Hiya, Myself and another list member rode it for the first time last year. He on a Riv, me on my 83 Trek 620. (also another friend from Iowa and his dad). We met a number of Riv-riders including Reginald along the way ;). Overall it was a mixed bag. I never really got around to writing my scene report so here goes the brain dump...
Logistics: - We joined a small bike club based in Dubuque. We drove from Chicago to Dubuque, then they carried our duffles and bikes across, chartered a bus, and arranged with the organizers to secure a plot of land in each town for the 30-40 people from the club. It was honestly pretty spartan and not all that great. Part of the problem was that it was very hot almost the whole week; so without a place to go to at the end of the day, we ended up having to either kill time along the way, or immediately re-pack to ride to a public pool or something. Just sitting in an open field in 90 degrees and humid is not fun for me. As someone mentioned, everyone who I met along the way that used Pork Belly loved it - they set up a tent for you, have showers and beer and I think even entertainment. They're also very well-connected to the organizers over many years and seemed to have the prime locations. And yes, there are plenty of other companies including portable AC'd huts if you want! - If I were to do it again, I think I'd make arrangements with locals in each town to camp on their lawn and bike pack (the organizers support a message board to make arrangements). An idea I heard a number of times which also seemed good if you can swing it: have a SAG vehicle shared between a small crew. It can be a car, but prob would be what you would drive to the start. Each day has a main lunch town/ meetup, about half way. So in the car crew, one person misses a half day of riding, round robin. The second half driver gets set up in the overnight town, everyone gets a little AC as needed, and you can get around to stores and maybe even get out of town a bit to beat the crowds if you want. Some people also rent RVs and it seems like there are some designated places for them, but again you need someone to drive. - WRT to drunken shenanigans, honestly I didn't see much if any of it. The rides were pretty brutal with the heat and elevation, so if you partied hard the night before, I was probably way ahead the next day. We might have had a couple beers in the shade here and there, but when there is still miles 61 - 80 to go, and its 90 degrees, I think you'd be silly/dangerous to hit it hard. Once in town, everyone was pretty spread out throughout, so maybe I just missed it? The Good: - I've never really done any long bike touring before (maybe 3 days max) so this was the longest number of days that all I had to do was ride! Almost all of the roads are closed and the route obvious, so for 500 mile over 7 days, just wake up and keep pedaling. I could see why some might find the terrain a bit same-y, but there was a ton of elevation change, really pretty landscapes, and enough rivers and towns to keep me interested. - the tech support was amazing. every town (? or most) had a service stop with a number of very capable, approachable, and affordable crew for repairs. I wore out a front derailer cable mid week (so many hills!), my friend broke a spoke on a different day. In both cases it was like 30 min, $20 and back on the road. Watching them lace up my old Suntour fd on the '83 Trek, followed by a wireless rear on a carbon fiber '23 Trek for the next person in line was pretty awesome (new battery for your rd? $60 fully charged!). - I thought my bike was perfect. I rode 650b x38 smooth gravel kings, 46-30 front and wide-ish rear, basic tektro brakes. I got a lot of comments both snarky and fun (met more than one person that had done cross country rides on 520s and 620s 'back in the day') - I'm a pretty social person, but I met and rode with a lot of nice strangers on interesting bikes (see above). Learned about some cool tours, some cool bikes new and old. Despite the next section, I met quite a few folks that were into the same things I am. You know the old Honda ads? "You meet the nicest people on a Honda/ steel bike". As someone said, there is also that overall good vibe of just nothing but bikers everywhere... The Bad: - it was really crowded. I know, of course I expected that, and it was the 50th anniversary, so it might have been particularly packed. For me there were only a couple of rough patches where it was actually challenging to be riding with so many people, trying to change lanes etc, and the biggest headache was the swifties 'ON YOUR LEFT!' when it was crowded and I couldn't go any more right. I think I had to dismount once owing to a crowd going around a tight bend. But if you are planning to leave at a leisurely sun-up time, and riding a modest pace, expect lines for everything (could be like an hour for a beer or a sandwich). After a few days, I found I preferred to get up at 5ish, and be riding as the sun came up. I could put in 20-40 miles before it got really hot, and had all the vendors and bathrooms I needed, when I wanted them. I probably missed a few local bands/ towny events along the way that were timed to start at peak crowd, but I really hate lines and was able to actually enjoy each of the stoppage towns as much as I wanted. I would also then arrive to the overnight