We sat down with the Trailforks (http://trailforks.com) Ambassador for Switzerland (https://www.trailforks.com/region/switzerland/) , Andre Trummer (https://www.freeride.bike/) , or, as he is known on the platform (https://www.trailforks.com/about/) and on Pinkbike (http://pinkbike.com) : Jurasick (https://www.pinkbike.com/u/jurasick/) . Crowdsourcing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing) and communities (https://www.trailforks.com/contribute/why/) 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 (https://help.trailforks.com/hc/en-us/categories/5429779417111-Getting-Started) , apart from just uploading their GPS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System) 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 (https://schweizmobil.ch) or IMBA Switzerland (https://imbaschweiz.ch/) to not only improve Trailforks, but also to help their organisations with the data from Trailforks.
Andre recently hosted a Trailforks 101 series (https://www.freeride.bike/en/trailforks/imba-schweiz-101) for IMBA Switzerland (https://imbaschweiz.ch/) . You can find the recorded sessions on his personal website (https://www.freeride.bike/en/trailforks/imba-schweiz-101) .
Welcome back to another episode of the skits and Giggles podcast for this one we got to sit down with the trail Forks Ambassador for Switzerland Andre trumo or as he is known on the platform and on pink bike Jurassic Crow sourcing and communities stand at the core of trail
For works 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 apart from just uploading their GPS files of course we also get to hear about Andre’s
Favorite features how he got into Trail Forks himself and about how he works with institutions like schitz mobile or imba Switzerland to not only improve Trail Forks but also to help their organizations with the data from Trail forks for more information about this episode and the skids and Giggles
Podcast you can just follow the links in the description to support the podcast please share this episode with your writing buddies or leave us a five-star rating on your favorite platform also have you heard about the best ride of the year if not then check out episode
71 in our archives or go to skits and giggles.com rde to find find out more that’s it that’s all and here’s our chat with Andre trumo why don’t you tell us about your favorite feature of Trail Forks personally I Ed the trail style filters really often when I’m in a new region
There is a trail style called Popular this changes the color of all Trails according to the popularity in this region so you won’t miss any classic Trail there so the locals will discover you all the best trails and as when lifer I like the road trip feature where you can set a start
And end point on the map through Europe or anywhere on the world and trailforks recommends you the popularity of the trail networks where your route is going this a really nice feature absolutely and with that we say welcome to the skits and Giggles podcast Ando
Tumo aka Mr Ura sik on pink bike and Trail Forks how is it going tonight thank you I’m feeling good sitting here on my couch drinking a Muno beer and having a good chat with cool people oh thanks for that Bryson how’s it going doing really well F girl how
About yourself oh good all good we finally get going it was a bit of a struggle so far but that is interesting no none of our listeners so they want to know for certainly the ones that are not so familiar with Trail Forks what can you
Tell them um what trailforks is and and why should they be using it trailforks is a crowdsourced datab base of Trail networks um covering multiple activities with the main focus on mountain biking um but it is primarily made for nonprofit Trail Association so they can promote their
Trails in the region and provide to to their Trail users the best experience Bryson are you using trailforks and uh what is uh your favorite feature I am currently a trailforks subscriber Pro subscriber I guess you would be um so yes I’ve been using I’ve been using it
Since uh since close to the beginning actually so I want to say thank you to Trevor by the way um my favorite feature has got to be the heat Maps um once I was showed that it was kind of eye opening okay this is cool this is a
Really nice painting actually so I just look at it I just stare at the colors but it also helps me navigate to you know probably where I’m going to find the better trails and I still haven’t yet decoded when I see a black Trail or a double black or whatever but the heat
Map suggests that it’s not popular I don’t know if I should go there or not but I always end up doing it but yeah anyways have you ever you Trail Forks uh Pascal oh yeah for sure I I yeah I you know love it for for exploring um I’m a
A mapping tool nerd in that sense that I use uh many different uh tools so straa and kud and Trail forks and outdoor active and all these other things and all of them have have their unique features some of them are the same and I
Guess today we kind of want to um kind of uh illustrate a little bit what the the main benefits are of of Trail Forks because it is quite unique and uh I think one key point that uh that I pick out from what you said when you described it is crowd sourcing
And I want to spend a little bit of time on what you mean with crowdsourcing right because for example straa they also take GPS data from from uh from their users um that could be crowd sourcing but what do you mean with crowdsourcing in with trailfork specifically there are different uh kind
Of content which you can find on trail Forks of course Trails but you can also find pois you can find Roots you can find all kind of uh data which helps you for your next route planning and there are several ways to contribute content on trail Forks first of course is
