things like string trimmers and lawnmowers, um, snow blowers, that type of equipment, because you know, two-stroke engine is a two-stroke engine, whether it's, you know, 50cc or 750cc. Um so we start with the, you know, sort of the real fundamentals, the really easy to work on stuff, um, things that they can take apart in a short, you know, two hour lab and put back together, uh, just to get the sort of fundamentals of the theory and get the you know, the the muscles you know the muscle memory working in their hands and their brains. Absolutely, yeah, which is needed. You gotta start somewhere and even the the smaller uh units still have the fundamentals to go into anything after that. Yeah, I mean they still have an ignition system, they still have a fuel system, they have uh, you know, an engine and and then a clutch system. Um so you know, it's a great place to start. Um that way they're not overwhelmed. Um and it's just a great it's a great way to start. Now, what Harnick said, you're absolutely right. When they come into the program, you know, it's all about the motorcycles. Motorcycles, motor, why are we working on these things? And then when we explain to them, well, before you can do that, you have to be able to do this. Yeah. But this will enable you to do that. Plus more, because if you're plus more, if you're able to work on those smaller things, then there's opportunity uh above and beyond motorcycles. That is so funny though, because our other coordinator that we just talked to on the last podcast said almost the same thing. When you know you have all these students who get in, and right away they want to talk about EVs and hybrids. Like, well, before we do that, we gotta start at the basics. So that's almost a universal thing. Right? So that's very interesting. So when they when they come in for an apprenticeship program, is it now I'm used to block or day release, is that a similar setup? How much time are they coming in for? Uh each each level is one eight-week block. Okay. Um, so there isn't any day release, it's just eight weeks and you're here. Yeah. Now Centennial College is the only game in Ontario now. So we've got students that are coming from, you know, Ottawa and Northern Ontario and uh Western Ontario, all over the place. Um, so it is a it is a fair commitment uh for them if if they're commuting, or some of them are you know doing uh Airbnb for that eight-week period. But it's it's definitely a commitment, but uh we've got students from all over the province. That's great. Yeah, I'd imagine the dedication is so strong for someone who's willing to come so far to to do those programs, must be awesome. Well, if they want to advance in their careers and uh and and get their get their license, their 310G eventually, then yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's definitely a commitment. Yeah, that's cool. I've I've had a few students from Thunder Bay that would do the same thing. Um and and you see how much they're here for. Do you find that overall the power the power sports industry is a bit more dedicated or uh or the students are more interested because it's such a niche kind of field? Yeah, I I definitely find uh that it's much more passion driven. Like like there's definitely this, you know, coolness about you know, motorcycles and you know, dirt bikes, not just street street bikes, but but dirt bikes also. Um so there's there's that definite sort of cool factor. Um and a lot of them grow up, you know, maybe they're you know, their parents rode motorcycles, um or they worked in the garage with dad maintaining, you know, his stuff or mom. Yeah. Um so yeah, the uh I find that they definitely come in with a certain level of enthusiasm. And that's amazing, right? Because it it it's work. Totally. Yeah, it it's work. Enthusiasm makes our day our job way easier for the most part. Some people can be a little too uh excited. So I I I guess another question I have is when you look at these apprenticeship programs, um you know, if I compare that to automotive apprenticeship, we see a lot of variance here. We see we see programs where they're very busy and the numbers are are huge, and then there's times where the numbers come way down. I always find level three classes are busy, level ones not so much. What do the numbers look like? And do you see any sort of trends? You know, the the last few years, particularly over COVID, uh, you know, the numbers were quite low. So we would, you know, we would run an apprenticeship class. We have we can run up to twenty. Uh so we would run classes with 10, 11, 12. Um this year in particular, class is full. It's it's got twenty students in it, can't take any more. Level two coming up in January is is full, also with twenty. So I'm not sure w what happened between last year and this year, but there are definitely more students or I should say, excuse me, apprentices that are coming back to complete their levels. Whether they didn't want to come back during those COVID years, I mean, we were still here. Right. Right? We were still here, we were teaching. Partially online, partially online, but but we were still here. And and whether they wanted to, you know, I find our particular students don't do well in online learning. A hundred percent. Yeah, you know, they they there's the odd one that does that succeeds, but for the most part, they need to be hands-on. They need to see relatable. I I don't do well in an online classroom environment. I want to be there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So so whether that's part of it, you know, that's sort of well behind us now. But but the numbers are great. Um, so apprentices obviously they're all employed, so when they leave here, they're going back to work. Um, so it's it's really good to see. It's really good to see. And your other program, the uh