Ragbrai

[otto_kretschmer]

Anyone doing RAGBRAI this year, or have you rode it in the past?

I want to do it this year and I still have time to pay for a spot (I think).

450 odd miles across Iowa with 30,000 of your best friends.

I started riding a month ago. Only every other day for 13 miles. I feel a lot better with just this small effort. It takes 7 days and averages 65-70 miles a day.

[911boost]

Exercise your liver too….

I have lots of friends that do it every year.

[herr_oberst]

If you think you want to do it, get your number now before it's gone. It'll incentivize you to get your legs lungs (and liver ha ha) into reasonable shape to do it.

If you don't want to do 450 miles you cold do Seattle to Portland, a very large (10,000 participant) 200 mile ride.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I know a carload of fellow riders who drove out and did it last year.
Every single one was underwhelmed, and would not do it again.
Too many people. Too many lines. Boring scenery. Lots of logistics.
I was surprised. -These are generally positive people. They do not fit into curmudgeon status like I do.

I spend a lot of time watching the ragbrai yt videos, and early morning starts look cool, before the fog blows off the land, but the obligatory lines at every stop is just ridiculous. Even the line to dip your bike at the end was 1/2 mile long or something.

As much as I'd like to do it (and there is an alluring element to it), I'd rather plan something a little closer and smaller (participant wise). It looks like the ride is a victim of it's own greatness. At 10k-20k riders- perhaps.

I'll share a quick peek of those early morning sunrises though. Surreal!



EDIT- also for training, it looks like a lot of people show up underprepared and do just fine. The beer will get you through!
Good luck!
Ron

[stevej37]

A guy I know, did it almost every year for about 5 years. He took his daughter and bike in his pickup and joined in wherever and she would drive and pick him up when he had enough for the day and they would get a motel for the night. He did that 2-3 days in a row.
The only thing I remember him talking about was the good food and drink along the ride.

[911_Dude]

Me and a group of friends did it about 10 years ago. Had a blast despite having an accident the first day and having some horrible dripping road rash the rest of the trip. It was four of us and another friend that was recently divorced and just wanted to drive his RV. So we had a nice place to crash every night. If you can ride 10-15 miles you can do this. All manor of bikes and fitness levels do it. Yeah there are the racer types, but thats a minority, and you never see them because they've got to be in front.

FIgure out where you will sleep and have a good time. Drove past a lot of corn fields. They love corn in Iowa. The sleep location is the hardest part.

[masraum]

I did an MS150. That's 150 miles over 2 days. The wife and I did train, but probably only 1-2 days a week for 3 months, although weather meant that there was 3-4 weeks that we didn't train. My wife struggled a bit, but I loved it. It doesn't sound like it would be that hard depending upon the terrain and weather that you encountered.

[Tobra]

MS150 you are talking about can be pretty rough, depending on the weather.

Hot, humid and hilly is not a great combination.

[cockerpunk]

my brother did it twice, looked like **** both times. said he had a blast though.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Hey Otto- Thought of you today. A bit of a thread hijiack- but the color seems right!
Higgins posted the thread about a 15k road bike vs a new Ducati.
It got me thinking of all the good (great value) slightly older high end bikes available for pennies on the dollar on cl/fb

So I looked around. This popped up. A little high on the price, but ready to roll.
A good backup for ragbrai!




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