Um logging your right um You can do it with Garmin devices Trava or with the trailforks app itself and um provide then usage data to your local Trail Association for example and when you had a really good ride and you think wow this this Trail this isn’t on trail Forks you can say
Also say um take your ride look and say okay crop this section and upload it as a new Trail then uh administrator of Trail Forks um usually have an eye on it and says okay this is a really cool Trail or looks good we approve it or other user can also give their
Votes um and if it hits the threshold of five votes for confirming it will be approved by itself only by users without any Administration for example uh it’s also a mechanism which is unique on trail Forks so this would be a self- running crowdsource data ways in in the end without
Administration but of course the administration is useful to have like a quality um on trail frog so it’s it’s not just wild west so um it gets a kind of uh uh a standardized quality with the administration I want to dive deeper into you know the trail submission and
And that kind of problem field uh later on but first I want to clarify a few other things um so yes so you mentioned that you know there’s different users and they can submit different things and so can you kind of break down a little bit so what are the different user
Groups for trail Forks right so is it enough to just upload your GPS or how can how else can people be involved yeah there are many ways yeah so of course primarily it’s uh uploading your favorite Trails on trail Forks or um yes you can also like I mentioned um contribute with uh
Confirming content there is like a special page on trail Forks where you can see contributions from all the world and you can give there the vote you can see okay um somebody uploaded a a trail in my neighborhood he’s not allowed to you can also deny it or reject for example is
Also a possibility um you can also edit existing content of course so you can say well this this rating is completely wrong it’s never a a easy green trail this is a double black diamond for example I found one and so you can also change this um you can also vote for the
Rating there are multiple ways you can also add poi like for example water sources parkings which are a good start point for the trail Network um side points or other historic things which can be discovered on the in in the region or of course you can also provide a route so
Um the the trail the basic layer in trail frogs when you enter it is is the map with all the sections or segments of of different Trails often people struggle to find their uh a route on on this VI other people like it they say wow I can pick
My own rides um or my own trails and plan my route uh by just clicking on the trails there is also like a ride planner feature where you can say Okay I want to ride this Trail this Trail and this Trail and then Trail Forks goes through
The database and says well there was a user which right or wrote this this these trails in in in one uh ride um and makes a recommendation to do the same for example so um yeah there are many many ways which the trail Forks development um implemented um in trail forx
Um yeah and uh many many ways how to uh take part of this database and contribute content yeah for me it’s also like sharing um so when I am in a new place I like really to discover and um find these these trails and sometimes you are
Short on time and um when you get good recommendations so why not recommend some good rids in your region for other which will visit you okay sometimes also people come back to you write you a message hey you uploaded this Trail um is it is it still good can you
Recommend and so you you can also start conversation with with uh other users which uh are thinking about visiting your place now Andre you mentioned a little bit uh just past about Trail associations and I think this gets down to kind of the root of the whole
Situation here so how can Trail situ uh Trail associations use Trail Forks to promote their Trails promote biking advocacy and uh yeah do you provide some or are there tools provided to them uh the Trail Association is the main focus of the development of Trail Forks so
Basically they they will find the most features on trail Forks than anyone else um it starts that you can publish your planed Trails for example so you could provide to the public uh your plans look there we plan to build there uh a trail you can raise foundings for these trails
Um it’s also possible so you it’s like a trail Karma program which trailforks has um trail Fox Makes then also suggestions to the user where they should um spend uh or or um donate money based on their usage of the trail networks so end of the year you get some recommendations which say
Well we saw you you have ridden the most in this area why not uh donating to this Trail Association which takes care of these trails and this money goes 100% to these Trail associations so there is nothing trail Fox takes away from these donations um this is a way of course and
Of course also by um administrating the so trail Fox prefers more when local administrators um which are connected with politics land managers or what or whatever is influencing in the region um more than the crowdsourced thing so that doesn’t mean that the users cannot get involved
Then in this situation it’s then like a mix so um but the focus is that the Trail Association can improve and say okay this is really a trail good for mountain biking and maybe this Trail is just a hike Trail there are there are a lot of