town with a head start on the precious resources of showers, pools, and food before the swarming masses. Eat some food, see the town, maybe have a beer or two, and in bed early. - the food. Don't get me wrong, I had some great food, and a few really killer local specialties, but it is very meat heavy, and kind of same-y: think brats for breakfast, pulled pork for lunch, questionable spaghetti for dinner. I know IA is famous for pork, and I'm not whining, but a big plate of beans and rice would have been nice here and there. Also, sometimes the overnight towns were pretty small and there we're like <5 restaurants total, so you kind of don't have much choice but to get in line for whatever might be in that place. I think the canonical firehouse spaghetti dinner sold out in every town. The organizers unfortunately also allowed (or forced?) too much homogeneity in the vendors. I don't exactly know why, but the same handful of vendors were seemingly at every stop: same pie, same smoothie, same jerk bowl. They were all fine, but I couldn't figure out why there weren't more local options (someone said they had to conform to packaging standards to join, that would be prohibitive for e.g. church ladies making pie, but IDK if this is true). I didn't starve, but also didn't want to look at a sausage for a long time after. The exception to both of those complaints: there was a great small-ish "egg farm - something" that was always in about the second town that was amazing and I would still like to eat every day... - the music? No accounting for tastes, but I heard AC/DC Thunderstruck 5 x / day. So much classic rock, off so many bluetooth speakers, then local classic rock bands in the towns, and then Foghat at the fairgrounds at night. I love rock music, but as with the food, some variety would have been great, at least for the main events. Overall, I would (will) do it again, probably when my kids are a bit older. For now, if I'm going to be gone 9 days, there are other states I'd like to ride across first. Best, Dan in Chicago On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 8:05:37 PM UTC-6 Howard Hatten wrote: > I rode ragbrai in 2015. I’m nowhere near as strong a rider as you and had > no problem with the ride. The outfitter I used doesn’t operate at ragbrai > any more but if I ever did it again I would try to hook up with this group. > “Pork Belly Ventures”. They make tent camping quite nice. They also have > the nicest shower set up. They are pricey. > Google them. > Howard > Livonia Mi > > > On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 8:32:25 PM UTC-5 Steven Seelig wrote: > >> The brilliance of RAGBRAI is that you can do it however you want. Fancy >> tent set-up and more food than you'd ever eat; finding a tour that actually >> books you into someone's home; to just getting your duffel bag of stuff >> hauled by the RAGBRAI truck from town to town. There are so many choices >> to make it's like scrolling through Amazon until you have so many choices >> you can't decide. Think about what you want first and then focus on that. >> >> I'll talk about the training. I did it 6 years or so ago when I was in >> my late 50s. I started making sure that I had a base of mileage starting >> right about now. In DC we have few days when I can't ride, so getting in >> a base of 50-75 miles a week was doable. For younger folks, perhaps the >> ramp up time would be less, but I would want to be doing serious training >> at least 4 months out so you can get up to 150 miles per week by the end of >> May. For me, the training was most important so that I could learn about >> where my max heart rate would be so I could make sure that I would know >> when to back off on my pace and on the climbs. I found this to be a key >> things to understand because the earlier you run into the red zone, the >> less you have for later in the ride. Multiply that by 7 days of riding and >> it is something well worth knowing. I invested in a heart monitor for >> training but did not need it for the ride itself. >> >> Weight training is helpful for those bike specific muscles other than >> your legs. Not huge weights or anything, but getting in several sets on >> your non leg muscles will be a big help. I also focused on deadlifts for >> more power in my riding. >> >> Another thing you must train for it riding in the heat. A buddy of mine >> who lived in Florida where, of course, there were no hills had things >> pretty dialed in because he had trained in the heat. So this is something >> that you can't really do until late May and June, which is when I might >> focus on longer rides in the heat that challenge your body to get used to >> sweating and replenishing your fluids with whatever works. It was Gatorade >> for me. >> >> One thing that surprised me quite a bit was actually how many fancy bike >> racers were seriously challenged by the long, rolling hills. I rode my >> non-Riv road bike with an 11-34 rear cluster and a compact front crankset. >> So almost inevitably, the fancy Dans would come speeding down the prior >> hill and started hammering up the next hill. But these were rarely hills >> where you could just hammer and crest the top. They are rolling like mile >> or 2 mile climbs. So the plastic bikes rode fast for the first third of >> the climb and then I would pace past them. Not because I was a stronger >> rider but because racing bikes are typically not geared properly for >> sustained climbing. My way of saying that a well geared Rivendell is a >> much better choice for the ride. >> >> On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 8:02:11 PM UTC-5 George Schick wrote: >> >>> Not sure why you'd want to go through the trouble to travel all the way >>> over to the Western end of Iowa for this ride particular ride given the >>> distance to get there, the logistics, accommodation issues and the sheer >>> mass of riders (some of whom seem to like to stop at every bar along a >>> portion of a daily route until they're so inebriated that they crash into >>> trees, etc., vehicles that have run over cyclists in sleeping bags, etc.) >>> just for the notoriety when you could enjoy a multiple number of great >>> rides right in your own backyard, so to speak. Have you considered >>> https://lmb.org/events/ride-calendar/? >>> >>> On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 6:47:36 PM UTC-6 R. Alexis wrote: >>> >>>> Leah, >>>> >>>> I took the opportunity to ride the first day of RAGBRAI last summer. I >>>> live in eastern Nebraska. I happened to be off that weekend, heard it was >>>> starting that weekend and that it was the 50th anniversary of the ride. >>>> Had >>>> always thought of doing at least the first day, but never took the >>>> opportunity to look into it and would find out the morning of when local >>>> news would do reports on it. I took the opportunity. I enjoyed it, even if >>>> I tried to bite off too much in the process. I think if you are going to >>>> do >>>> the whole thing you best look at the dates and locations and figure out >>>> hotel/motel stays now. It is not a race, but definitely get conditioned >>>> for >>>> the heat, humidity and hills before hand. My plan was to ride to the >>>> second >>>> to last city location and double back in order to get in a century. I fell >>>> short of that and wished I would have just rode to the end city and called >>>> it a day. First day miles to the end city was 77. I estimated I did about >>>> 64 miles in my attempt to ride back to Sioux City. Sag truck ended up >>>> taking me to Storm Lake, IA where and I ended calling out a mayday to a >>>> friend to pick me up and get me back to Sioux City to my car. >>>> >>>> I rode my Rivendell Mountain because I felt it would be the most >>>> comfortable with it's Softride suspension stem and Thudbuster Uni-Pivot >>>> post. The next bike I was considering was the OX Brand Ti Cruiser 29er. >>>> Got >>>> some compliments on the Riv. Ran into some fellow RBW/iBOB members and >>>> chatted for a bit. >>>> >>>> The logistics can be much. Deciding if you want to park on the west >>>> Iowa and get shuttled back after or park in east Iowa and have your >>>> transportation handy once it is done. Ran into some folks at the first day >>>> stop. One gal had threw in the towel after the first 5 or so miles. She >>>> ended up hitching a ride to the final to retrieve her vehicle so her and >>>> the rest of her group could could use it for camping purposes the rest of >>>> the ride. >>>> >>>> Amtrak does run through the state out of Chicago going to California, >>>> The Omaha station will probably be the closest one the start location. One >>>> of the folks I chatted with said she had a friend that took Amtrak to >>>> Omaha >>>> and rode from Omaha to Sioux City to start the ride. >>>> >>>> Good luck with getting things figured out. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> >>>> Reginald Alexis >>>> >>>> On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 5:33:07 PM UTC-6 Bicycle Belle Ding >>>> Ding! wrote: >>>> >>>>> Who knows about Bike Film Festival? >>>>> >>>>> I paid for the pass to watch this year’s videos and it was money >>>>> well-spent. I got to the RAGBRAI documentary last night. Wow. I had heard >>>>> of it but really knew nothing about it and now I would just love to >>>>> figure >>>>> out how to ride it this year. It just looks like such an experience. And >>>>> I’ve had very few experiences, because I’m late to the bike adventure >>>>> scene >>>>> AND I’ve been raising kids! But now they are teenagers and might not even >>>>> know that I’m gone so maybe I should ride this epic ride! >>>>> >>>>> There are a ton of logistics I don’t understand. I think you need a >>>>> “charter” to haul your stuff, yes? And to bring you back across the state >>>>> after you finish? And if you use these “charters” do they trash your bike >>>>> in their racks or will they have something that can handle a a mixte with >>>>> fenders? Is there are charter that is more friendly to Riv bikes than the >>>>> others? >>>>> >>>>> Also, no camping. I’m really hoping to end up in a hotel or some sort >>>>> of dwelling. I don’t have any tents, don’t know how to pitch tents and so >>>>> on. This may be the thing I can’t plan my way out of, because there are >>>>> so >>>>> many riders moving through tiny host towns. >>>>> >>>>> I’ll look up more info tonight after I get my chores done! But it >>>>> really is so exciting to imagine riding my bike across a whole state… >>>>> Also, >>>>> it’s Real Winter here in Michigan, so maybe that’s why this hits >>>>> different. >>>>> >>>>> Leah >>>>> >>>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/1f6d93f9-aae4-45e9-a3d7-beed0aec443cn%40googlegroups.com.
