RAGBRAI

Quimby, Ia. – Crowds flocked to the Bad Boys in this town.

Bypassers stopped and gawked at the team’s bikes parked outside the beer garden, which were outfitted with everything from music and booze to the kitchen sink.

“We don’t always end up where we’re supposed to so we have to take our stuff with us,” said Mike Wallace of Waterloo.

Wallace organized the Bad Boys team 22 years ago with partner crime Bill Dabney, of Denver, Colo. The men met while working at a bar in Boulder, Colo. Over the years, the group grew to include three other bar buddies.

Bad Boys Rob Harris of Wheat Ridge, Colo. and Bill Dabney of Denver, Colo.

Each has strapped to their bikes a vital piece of equipment for the week-long trek across the state:

• Dabney is in charge of the bar
• Wallace totes the cooler
• Steve Cannon, of Des Moines, takes care of the grill
• Rob Harris, of Wheat Ridge, Colo., brings the tunes on his generator-powered stereo
• Scott Langton, of Reinbeck, pulls the kitchen sink (*In which no dishes are washed. The appliance has been altered to pour margaritas instead of water.)

“We’ve got it all,” Harris said.

The Bad Boy bar

The Bad Boy cooler

The Bad Boy grill

The special equipment, in addition to the saddlebags and sleeping bags packed onto each bike, brings the weight each rider has to haul to around 150 pounds, but the promise of a freshly grilled steak and a cold beer is all the motivation these bad boys need to get to where they need to be.

-Cynthia Reynaud