Hikers so they can also change the activity and say allowed activity is hiking not mountain biking and so a biker uh a bike user gets also like informed previously of the root planning so you already know aha this Trail is really um with a lot of hikers it’s it
It it is not much joy to to stop 20 times in your in your downhill and um expecting families behind every corner so um so why not um following the the the recommendation of this Trail Association and having a good day yeah so you are the country administrator for Switzerland for trail
Forks um we have yes 26 cantons in this beautiful country um how challenging on a scale from 1 to 26 is it to coordinate you know 26 different CS with I’m sure you know at least 10 interest groups per Canton and trailer associations and all these kind of things how are you
Managing all of that first of all I have some help of course so um uh I’m not doing this job alone there is um another friend um who is also taking an eye on the content in Switzerland so that that’s first of all of course but basically that’s also the
Mind of the trail Fork so it’s not my role to be the the police and say no you cannot upload this and you cannot do this and that so what I do is I give advice to these uh associations or also users there are sometimes user which are
Contributing a lot of data and um so we give them advice hey look we have these features you can do it like that or take an example here and often they don’t know of course of this because there are so many features on trailer Forks that when you start there you are overwhelmed
By everything you can do there and um well of course if it’s just a user then we uh we we do more um we take more influence on them but at some point we say trailer assciation it’s your region you can decide what is right or wrong in
Your region so basically this is the mindset of of of Trail Forks so it’s it’s it’s not like uh a government which is uh telling you what’s what’s wrong and and right yeah of course but of course when it’s completely irritating or um we we have some rules of course
But um yeah it’s not really a problem on trail Fox yeah and how much influence comes from uh apps like schweit mobile that’s a very well-known and well well or highly regarded uh mapping information for anyone in Switzerland hikers or alpinists or openness so far schweit mobile is not taking any
Influence on trail on trailforks um but users are uploading content of of schz mobile so this um forced me to uh to start also conversation with schitz mobile because I wanted to clarify um H how we we can use uh their data what’s about copyright and also offering them
Hey when your content is on trail forx why not being like a Trail Association for your roots we can um add your logo at these roots and add your links and all that stuff um that was really nice conversation with schitz mobile which is just started
So regarding this I can say stay tuned for the next season maybe we will have some some influence by schweitz mobile so for so for for the user who like the content of them um I think uh they they will be surprised what they can find next
Season um the point was also there schwi mobile is like the sanctioning body in Switzerland with the authority um from the government so they are like really a big reference and I told them hey tra Fox is here um the tool is used by many users
And providing a lot of data and useful thing um I recommend to take part of it because uh you cannot avoid um Trail fors if you want to have some guidance and orientation of of the users and there is still so powerful app in the background uh yeah it’s it’s like you’re
You you’re turning in in Cycles or in circles but uh I guess that’s the the real Crux of the discussion right because of course on the one hand schweitz mobile as you say is the the sanctioning B the the gold standard the reference for what constitutes a trail
In many regions and of course Trail Forks can be used as a platform to push unsanctioned Trails let’s say in air quotes illegal Trails or you know the secret lers of this world and um you know the question is how do you work with the different institutions to tackle these problems
Right so that uh on the one hand you have the official Trails kind of what let’s say the government or the you know the mapping Authority sees as Trail and on the other hand what is user generated from Trail Forks uh and you know that may or may
Not be legal so how do you cross that bridge well it’s it’s of course not uh easy um I personally I also don’t know each corner of Switzerland and if if there are um sanctions or or um or not for for these lines um when I approve content of users
Uh where in a region where there isn’t uh a local Administration I check um also the official Maps Swiss toppo is a good Bas or also with open street map you get also some background information and maybe I also start a conversation with the user and asking hey um what’s
What’s the situation there so that that’s one thing where I um communicate personally with with the users and on the other thing with the trailer Association at the end it’s their opportunity to take part of this crowdsourced database so um it’s it should be also more um the they should
Be also more in charge of of uh their position and say well we can here take part and and take influence because Trail forx it’s it’s not just for bikers you can also um publish hike trails and really say it’s not allowed to bike there so the mountain bikers stand
Informed of course there are always people who ignore any any uh laws or rules or or whatever but um the the majority of people I believe is still um looking on such informations and planning accordingly so um this is a job which uh we both administrators here in