diploma program you have, that's a one-year certificate. So one-year certificate, and that um what does that lead you towards? Or what would that be? So that's really your gateway. Um in that one year, you get the equivalent of your level one apprenticeship training. Oh, it does okay, great. We also hit the curriculum for the small engine uh mechanics license. I see. So in that one year, you get all the fundamentals um f from all the systems. So engines, electrical, you know, powertrains, chassis, brakes, um, spread across 28 weeks, so two semesters, 14 weeks each. And that that really gets your foot in the door. You know, if you just walk into a motorcycle shop or Power Sports motorcycle shop and say, Hey, I want to be an apprentice, and then you walk in and say, Hey, I've dedicated a year of my life, a whole bunch of money and time, and I want to be an apprentice. Yeah, which one would that potential employer likely choose? For sure. I think remember la uh last year you had a job fair as well, and try and help get some of those students to interact with some of those employers. Yeah, we have a job fair uh nearing the end of the second semester. Yeah. Uh so at the end of the program every year. So we invite uh potential employers, uh, and a lot of them have reached out to us throughout that year to say, hey, we're gonna be looking for an apprentice. And we say, well, great, because we're gonna have a job fair. Yeah. And it's kind of like speed dating, but but it's it's job interviews, right? So they'll sit across the potential employer, they'll have a resume in hand, they'll do a 15 to 20 minute interview, um, and then they'll circulate amongst all the other potential employers there. We've had students walk away with job offers from that's so good. And and what a potential for a student. You know, you come in and enthusiastic to try and learn, and then you have this opportunity at the end. And with uh the industry, it sounds like it's a thriving industry at the moment. Yeah, the you know, the industry, I will say that you know, COVID did not hurt our industry. COVID, you know, really propelled it forward. Everybody was buying everything, whether it was, you know, snowmobiles or ATVs or motorcycles, because I guess people weren't traveling. My neighbor went nuts trying to buy a new boat and sold it on a high, and I'm like, what are you gonna get? And had uh a real hard time trying to get another boat. Yeah, so there was all this product sold over those COVID years, uh, plus as well as all the other years, and now it needs to be maintained, it needs to be serviced, it needs to be repaired. So the industry sort of, you know, a big uptick in demand for technicians. Um, so we're trying to feed that demand. You know, we're trying to get as many of these uh as these folks employed as possible. That's awesome. I love it. But we were talking earlier about one of your labs that you're running right now, and that's a Briggs and Stratton engine, I believe, where the students do a teardown and rebuild kind of thing. Yeah. So in the first semester, um, they start off, you know, once we've moved through the the two-stroke engine uh stuff, we move on to the four-strokes, and one of their sort of capstone projects for this semester is they get a um a single cylinder overhead valve Briggs and Stratton engine. Um we run them first, so they're all runners. This is my favorite part of this because coming from the drivetrains lab, we don't run anything because it would not run. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, the college invested in in in these engines, and I think we bought 30 or 40 of them over the last couple of years. Wow. Uh they all run, so we run them. We we we put them on a test bench and you know, add gas and and pull the rope and and they run and we listen to them and um and then the very next week they start to disassemble them and we go right down to the crankshaft. Um, then the lab, you know, our theory sort of coincides with our labs. So as they're taking the head apart, we're talking about valves and valve seats and valve springs. And um, and then eventually, once they've done all their labs, they reassemble and fingers crossed, they all run again. Yeah, and you run them after to see and we run them after to verify. That's awesome. That's so real world. And I I loved uh we were talking earlier about the confidence of uh having that thing run at the end because you were able to make that work, you know. Well, it's great to watch, you know, as as they as they bring their engine over to the to the to the engine bench, you know, you can see the anxiety. There's other students that are watching and waiting to run theirs, and there's this anxiety about will it or won't it. Yeah. Um and then that excitement, like when they pull that rope and it flutters to life and settles into a nice idol. It's just you can see the excitement. I remember doing engine jobs at the shop, and I'd be like, uh I'd grab one of my apprentices, hand the keys, and be like, I'm grabbing a coffee, fire that up for me. Let me let me know the result. I've put like 20 hours into this or something. I don't I don't really want to uh be there for startup sometimes until you gain that confidence and understand how how or maybe build that confidence in yourself and what you can pull off. So I think starting in the school, doing something like that is such a special opportunity. Well, I I I think for me, even you know, any engine I've built, you know, decades into my trade, there's always that, you know, that little bit of hesitation right before you push that start button. You know, you're running through a mental checklist. Did I do this? Did I do this? Did I do this? Did I do this? Yeah. And then when you hit that button and it it fires up and and it sounds great, it's just like, yes. For us, um, one of the worst feelings is starting up a ram or a hemi engine after you put lifters in. They're just it's they're not bled up yet. Yeah. So the it just misfires and runs like a bag of crap for a while, and you're like, oh, was that me or was that them? Hopefully it clears up. