Timberdoodle
New member
- Mar 16, 2025
- 17
- 10
Howdy!
So long story short, I got into biking for errands and such when I was living in Anchorage, then after making it a huge part of my life there due to the extensive and well-maintained trail networks, I kept those sensibilities when I moved to the next National Forest in Northern Wisconsin. Found my dog, and he was doing a lot of running alongside in my population 2400 town, but when the Forest Circus had me relocated to Athens, I needed something capable of hauling Elias and our groceries.
So after getting hassled by my "More sensible" family members to just get a second truck or car (anybody who knows me from Bluesky or twitter has already seen what my truck was doing, but you'll see it in the background in a lot of my photos), I decided to just ruffle all of their feathers and get a Benno Boost (Class 3, Bosch system, 400wH batteries) and a sick Burley Bark Wagon for Elias.
so far, I have 1115 miles on the Odo and haven't looked back. I've since left the Forest Service and do my own thing as a private sector forester. the Vomit Comet has saved me a ton of money in gas and wear/tear on the truck, and it keeps me in shape when I'm not out in the woods busting brush and measuring trees.
I love my Boost, and it has gotten to the point that I kinda don't ever want to go into town without it. Driving just sucks, especially when the students are in town. Our Infrastructure's a bit on the "Meh" side, but it gets better every year. best way to sum it up is that a few weeks back, I went to a Rock Lobsters game. Six miles on a quiet evening down a bunch of off-road trails, and I drop right into the Classic Center Arena to lock up my bike and watch with no small amount of amusement as hundreds of cars and bro-dozers tried to simultaneously dogpile into the parking garage. took me like 25 minutes to go from my front door to putting my butt in the seat with a Terrapin in one hand, and hotdog in the other to watch some hockey.
If anybody's interested in the Bark Wagon, let me know. I'll probably post up the lessons learned at some point, but in all regards it is the finest bike accessory I have. Basically the full utility to haul a hundred pounds of stuff, plus the stuff in my big panniers, and detach said utility when it's not needed, like the Enterprise-D Ditching the Saucer Section when it's time to embrace the thug life.
I imagine if I upgrade to an Urban Arrow or other front-loader, I shall become invincible
But yeah, that's me. Future adventures will likely involve me figuring out how to get an eBike to do Forestry work. the Vomit Comet is *sooooo* close to being able to do the work, but I'm thinking the Tern Orox is likely to be the Work Bike if I ever pull it off. General idea in forestry being that you use the truck to get to the remote site, then scoot down the tight/poorly maintained logging roads with a 4 wheeler to get the rest of the way in. I currently just walk from the truck, which is fine until I'm on day 10 of doing like 8 miles of walking on rough terrain every day, and my feet are dying.
suffice to say, it wouldn't be the first time I've built out a bike specifically for doing something ridiculous. and yeah, soon as I saw the Urban Arrow, I wanted to get studded tires and take it ice fishing.
So long story short, I got into biking for errands and such when I was living in Anchorage, then after making it a huge part of my life there due to the extensive and well-maintained trail networks, I kept those sensibilities when I moved to the next National Forest in Northern Wisconsin. Found my dog, and he was doing a lot of running alongside in my population 2400 town, but when the Forest Circus had me relocated to Athens, I needed something capable of hauling Elias and our groceries.
So after getting hassled by my "More sensible" family members to just get a second truck or car (anybody who knows me from Bluesky or twitter has already seen what my truck was doing, but you'll see it in the background in a lot of my photos), I decided to just ruffle all of their feathers and get a Benno Boost (Class 3, Bosch system, 400wH batteries) and a sick Burley Bark Wagon for Elias.
so far, I have 1115 miles on the Odo and haven't looked back. I've since left the Forest Service and do my own thing as a private sector forester. the Vomit Comet has saved me a ton of money in gas and wear/tear on the truck, and it keeps me in shape when I'm not out in the woods busting brush and measuring trees.
I love my Boost, and it has gotten to the point that I kinda don't ever want to go into town without it. Driving just sucks, especially when the students are in town. Our Infrastructure's a bit on the "Meh" side, but it gets better every year. best way to sum it up is that a few weeks back, I went to a Rock Lobsters game. Six miles on a quiet evening down a bunch of off-road trails, and I drop right into the Classic Center Arena to lock up my bike and watch with no small amount of amusement as hundreds of cars and bro-dozers tried to simultaneously dogpile into the parking garage. took me like 25 minutes to go from my front door to putting my butt in the seat with a Terrapin in one hand, and hotdog in the other to watch some hockey.
If anybody's interested in the Bark Wagon, let me know. I'll probably post up the lessons learned at some point, but in all regards it is the finest bike accessory I have. Basically the full utility to haul a hundred pounds of stuff, plus the stuff in my big panniers, and detach said utility when it's not needed, like the Enterprise-D Ditching the Saucer Section when it's time to embrace the thug life.
I imagine if I upgrade to an Urban Arrow or other front-loader, I shall become invincible
But yeah, that's me. Future adventures will likely involve me figuring out how to get an eBike to do Forestry work. the Vomit Comet is *sooooo* close to being able to do the work, but I'm thinking the Tern Orox is likely to be the Work Bike if I ever pull it off. General idea in forestry being that you use the truck to get to the remote site, then scoot down the tight/poorly maintained logging roads with a 4 wheeler to get the rest of the way in. I currently just walk from the truck, which is fine until I'm on day 10 of doing like 8 miles of walking on rough terrain every day, and my feet are dying.
suffice to say, it wouldn't be the first time I've built out a bike specifically for doing something ridiculous. and yeah, soon as I saw the Urban Arrow, I wanted to get studded tires and take it ice fishing.