Switzerland cannot do it for the whole country of course so we are more like um guides who who show the associations the possibilities so far in Switzerland these associations always believed well it’s just crowd sourced so only user content and and kept distance to this platform but if you
Um uh really understand what trail Fox all about then you see you know it’s made for these Trail associations so um it’s an opportunity for them to take part and um provide guidance to all these mountain bikers here in this land absolutely I think that is I think the
You know now that you talk through how Trail Forks actually works with the crowdsourcing with the community feedback and involvement of Trail associations right so that is like the killer feature of the platform right and so kind of that constant feedback loop is between you know Trail users Trail
Associations what is actually being ridden what is acknowledged as an an official Trail what is a hiking trail what is a skiing route or whatever it is right so that that constant process I believe is is is very very very powerful and uh I think uh you know the different
The different uh regions should make more use of of that technology exactly in terms of sharing best practice with using the platform which regions do you think are doing a great job and uh which ones can maybe you know improve their Trail Forks game a little bit still the most use of Trail
Forks are taking tourism regions in Switzerland so like bike Kingdom flims logs Davos Davos also use it really in the in the um cable car station you can see the tra Fox map of the region on on the screen there so um in these regions
Uh also in uh volis um I’m not sure how it’s in English um I think volis or Val um there are some regions like verier or um the French part of Portis the Swiss part could be better but um yeah yeah so there are the most uh um
Usage of of the of the trail F platform but there also smaller local Trail associations also for example sui Trails is um maintaining a good status update of their Trails uh I like this also really much so that you can see what’s the condition out there um or when they
Are kind of building something on the trails then you you really get informed on which days you can go or when you you better choose another Trail y absolutely um now um this year I started a corporation also with imba schwi and um I have also like a role as Ambassador in
Switzerland and we try to really give the members of imba a benefit and make some uh good tutorials um for them so that’s also something um which I’m looking forward for next season um so it’s it’s getting better and better so um we had this year a lot of introductions of new
Associations and they are just starting using it so it’s growing yeah I can see that on pink bike because I obviously I started following you on uh on on pink Pike you’re user and then in my dashboard it always pops up when you when you’ve had some interactions with
Something and then or here a new new Trail Association pops up and they’re a new Trail and uh you know this is all kind of very transparent and open and everyone can see what’s what’s actually going on I think that’s also um a very powerful feature of the platform yes
Yeah yeah the transparency is uh a big Point yeah you even can uh Trace if it is um provided this information how much work is done on the trails by the trail associations so this is also a feature on trail Fox um that’s also something which we recommend uh to these
Associations um to track how much hours they spend and at the end of the year you can simply uh create a report of all the worked on and for example um provide it to to your local politics or something and you can really say hey well we spent
This year with 50 volunteers um about th000 hours on trail building well not sure if these numbers come together but yeah maybe in future yeah yeah but I mean that’s exactly that’s exactly what is needed right so if you uh think about discussions that are happening in the public space right
Then it’s uh it’s exactly this quantification of how much are the trails actually used how much work is being put into them and how can we use that data to illustrate the needs that are actually here for the different uh communities and mountain biking groups
And and all that sort of stuff right and I think data is always an incredibly powerful narrative to you know lead a discussion with simple facts right so it’s an easy discussion to go to someone and say like hey look here is a database and here is these are the trails that
Are in this Zone and you know this is how many writers are using them and why are we not doing um something about this there’s obviously a need and I think that is in a very important role that a community like trailforks uh can play in in in helping those Trail associations
As well to to have these discussions I can also give an example which is starting soon well unfortunately that trail project was shut down in the meantime and will be delayed a couple years the key messages are still very valid though which is why we left them in just
Without the name of the project back to Andre uh it’s really cool we we have the opportunity opportunity there to um promote this this new Trail network with all features of trade Forks so uh I can say here stay tuned for this and we really want to use it to
Show also then the authorities um how the situation will change in this region with Trail Forks also of course and I see here a lot of potential coming up and um if this makes school then um I think uh yeah the other platforms need to run to to uh get
Up with with Trail frogs this some really exciting news there was a nice problem to have Andre I want to talk a little bit more about the the the course you’re doing with the Ambush fites but first I would be interested to know if you’ve heard some