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's like that with uh with Harley's, you know, with hot the hydraulic lifters. Sure. You know, yeah. Uh we used to soak them in uh, you know, a little a little container of oil to try to bleed all the air out of it. Exactly, yeah. You some you still sometimes get a tick, but it should go away after 30 seconds. Yeah, some of these new ones, especially flat rate, that you're like, we'll throw them in overnight, but hopefully they, you know, hopefully they get oil in them. I think we should get into some history about you. How long have you been teaching for, and what was your background before that? Uh well, I started here in 2018. Uh prior to that, I I'd worked at uh various motorcycle dealerships. Um I had my own shop for about a decade. Awesome. Um I actually originally taught at Centennial for the first time in 2002. Really? Um I was doing some factory training for Harley Davidson at the time, and they actually um uh rather than send students to their training facility in uh northern Alberta, they actually put on a traveling road show for Ontario students and eastern on eastern Canada students. Yeah. Yeah, so so Harley Davidson Canada or Dealy Harley Davidson at that at that time rented a space here um and brought their their factory training here so factory technicians would come to the college. So that was 2002, I believe, with the introduction of the V ROG. Yeah. Um so that was my first real teaching experience. How long did you do the factory training for? It lasted three months. Okay. Yeah. So between Ontario at Centennial here, then I went on to Montreal and spent a glorious six or seven weeks in Montreal. Yeah. Um with the um Quebec students. Yeah. Um, that was amazing. That was so much fun. What what was the difference? What did you find different about it? Well, they didn't uh they didn't come to Ontario. They wanted uh they wanted their their course in French. Okay. Um so uh my French is minimal. Yeah. Um but I did uh so we worked out of a a a college similar to Centennial, uh, you know, transportation college uh in Montreal, and then I had a French uh teacher there um that was assisting me um and basically just translating. He was great though. That's cool. Um and it was an awesome experience. I had a really good time. That's neat. I think you learned so much uh being abroad a little bit and and trying different things and yeah, yeah. So that yeah, that was my first sort of clue that you know, if and when I ever got tired of, you know, working on the bench, that there was, you know, there was a life after wrenching. Really cool. Still in the industry, still, you know, talking and showing and and you know, being around motorcycles and these power products, but not necessarily in fr at a bench working on it. Well what got you into the trade, into the bench in the first place? Was it just a passion you always had or necessity, you know. I um funnily enough, I dropped out of college. You know, college wasn't for me uh when I went at the time. What did you originally take? Um, you know, silly stuff like business and you know, economics and you know, stuff that that for a 19-year-old was totally not relevant. Um, you know, and I was already, you know, I was riding motorcycles and then I started to travel and I traveled in Europe quite a bit, but I didn't have a lot of money to to to get my my motorcycle fixed, so I had to kind of you know figure it out on my own and um and and it just kind of worked out. I I I liked it and I had an aptitude for it, and and then I just turned it into a career. What was the first shop that you worked at then after that? So you traveled Europe, that must have been pretty cool. Uh it was very cool, but actually the first shop I worked at was a Harley shop in uh uh a place called Whitwood in Yorkshire. No way. England, yeah. Cool, yeah. And how did how did that happen? Did you need some cash and and jumped in the shop or was it That's a good question. Um I was actually uh so I was sort of so static for a while in the area uh and then just working to save money to continue to travel. And I was actually working for a temp agency, and I was across the road um loading these tractor trailers with boxes of, I don't know, apple juice or orange juice or something. Yeah. Longingly looking at the motorcycle shop across the road and these bikes, you know, going in and out and seeing the mechanics out there, uh, interacting with the customers. And and uh I said, you know, I can kind of spin a wrench. I'm I'm not an expert by any means, but uh, you know, so I walked over there and I just sort of said, you know, I would love to learn. Um, you know, right now I'm working for this temp agency loading tractor trailers, but this looks way cooler. Would you hire me? And he did. Oh wow. Yeah, he gave me a chance and I was there for uh probably a good year. Probably a good year with a fantastic mentor that you know really took me under his wing and and and taught me, and that was it. That's amazing. That was it. And I was hooked. And then what went what was after that? Because that that would be Europe, so it would be a different license than here. How did it work in Ontario for you? Yeah, so eventually I moved back to Ontario. Um uh that I guess that would have been 1991. Um walked into uh a motorcycle shop at that time, uh it was in Scarborough, and I said, Hey, I I you know I spent a year, maybe a little bit more at the shop in England, and you know, this is what I want to do. Uh would you give me a chance? And they said yes. Cool. And