Skids & Giggles Mountain Bike Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Pascal sat down with Stefano Nucera for a podcast experiment of sorts, co-hosting each other’s podcasts for a chat about bikes, our stories in the sport so far, cycling communities, gravel, enduro, fixie crit and alleycat racing in Berlin, beers in the broom wagon, losing one’s bike packing virginity and, of course, Stefano’s non-alcoholic beer brand, Zeer.

Stefano is the host of the Broomwagon Podcast and naturally, when two podcasters sit down for a chat, conversation flows at warp speed. We did indeed cover a lot of ground and that’s not even all that we talked about. That being said, this was certainly not the last time I sat down with Stefano, for a podcast, a Zeer or otherwise.

• Trans Madeira Debrief
• Stefano Nucera: Website, Instagram
• The Broomwagon Podcast: Website, Instagram, Spotify
• Zeer Brewing: Website, Instagram
• Pascal's bike packing route: Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3

We sat down with Reto Aebischer for a journey deep into the Afterlife.

However, in this instance, the afterlife is not a promised existence in your favourite spiritual realm. The “Afterlife” is the name of Reto’s home-made carbon enduro bike that he also rode at the recent Best Ride Of The Year in Thun!

We get the all-access, behind the scenes look of what it’s like to make your own carbon bike at home, the many frustrations and challenges along the way, key design decisions, insights in to future improvements and, of course, the feelings of riding a bike you made yourself for that very first time!

It’s the been almost two years since we first sat down with Reto to talk about his carbon workshop projects and it was fun catching up on the process of actually finishing the enduro bike he just started when we first talked.

We got to catch up with "Swiss" Chris Räber about old dogs and new tricks! If you have been following his socials like us, you will also have noted a surprising increase in clips posted to his Instagram and one thing is certain: those whips don’t lie! Chris completed 30 days of whips at the back end of last year in a mission to bring back the skills – and stoke! – of mastering tricks, and to reignite his passion for riding his bike every day! We dive deep into the experience and into the principles that apply to everyone struggling to learn new skills or to bring back long forgotten ones. Consistency, accountability and appropriate recovery are all elements that we can apply to our own challenges towards becoming a better rider.

We also get to hear about van life, his recent trip down south and, of course, the exciting news of him commentating BMX on Swiss national TV during the Paris Olympic Games!

We sat down with the Trailforks Ambassador for Switzerland, Andre Trummer, or, as he is known on the platform and on Pinkbike: Jurasick. Crowdsourcing and communities stand at the core of Trailforks and Andre gives us a great overview of the main features, on how the approach works on the platform, what his role is in channeling all that data and what regular users can do to improve the platform, apart from just uploading their GPS files. Of course, we also get to hear about Andre’s favourite features, how he got into Trailforks himself and about how he works with institutions like SchweizMobil or IMBA Switzerland to not only improve Trailforks, but also to help their organisations with the data from Trailforks.

Andre recently hosted a Trailforks 101 series for IMBA Switzerland. You can find the recorded sessions on his personal website.

Happy new year and welcome to a special episode of the Skids & Giggles Podcast! Our main resolution for 2024 is to connect with our community in new ways and to try and build a bridge between the virtual of the podcast and the real life experience of meeting up, hanging out and playing bikes with our friends, guests and listeners. In this episode, we lay out the basics of our idea, share some of our takes on what makes a great day on the bike and how YOU can help us bring to life YOUR vision of "The Best Ride Of The Year"! We created a dedicated landing page under skidsandgiggles.com/ride to keep track of all the relevant information as the project progresses.

We sat down to catch up with Anna Newkirk but she was having none of it. Instead of giving us the run down of the season that was with Beyond Racing or laying out her plans for 2024, she decided to turn the tables on us and to ask the questions this time around! And oh boy, did she have questions. From the story of how Bryson and Pascal met and the early days of the podcast, anti cramping strategies and "who knows who better" games, to our picks for world cup downhiller death matches, dream bikes, ape indices and what the future holds for us, we had a lot to answer. We do get to sneak in a few questions in the end and, as always, Anna has some fun insights in store for us!

We sat down with Chris Evers, one of the brand managers working for the Swiss bike brand BIXS. It turns out that amongst many other things that have to get done in that role, a brand manager is also involved in deciding who to sponsor and which race team to support, and it was interesting to get a deep dive into Chris’ process, to hear what he is looking for in a rider and which metrics he is considering along the way. Of course we also chat about how Chris fell in love with the sport and what inspires and drives him to push on, the importance of a bike ride to clear your mind and our views on what young riders can do to find their own path to success and, potentially, even a sponsorship!

Pascal sat down with Martin Shaperjack Stänz to continue our discussions around trail building and to find out where all the double black diamond tech trails are. Martin is a full-time builder and shaper in Davos, looking after the trails on Parsenn in the summer and the Jatzpark snowpark on Jakobshorn in the winter. He has a great perspective on the current state of affairs in trail building and it was interesting to hear his views on natural trails, progression of riders and builders, terrain, creativity, patience, bringing the right people to the table and, of course, the many challenges facing the sport. As we have done in the past with Swiss German conversations, Bryson and Pascal have a brief chat about the main takeaways. Skip to minute 17 to jump straight to the Swiss German discussion with Shaperjack!

Check out some of the following episodes that are also in local dialect:

• Ep 53 - Andri Hafen
• Ep 50 – Stefan Lorenz
• Ep 45 – Sandro Schmid
• Ep 43 – Velolas
• Ep 36 – Baba & Rolli Anderegg
• Ep 9 – Greg Kowner (Pt 2)
• Ep 8 – Greg Kowner (Pt 1)

Pascal sat down for a chat with Helena Hlasova to talk about RideRawr and how they are rewriting the rules of what it means to be a cyclist - particularly for women! We get to hear about community-designed female-specific cycling bibs, more inclusive events and about all the laughs that go into creating content that supports the RideRawr mission! With a background in rowing at the highest levels of the sport, Helena has a great perspective not only on what makes the different communities and disciplines so special, but also on what they could learn from each other to ultimately make the sport more fun for everyone!

In a first for the Skids & Giggles Podcast, we also recorded the video for this episode and we are curious to read your feedback and thoughts in the comments on Youtube! While you are there watching, why don't you subscribe to our Youtube channel as well and never miss new stuff coming down the pipes in the future!

We sat down with Louis Eisenhut and we are stoked to be sharing this episode with you! Most people know Louis as a creator on Instagram, Youtube and TikTok, and of course, we do get to hear about how he got started, what motivates him to continue creating new content and how he tries to stay relevant in the ever changing social media landscape. More importantly though, we also talk about how Louis is using his reach and experience in social media to achieve positive outcomes for the community and it was interesting to hear how he is trying to help the sport and trail building projects progress in his home region around Interlaken. With Thoughts Under The Helmet, Louis also launched a podcast earlier in the year and naturally, as fellow podcasters existing in a similar niche, we have to ask about the experience so far and about his main takeaways from chats with guests like Danny MacAskill or Birgit Bless.