Good arguments as to why a Trail Association doesn’t want to use Trail Forks to help them out yes um I had feedbacks from Trail associations which um doesn’t wanted to take part um it’s often regions where um the politics are not um so bike friendly um as other regions so then
They are like afraid that their name is then published with illegal Trails or problematic trails and of course this can uh take an effect on your image in this region so this is maybe um one point there is in trail Fox also solution for this of course as as
Always um so trailer associations they really can adopt single Trails uh so single single Trails um and only there is their name published for example so there is also solutions for this um or we just publish their name in the region so if you click then on the on the
Region which is um uh the the container of the trail Network then you see aha there is there is a Trail Association I I recommend this because um yeah why not going into the public and say hey we are here we are we are an association and we want to to uh
Advocate for Trails um looking with the land managers for Solutions and taking notes of All um stakeholders and and are taking care of it so this a really important thing so so far it’s only a few associations which are not taking part of it and I’m sure it will
Change in future Andre I just want to say you’re a genuine advocate for mountain bike in Switzerland oh so we give you the Kudos um thank you maybe maybe just shortly about your your your of course what is going on there what have you
Started um yes um I had the chance um to have a small presentation at the presidential Conference of imos schwi about um Trail forks and I uh I announced there or promised there that we will do uh um a tutorial session with the members of imers whites and we just recently launched the
Communication for it um this is um taking part in in uh January um we have three sessions um first of course we need to get all on the same level so we welcome them on the trail Fox platform and we’ll show them uh what’s all about
What’s what’s the usage of it how you see the platform of course it’s also important to understand um what’s the access to this platform of course and also in the first session we we go through how they can publish their trailer Association and uh yeah and and uh
Promote their Association on on trail frogs Yeah so Trail frogs are there are so many features so it’s not just one session of course enough for it we have the also question and answer sessions of course uh afterwards the second session is then more about editing and adding content uh to the
Platform um how you can use the data which is coming from the users so each ride log is important on trail for so even this is a contribution to this um whole thing and uh this takes also a lot of time to go through everything there
Um and then we have a third session it’s called Beyond there we show for example the API there is API where you can use the data from trailforks for your usage for example on your website or print maps for your uh region um there are multiple things we will show in the
Third session which um is then like the the point on the eye okay and you’ll probably be offering uh further sessions to other organizations um you know as as permitted when when the interest comes in I guess yes well basically um it’s not restricted just to imba members so basically everyone is invited
So um it’s open for everyone um currently um I I just opened um a website for it um with the with the um registration form um you can find it on Freer rite. bike yeah it’s maybe also some user will find um some useful information there
And of course contri bution is open for everyone so it’s not just for trail associations so um I really can recommend to everyone using the the the short days um taking a cup of coffee or or whatever you like um sit down and um join this session is that
Going to be a regular thing um are you going to host those like once a quarter or once every semester or something like that or is it a one-off kind of situ version I’m I’m thinking about this yes this is for sure something which I want
To open also um in this discussion at these sessions um I would also like for example to have like a trail Fox ride out once a year with with administrations or other users which want to join um I have also contact with different tourism organization maybe one organization is
Offering bring some tickets or whatever um would be cool so if somebody listened to it um just come by and we we we could promote a a cool day and um um maybe you can also imagine if multiple administrators are joining this day um your region will be maybe on the next
Day different on trail Fox platform with more trails and more content yeah this would be also a cool idea and yes uh like like a meeting where we we could share the experiences on trail fors would be also a nice thing which uh I um have in mind for the next season Andre
That brings me down what uh what got you into Trail forks I mean obviously we’re mountain bikers but what was that uh what was that that got you into it when I started using trailforks Switzerland was like a white uh a white that’s what I got here actually yeah exactly it’s like the
North Pole all white no Trails yeah so oh you look on it think oh no Trails no um well of course we are also spoiled in Switzerland with with map tools well we invented the topographic um yeah picture if if you want to to to say
This so um so we we are spoiled with Swiss toppo schitz mobile and and other um official platforms of course so this is maybe also the the reason why Switzerland is with is one of the best biking place but not on the top uh contribution list on trail frogs because we we just