then hired me as an apprentice and then registered me, set me up with the ministry, all that stuff. And uh yeah. Awesome. Nice. And I got licensed in I believe it was nineteen ninety four or five. And when did you open up your own shop then? That was in two thousand five. Okay. Yeah, and that ran for ten years to twenty fifteen. Cool. Nice. Yeah. What what would be your favorite job to do or favorite repair job or service, something in the shop? Like what was your what was like, oh, I get to do this today? Um, you know, it it started off as all that cool stuff, you know, building engines, you know, high performance, you know, cams, and you know it started off with all that kind of stuff. Um and then believe it or not, that could get a little monotonous too after a while. Sure. Um, so I I don't think I actually have a favorite. I think my favorite is when the customer rides away and you can see it, you can tell he's got a big grin inside of his helmet. Nice. Then it doesn't really matter what job I did, it's just like I feel like that's such a difference from uh the auto industry versus your industry because they love their uh motorcycle or or power support unit. Whereas a lot of our vehicles are just tools for them to travel in. Necessities. So they drive away pissed because the bill was so high versus oh, I got my bike back finally, or whatever the case might be. So that's a really cool perspective on on your industry with that because these guys are in love with their whatever it is. Yeah, exactly. I guess sometimes you do have the customers that are grateful that you saved their car, you know what I mean? And then they're saving money by not having to buy a new car. Yeah, but I would see that the the majority would be more, oh, this is the bill. Like I think that's kind of the attitude I get from it. So yeah, I you know, customers in the sort of motorcycle power sports industry, it's very few of them use it as a commuter. Like, like it is their recreational vehicle, it is their therapist, it is their you know, their escape. Exactly. And their happy place. Yeah, they'll pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars with a smile on and be like, awesome, I'm going on my trip or I'm going, you know, on my ride. And yeah, that's that's the rewarding part for me. Very cool. And I hope students kind of capture that too. I hope this if if there's anybody listening to this that's in your department or or thinking about a power sport opportunity, that's that's such a cool factor, you know, like seeing that joy on your uh on your client's face. At the end of the day is definitely something that's gonna make you go home and be happier, I think. So absolutely. Yeah, I mean there's there's there's just so much to be said for um making somebody happy. Yeah. You know, and they pay you for that. Yeah, yeah. That's always good. And now I don't want to be Mr. Negativity here, but what was like the worst thing to deal with? Either a type of repair on a on a motorcycle or or a power support unit or uh for me personally, I think as technology and performance and all of those things that you know most people that ride motorcycles are really into and want to stay on top of, they become they become much more difficult to work on. Gotcha. Just access to things like spark plugs. Okay. Um, you know, would take you know, some cases a couple hours worth of work just to, you know, remove the tank, remove the airbox, you know, remove all the coolant lines, uh you know, just simple operations um became time consuming. Yes, I get that comparison. And sometimes frustrating. But so so I I didn't enjoy those um types of bikes as much. Okay. Um but you know, the sacrifice is they're fast. Yeah. You know, uh so that's the cost of performance. You know, it's just things are packed in tight, you know, they're they're packed into a tight package uh and access becomes more difficult. Um, you know, doing an air filter on you know some of the GL eighteen hundred gold wings, you know, is a four-hour job. Wow, you know, to do an air filter, which you know, I didn't love that. No, you know, and some customers would be like, could you just check it? No, if I'm if I'm going four hours in, you're getting a new one. Yeah, for the what, $30 air filter? It may have been $80, but still, you like if we're there, you're just getting a new one. 100%. Yeah, that's like a clutch for us. You're four hours in, you know, something like that. That would be, you know, what's an extra $200 when your bill's already $800? Let's let's replace it. Yeah, and and those bikes had you know airbags, rider airbags, right? So you'd have to you had to work around airbags and airbags on a motorcycle. To a motorcycle guy, it's like, whoa, what do I do with this yellow plug? You know, there's there's all these yellow plugs, and so most of us were like, yeah, you just unplug it. Um I mean, don't just unplug it, but disconnect the battery and wait two minutes. Yes. I always do that every time. Every time. Every time. Um, that that kind of leads me to another question that I had based on the motorcycle industry. I guess Power Sports in general, whether it be a golf cart or uh, you know, I I follow Keanu Reeves' company, the Arch Motorcycles, and they're all EV like bikes. How has that infert infiltrated your industry like it is ours right now with all these green plates all over the road? Um, you know, I don't think it's infiltrated my industry at all. Okay. Um, you know, I see a lot of electric scooters uh and a lot of electric assisted bicycles, but I can't remember the last time I actually saw a fully electric motorcycle. Okay. Uh at this point in time, anyways, the technology, at least in the motorcycle package, is expensive and not much range. Yeah. So in a car, you know, you can get regenerative technologies, you know, so they can