Stöke MTB was founded by Lisa Martens and Leigh Kramarczuk, a.k.a. the Stöke Sisters. While coaching mountain biking clinics at the Loppet Foundation in Minneapolis, they bonded over the similar experiences they had when first attempting to navigate singletrack.
Spoiler alert: It was not love at first ride!
Both Lisa and Leigh know how unintuitive mountain biking can feel as well as how powerful a skills clinic can be. Once Leigh followed in Lisa’s footsteps to become a BICP-certified instructor (certified by none other than Lisa), the two realized they also shared a vision for spreading the stoke of mountain biking to others. Stöke MTB was born.
Sisters by Stöke
Leigh Kramarczuk
Leigh grew up in Florida, where she spent a lot of time on the lake as a competitive water skier. On the singletrack? Not so much.
Leigh’s husband, Nick, introduced her to mountain biking when they moved to Minnesota in 2007. Despite her adrenaline-sports background, she found the notion of riding a bike over rocks and roots to be, well, terrifying. It wasn’t until she attended a skills clinic years later that mountain biking finally clicked, and she became a more confident rider—and more confident in herself.
Grateful for the instruction and encouragement she received from her mountain biking coaches, Leigh was inspired to bring the same to others. After earning her BICP Level 1 certification in 2021, she obtained her Level 2 in 2022. She also is Wilderness First Aid and CPR/First Aid certified.
Leigh is stoked to use her skills as a communicator (she’s a copywriter and the owner of Red Dog Communications) and unabashed love of mountain biking to help you feel more powerful on your favorite singletrack.
Lisa Martens
As a native Minnesotan, Lisa has always been drawn to adventuring in the outdoors. However, those adventures never consisted of riding a bike on singletrack until she met her husband, Bruce, in 2006. Even though their relationship survived that fateful first ride, Lisa barely did (OK, that’s a little dramatic), and she didn’t pick up a mountain bike again for 7 years!
Like Leigh, it wasn’t until attending a formal skills clinic that she first experienced the finesse, flow, and fun on a mountain bike. And the fun hasn’t stopped since. Because of the mountain bike, Lisa has had the opportunity to travel, meet amazing people, and coach adolescents through programs like NICA and the National Center for Youth Development. She became a Level 1 certified mountain bike instructor through the BICP in 2020 and obtained her Level 2 certification in 2022. She also trains and certifies instructors as a BICP Instructor Trainer and is CPR/First Aid certified.
During the day, Lisa works as an orthopedic physical therapist. She is fascinated with how the human body moves and is stoked to teach you all the ways your body can move on a mountain bike!