Spoiled yeah but but what what brought me to Trail fors was a travel to Sweden in 2018 um they were a little bit more into Trail FRS this time and you really found really cool Trail networks on trail Forks in Sweden and I really enjoyed it using this app in
Sweden and when I came back to Switzerland I started uh contributing content in uh in the chura mountains and in Northwest Switzerland and my contributions were maybe too much for the administration there because they all need to approve it so a guy invited me for a introduction meeting and said well
You’re the new administrator for North Switzerland Northwest Switzerland sorry yeah yeah so this is how it too many trails please stop or approve them yourself approve them yourself cool story yeah yeah I also like what I also like in trail for is um on your personal
Profile you have like like the world map and then it puts like needles on all the trails you you have written so it’s like a little trophy case yeah it’s it says I rode here I wrode here I rode here I love it too actually maybe that maybe that’s my
Favorite feature actually it’s like a little trophy case I like that yeah and then you you remember ah yes when when when you when you look at this map you see ah yes 2018 Sweden was a nice travel mhm yeah nice memories is yeah nice memories too yeah actually yeah it’s
It’s what I always say it’s like love mountain biking has taken me not only physically but it’s kind of mentally and emotionally and all the whole package right so having that as a nice reminder like a global map different Trails marked on it different regions it’s really something nice not a nice
Overview MH it’s also cool and that’s the the crowdsourcing element right is kind of that uh also how Trail Forks develops right so then it’s uh you know you said you traveled to Sweden and there was already pretty developed and now you look around in Switzerland there’s some regions where it’s pretty
Developed and um you know and then I remember going back to Canada like where obviously where it was born and there it’s completely different ball game right if you go to the NorthShore or Squamish or Whistler or wherever right so there’s pretty much every every
Single Trail is is is uh in trail Forks not everyone of course we we know about secret lomers that no one wants to have on the on on any platform but uh most of the worthwhile ones where you probably don’t kill yourself um they’re are there
So it’s it’s always good to to kind of revisit the places and also see on trail Forks how the places are are developing I always think that’s interesting anyway Let’s uh let’s bring it back to to your own mountain biking um you know you you said you you rode a
Lot and and submitted many trails and but uh but how what what kind of mental picture do we have to have in mind when we think as our country at administrator of Trail forks and his mountain biking what does he like obviously not the secret lers I keep them for me
Exactly I’ll call you sometime exactly can we have god mode access yeah you have to contribute 3,000 trails and then you you you get oh unlock challenge accepted um well yeah um what I’m for a Ral well um I I developed for sure over time I started with about 9 years old
With uh cross country um well with a steel frame without suspension at all of course with a with a geometry which is today um maybe you can find it um on a gra on a gravel bike yeah yeah maybe yes that’s that’s yeah that’s a good comparison yes I
Started cross country with a gravel bike yes yeah um with about nine years of course you start with with some uh slope riding or um obstacles and challenging for the for the for the children yes you know and then um yeah it continued about until I was
17 18 something like that but and then other things catched my attention in life um so yeah and and then also of course job you have to De you have to to get money for all the fancy bikes um but I really lost the bike out of
Sight and um yeah um made my study and all the thing and came back maybe with 28 29 on the bike um and in these years the full suspension bikes were also like um made a big step and I had a chance to to test a bike full
Suspension and yeah I smiled a lot on this ride and yeah found found back on these wheels yeah with with these um full suspension bikes this was in 2009 I think yeah oh so we’re about the same age that’s uh that’s funny I had a kind of a similar trajectory with mountain
Bikes I had a long break between about 2002 and 2014 15 and um yeah so in that in the meantime mountain bikes have become really really cool and uh and all the stuff that used to break and fall apart and uh not be very good in uh 99 2000
Was all of a sudden it was great so like disc brakes all of a sudden they worked and full suspension amazing and you wouldn’t flat all the time and tuas finally worked and so yeah so that’s uh that’s funny so I’m not the only one pH good cool yeah absolutely yeah and and
This also of course cross country this this wasn’t anything for me anymore at this time um but the all Mountain riding first catch my attention and I also remember I I joined uh a camp with Thomas Giger with right Point CH in school and there were some crazy
Guys they they opened my eyes what’s possible with these bikes um so you you still had the the old even I think 24 in Wheels we had at the beginning 26 I’m not sure I think when I was nine it was 20 well okay okay A Child cycle of course yeah but yes
You’re right 26 terrible geometry and all the thing uh a lot of adal adrenaline on on the bike of course yeah with these old bikes and now you you can ride Trails unbelievable um compared to the Past yes and more and more uh the bike also