tr recharge the batteries, whether it's breaking, or I mean, I'm not really up on the car stuff, but motorcycles, there's there's really none of that at this point. So the the available range got uh um versus cost, you know. And I think I think a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts. Yes, I agree with this. I know exactly where you're going. I want to hear that. Yeah, I want to feel it. Yeah. Um, I want to shift gears. Um, so I don't know that it's cut on yet. Um, I think if the price ever comes down significantly, if you live in an urban center like you know, we're in Toronto, um, yeah, it makes sense. Absolutely. Well, we see the e-bikes riding all over the place, but I feel like they're more throwaway units than actually being repaired. I feel like there are a lot of uh offshore. It doesn't seem like a passion buy. Yeah, it's more of a necessity buy. Yeah. And does that affect your at all, uh your industry at all? Uh no, I don't think so. I mean, I I can definitely see a place for electric motorcycles. Sure. Um, you know, uh people that have um, you know, large properties and run a ride or dirt bikes. Yeah. Um, but the neighbors complain because of the noise. So, you know, an off-road electric motocross bike makes perfect sense. Yeah. They don't make any noise. Um, you know, racetracks, you know, they put racetracks as far away from um, you know, big towns or big cities as possible because they make a lot of noise. Yeah. Uh, you know, so can the entire motorsports park or Shannonville. Um, you know, so that's one way around that. But in terms of um making sort of big inroads into the consumer, your typical consumer market, I'm not seeing that right now. Gotcha. And I think you you nailed it when, or I think you're on the right track when you say they want to feel that. Like you hop on a Harley, the vibration is a big part of that you know, riding experience, and and Harnack knows nothing about that. But I can nod. They can't see me on the podcast nodding, but I am nodding along knowingly. Yeah. That vibe and fixing because of the vibration and all that stuff is part of the industry, right? Yeah, and you know, I think if I was to think about it in you know, four-wheel terms, I mean, if you jump into uh, you know, whatever eight-cylinder Porsche uh versus an electric Porsche, uh, which one's gonna, you know, raise the blood pressure more? Yeah. Definitely the internal combustion engine, right? Well, I guess Tesla Plat is. The one thing with EVs on we're seeing on certain vehicles is your they can be very fast. Yeah. Yes. Right? Whereas you look at a motorcycle and it's already very fast and it's already you have no body around you. You know what I mean? So there's already a thrill in driving a motorcycle. Yeah. Or riding a motorcycle compared to a car. So um yeah, I don't know. It's kind of interesting with what with what we have with a car, it's so much different than what you're gonna have with a motorcycle with EVs and stuff. It just Yeah. I mean, I think we're gonna have a generation that won't know any different. I think so. You know, like we've got, you know, young people now that don't know what life was like without a a smartphone. Yeah. So I think at some point, you know, uh we're gonna have young people that get into motorcycles that didn't ever ride an internal combustion engine-powered motorcycle. So their only point of reference will be exactly that electric bike. And yeah, they they they're fast. There's no doubt about it. They can certainly go fast. It's like a demolition man reference. Yeah. Remember that? Three seat, three seashells. Three shells. Both of you guys, if there's a panel of the movie, yeah. But um no, remember Demolition Man, and he comes out in this red challenge or uh what was it? Red Chevelle, I think. He fires it up, everything's all electric, he fires it up and then runs through it. Is this the same movie? I'm gonna cut all this mess. Yeah, cut this mess out. Um I never got around to actually watching all of Demolition Man. I have to, it's on my list of things that even no, it's uh Sylvester Sloan. Yeah, that's yeah, yeah, and he hops in this muscle car, everything's battery powered, and then he hops in this muscle car and fires them and it's like whoa, and gets all excited, and then he like jumps the car or something like that. That's the one where like there's so there's no violence or anything. So like you push a guy and everyone's like, exactly. Yeah, let me ask you guys a question with talking to EV. Can you do like a burnout in an electric vehicle? Um, I think you can now because well, what they're doing with Eevees has changed a little bit, and you're starting to see it with like the Eeve Mustang and the EV challenger that's coming, right? So they're trying to make it mimic, I want to say a real car. You know, I want to say they're trying to make it mimic a real car, um a traditional vehicle, uh, as best because that's what people want, and that's stopping a lot of integration of EV because we're like, we don't want that, right? We don't not everyone wants the the the Prius and that type of vehicle, right? So it's kind of funny because you know they they'll have speakers in the car making an exhaust noise. So the driver hears the exhaust noise, but no one else outside does, right? It's but you can, it's all parameter-based. So, like some of your new bikes are all sensor-based, sensor-driven, automatics, all that stuff. Same thing with this. You can have an electric motor do a burnout, but your sensor's gonna say, I'm doing a burnout, I don't want to, and it'll limit the power to it kick in the traction exactly. So um, I think that if you hit the sport mode on some of them, I think you can mimic some of those ideas, but if you're thinking about actual like going fast, you don't want that slip. So I think they kind of watch that. Yeah, yeah. Um, I'll have to wait till the electric challengers come and I start doing some PDIs. Yeah, those customers may not want to buy those first ones. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest hurdle uh to sort of mass market electric motorcycles, and I'm certainly no expert. This is of course stuff I get from talking and reading. Yeah. Um is just range, you know, because most people make perfect sense, yeah. You know, it it is more recreational. So when they get that day off and they want to go for a ride, they don't want to ride around the city. Yeah. They want to go, you know, north or east or um, and they just don't have the range at this point in time. Or in the fall, go see the leaves and and all that stuff. You can't go for a 300k tour and and make it home. Exactly. At the end of the day, it's readily available to get, you know, gas at a gas station, and it doesn't take a lot of gas for a motorcycle, a little bit takes you a long way. Yeah. So something that you're not gonna see. I uh another thing I was wondering about is you know, we often talk about in the automotive sphere how there's so much gadgets. And what I'm talking about is adaptive cruise control. We have vehicles that have night vision, we have HUDs, heads-up displays, we have you know, lane sense and all sorts of just bells and whistles. And a lot of technicians, the way like this is a bane of our existence, or why do you want uh two iPads here and you know, all that kind of stuff? Um, but I don't I don't know where you see that kind of stuff in a motorcycle, or is there any sort of equivalent there? Well, interestingly enough, we're we're catching up very quickly. Um, you know, there's been adaptive cruise control for you know probably three or four years that I can think of now. Okay. Um, you know, I was recently listening to something uh with a Bosch engineer, and they were talking about some of the things that they've been developing. And, you know, one was like rear uh rear collision warning, uh front so you know, some of this, some of these sensors can actually bring this motorcycle to a complete stop from uh, I think it was anything under 100 miles per hour. Uh so there was frontal collision avoidance systems, there was rear uh impact uh sensors, there was adaptive cruise control, uh lean angle, right? Because in a motorcycle we're leaning. So lean angle ABS, lean angle traction control, there was group riding uh sensors, so to make sure that you know you're supposed to ride in staggered formation, so to make sure you're not too close to the person in front of you, it could actually adjust. And like it was you know, very, very interesting, uh amazing technology, what we can do. Um, am I running out to buy the first one? Probably not. Okay, I mean it's not like Bosch is new at it. I'm sure it'll be amazing. Kind of takes away from some of that riding experience, though, I think, as well. While it's it's safe and nice, maybe great for a newer rider, but a seasoned rider that you know wants to be in control of everything. And I kind of I kind of think back. I have a a friend that uh very wealthy, can buy any car in the world. He decided to buy a 1959 VW Bug, 53 horsepower, but he goes, It's the best driving experience in the world because I have to think about which gear I'm gonna get up this hill in. And and I think that kind of goes back to a motorcycle where it's more of a driving experience than just a whole bunch of sensors on there keeping you straight. Yeah. I guess it depends. Like, is that a you know, daily commuter where you're sitting on the highway for two hours versus this is my you know my vehicle that I drive on the weekend or you know, and in certain times just to make myself a little happier. Right? Yeah, my experience is that technology sells. Really? But actually, uh, you know, the the typical newer consumer technology sells, right? It's like if you're buying a smartphone, you want the latest, you know, 5G or 6G or whatever we're up to now, and the three lens camera and all that stuff. Whereas other people, I just want my old flip phone back, you know. That just it was a phone. I didn't need it to, you know, record video or take pictures. So I think there's a segment of the you know, motorcycle power sports industry that ooh, it's got the latest, you know, whatever lean angle, traction control, ABS, whatever. And then there's the other segment that's going like, I just kind of want to ride a bike and be in control, yeah. Um, and and not have all these other things intruding on my on my experience. Um, and I understand both sides. Um, I think you know, we need some of these aids now because some of these motorcycles are making crazy horsepower. That's very true. Uh, you know, if you have a 200 uh horsepower motorcycle that weighs 500 pounds, yeah, you're gonna need something to keep that thing in check, right? Otherwise it's gonna wanna run away on you. Yeah, and so and does sometimes. Um does sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Uh so I I think I remember the VFR might have been the first one with ABS braking, the Honda VFR, one of those similar styles. BMW was the first motorcycle ABS. Okay. Um what but that wasn't that long ago that they came out with it, was it? Uh 87-ish? Okay, then I'm completely off because I remember the VFR going to it in I think 2000-ish area where they the VFR, the original ones didn't have it, and then they came out with that ABS VFR. And I remember the industry from there kind of really electrified and went from you know, fuel injection, a lot more stuff. And now that so coming from our side of things where we went fuel way way earlier, more more or less, uh, I think you guys are advancing it at such a high clip compared to what we may have. Well, a lot of the technologies is uh you know developed for four-wheelers, you know, for cars. Yeah. And then they just figure out how to make it smaller and adapt it to two wheels. You know, the there is some difference, of course, in you know, chassis dynamics and st and things like that. But um, you know, I mean, bosh, I mean, they they make all kinds of stuff for for automotive. Absolutely, yeah. Uh, you know, BMW with the first ABS back in, I think it's eighty six. Oh wow. Uh one of your listeners will will probably um. I hope we have that many listeners that can fact check us. But that was basically an automotive ABS module that was stuck onto the side of the motorcycle. Interesting. Of course, now they make them small and they're hidden and they fit perfectly. But yeah. Yeah. I guess BMW has been on kind of the cutting edge with a lot of that stuff, now that I think of it, with with some of the the technology sort of things. Yeah. Very cool. Uh what would be your favorite motorcycle of all time? The one I'm currently riding. Yeah. Which is? Uh whichever one that is. Whatever you're currently riding. I have like way over my head. I I I suffer from mad, so that's you know, motorcycle attention deficit disorder. Um so whichever motorcycle is in my garage at the time, that's my favorite. Uh that's good. Um, I think I link my favorite motorcycles to specific experiences that I've had on them. Gotcha. You know, if that motorcycle gave me like an awesome experience or joy on this one trip, that was my favorite motorcycle for a long time. Cool. Until another one gave me the same amount of happiness. Okay. If you could pick any road to ride on uh anywhere in the world, do you have a uh like a bucket list ride that you want to do? Or maybe one that you've done that was just incredible. Um you know, instantly when you say stuff like that, I think about you know the Alps. Okay. Uh or the the Pyrenees. Um, you know, so those are the the big bucket list items, although I've I've done those, but they just stand out in my memory as so incredible and amazing. Um but right in our backyard, you know, even uh in the US, you know, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yeah. That's what that's what I think of. If I was to think of a uh to go on a run somewhere, I would that would be top of the list for me. And probably because it is fairly close. It is close and and out west, you know, in in the Rockies, um, you know, the million dollar highway, and you know, just amazing, amazing roads in our backyard. But if I had to pick a favorite, uh geez, I'm I'm I'm not sure if I can. Um I like my roads uh grippy, smooth and twisty. Gotcha. Um so I'm not a huge, you know, Route 66 kind of guy that you know, you know, you can see for for miles and miles. I like I like twisty roads. Yeah, for sure. And smooth and grippy. That's cool. I like that. All right. So uh another question I had was what is one thing that your students sort of struggle with, or that one thing that they have the most amount of difficulty? Could be a concept or any sort of aspect of their um of their time in school. Electrical. Okay. Plain and simple. Sounds simple similar to us. Yeah, I I think that's that's probably true for for all all the trades. I mean, it's they can't see it. Sometimes they can feel it. Yeah. Uh, but they can't see it. So it's you know, it's a it's a much uh it's a much bigger hurdle for them to jump. Do you enjoy teaching that because it's challenging, or do you find it sometimes uh um what's the word I'm thinking of? Irksome. Okay. I don't think that was the word you were thinking of, but that works. Uh I think it presents an interesting challenge because uh I love uh finding analogies to explain different concepts. You know, if if you can explain a single a single concept ten different ways, you're winning. Right? Because you know, not everybody gets the old, you know, water tank and the and the pipe is you know and the pressure and the flow and you know, not everybody gets that. So if you can if you can find a way to um to explain that in a different way to a different person and all of a sudden they they kind of get it. It's like yes. Um I remember one particular time I was um we were talking about uh multimeters, uh uh voltmeters. And the student didn't quite understand, you know, the range, two ohms, two kilo ohms, twenty kiloohms, on and on and on. The prefixes and whatnot. Yeah, so I said, you know, if you think of like something like Google Maps, you know, and you're zoomed right out and you can see the province of Ontario. And now you zoom in, now you can see the city of Toronto, and then you zoom in and you can see the town of you know, uh Scarborough, and then you zoom in and you can see your street, and then you zoom in and you can see your house. Well, you've just done all those scales. You've done from two on. Um, you know, so and and I that just sort of came to me as I was trying to find a way to explain it, and when I related it that way, they're like, okay, I totally get that now. That and that relates to our last podcast that will be coming out uh on DVOM. So if your students need help with that, listen to the podcast. Yeah. I encourage them to listen to the podcast. I love listening to you guys. I've I've listened to every single one. We appreciate it. We have a fan. We do. Well, it's been fun. And no matter how much you think you know, I've always I've learned something every single podcast from some of your, you know, from our colleagues. So do we, the other professors. That's why I love doing this too. There's so much to learn from all the different faculty. And and I think that's the main reason why we have it. We're our goal is, and and we have these ones on where informational about like motorcycle department stuff, but I really we both really like those factual ones where it's like, hey, how can we explain this a few different