Developed and I found the limit of of the bike it ended up in Scotland also um like a uh like um a rock plate um digged into my frame so um I needed a new frame I found a real cool um store in in the highlands um he had the whole Fleet of
Santa Cruz bikes and they could test 3 days long all the models of Santa Cruz uh was really funny guy and he made me also a unbeatable offer yeah and then I decided to to come on a nomad and yeah still really happy um with this Frame it’s it’s crazy yeah
It’s you can send it anywhere it’s um you you feel like you are now the limit not the bike so that is really cool yeah and I guess it’s also with auto bikes previously I I had um a track bike more um more like a
Allrounder and now we more up um more um downhill oriented it’s a complete different story so yeah so how it’s that’s how it’s going you know we have a little thing uh we like to do we just started actually just it’s it’s a little bit new it’s a little bit new
That’s recent it’s call it recent okay we had a previous guest on Louie Mr aen Hut thank you for the question we asked him to provide a question to our next guest so I’m going to slap it on you Andre if you could change anything about the mountain bike scene in
Switzerland what would it be it’s a really interesting question yeah so I I answered answer it from my perspective um what I some sometimes Miss is um more contribution to the real Trails of course so we are shredding a lot of hike Trails which are maintained by Hike organizations and yeah
And we are developing like a little bit like consuming community of course Trail Forks helps also to this um of course um and I think this is something which which the bike which the mountain bike scen at at all of course could take more part with of course there are in the
Mountain bike scene a lot of contributors a lot of Trail Builders but it’s still just a small minority of of the whole scene in my in my S um I think uh probably I I would change this so uh you have to earn your Trails you
Have to to first to go and dig before you can shred your burms or or something like this that is one one thing which I’m thinking about on the other hand what I’m also missing especially here in Switzerland is is more support for for the recreational
Sport so uh right now with Swiss cycling is a lot focus on cross country um the AG races or Enduro races is still just a small number in the whole game and um I think there could be more more support for for these niches yeah I think this is something which
Which could be changed in our MTP scene here in switzland I thought you I thought you came swinging out of the gate with one exceptionally powerful theme but actually you hit us with uh two of them that’s uh very true okay thank you for that answer I
Think we can pick up on that another time okay we uh are getting towards the end of our time tonight um is there anything you wanted to add to to anything that we said before well uh of course I have to say that you’re amazing
Guys I was told to say that no no no [Laughter] am I think it’s also important for the MTP scene to have a podcast like this um yeah it’s it’s cool um it’s cool thing and of course I will want to say at this point Al a big thank you to all
Contributors on trail Forks um to all Trail Builders to all Trail associations to all that people who are in the background um ruling and advocating for for our thing um yeah I’m I’m really happy to see how it is evolving and um I’m really curious about the
Future um and for this of course um we need also good podcasts with with cool moderators and and people with the heart at the right place yeah well thank you for those kind words uh we try to do our little peace um for the community um but what we also
Do for the community is ask our guests something before we let them go and Bryson what is this what is it well actually first of all thank you uh Andre or as the astute uh Pink biker will know him as jassic um the final question of the day so as country
Administrator of Switzerland and lonstein on trail Forks the skigger demand to know what what is your description of the perfect skid I think when a skid is longer than my smile then it’s good enough yeah boy oh wow okay okay we can we can take that we
Take that that it’s a good submission is acceptable it very good it very good yeah like relation between and smiling exactly all all right well with that we say thank you very much for your time it’s been a slight struggle hopefully our listeners will don’t feel
Anything of that um before we let you go can you let us know where our listeners can find you and how they can reach out to you if they want to help with Trail Forks usually you can simply select a region on trailforks and all at the bottom you can find the administrator
Infos um my infos is of course for Switzerland available so if you visit the Switzerland landing page of Trail Forks you can find it or you can simply search on the pink bike Community for Jurassic um then you can find me or you can also write me a message over Freeride do
Bike and I’m happy to hear from anyone who has questions about Trail Forks Vans bikes or simply life I’m open for any questions we’ll we’ll put all of those links into the description of this episode uh so people can find it there and and reach out to you if they have
Any questions um with that again thank you very much this was really interesting and I think a really valuable discussion and I hope to see you out on the trail soon yes I hope that too yeah thanks for listening we really hope you enjoyed this episode why don’t you
Let us know what you think we really like to hear from our listeners to find out how to get in touch with us follow the links to our website in the description or find us on Instagram under skits and Giggles until next time skigger