ways so we get an analogy, like you just said, uh to allow the students to hear it from three, four, you know, other people, not just their professor that that's just kind of say, learn it this way, you know. So hopefully students do uh capture something from it. Well, you know, I think for me, uh working at the college, you know, there's such a talent pool here, um, you know, from from all the different angles of the trade. And, you know, it you know, if if I ask a question of you or Harnick or any of the number of our other colleagues, it's just amazing that, you know, they're willing to share not only information, but hey, here's a PowerPoint, here's a uh, you know, a document or a lab sheet, here's what I've used, here's what I've tried. And it's not that different than working in a good job when you're when you're consulting with your other techs going, I'm not getting this. Have you seen this problem? Or how would you approach this? Um, and that's amazing. Yeah, we do have a really good team here. Uh and I I'm proud to be part of the Centennial College crew, I would say. You know, like we're I feel like we're doing really good work for the students. I feel like the crew we have on uh at least on our side that we that we see, that's not a hit to the other side, but uh I feel like we're trying our best to make sure that they learn uh everything they possibly can. So you know, I I've worked with some mechanics over the over my 27, 28 years on the bench, and you know, they'll hold everything they know real close to the chest. It's like you're gonna steal my job or something. Um you know, and then you work with those techs or my colleagues like I'm working with now, they're just like, oh here, what do you want? Here's a PowerPoint that I use, or um and really nothing's a secret. Like there's no secrets here. It's technology, it's it's theory, it's you know. Yeah, we can only be better if we help one another. I think that's uh a great attitude towards any whether you're working uh you know, beside a guy on the bench or whether you're working in another industry, I think just being kind and helping is gonna benefit everyone. So awesome. Well, I think that kind of covers like the the intro to to Mr. Alex Grupp here, but we do have two final questions that we ask everybody, and because it's your first time, you get the OG questions. Okay, so I guess our first question is if you could operate any vehicle, it doesn't have to be a motorcycle or anything like that, just anything. And we have the rule where you magically know how to, it's like the matrix, you download the information of how to operate said vehicle. What would it be? I'm a motorcycle guy through and through. However, I will answer this question differently. Okay. I think if I could operate one of those like you know, one or two man submarines where you could just like dive deep and I think that would be like super cool seeing what's like in the in the deep. You do know what happened last year. Yeah, well, maybe not that deep. Okay, yeah. Like I I just want I want to see some coral reefs and you know, some some colorful fish or something. But I think that is a fantastic answer. And I I instantly pictured that and I was like, yeah, I'm in. I love that you pick something different than a motor, like out of Euro scope. I love that. Yeah, that would be just so incredible just to see what's go down. Yeah, just do that. Because I definitely have a whole nother world down there. Yeah, literally, yeah, that we know nothing about. I don't necessarily want to go that deep, but sure. I think just putting around some tropical islands. That would be really cool. What a great answer. I love that. Yeah. And the last question that we're gonna give you is if you had one meal to pick, unlimited funds, you do whatever you want, and I know you have uh a certain diet that you like to keep, but you could have anything you want from anywhere in the world, you could pick the chef to make it, what would that meal be? Can I relay a quick story? Of course, yeah. Uh I was on a motorcycle trip and I believe it was Switzerland, and I pulled into some tiny town, I believe it was called Chamonix. Uh may not have pronounced that right. Um, but it was like a medieval town, cobblestone little square, and surrounding this, um there was like, you know, the baker, the cheese shop, um, you know, the meat shop, and then at the one end of the square was a monastery. And the monks have been making wine forever. Okay. So I'm looking around, I'm hungry. Um, so someone says, Oh, go down, get a bottle of wine from the monks, come back to the bread shop, buy a a a stick of bread, go to cross over there and get the cheese from the cheese guy, and then we've got all these chairs and tables set up, and it's a beautiful afternoon, and you're surrounded by the Alps. No way. And you just, you know, I broke off a chunk of bread, slathered some butter on it, threw some cheese on there, poured a glass of wine, and that was probably my favorite meal. That sounds like heaven of all time. Yeah, yeah. Sitting in a medieval sort of town with cobblestone. So you would go back there if you could. And yes. Oh, that wine and that, yeah. I that okay. That's a fantastic. You've had some very insightful, fantastic answers so far. I really like them. Yeah, it's just really cool stuff. Yeah, and and beyond that, we got to know a bit more about the program that you're uh coordinating and and how you guys run. So it's been a lot of fun. Thanks so much for joining us. We uh we appreciate the support listening, and we loved uh getting to know you a bit more. Appreciate it, and thanks. Thanks for having me. Good luck with the editing. Awesome. Thanks, Alex. Thank you too much. Bye, guys. This has been the Talking with SOT Podcast with Harnett Gill and Ian Campbell. Thanks for listening.