Thanks TJ!

Would be easier if this forum was listed under the main FORUMS menu.

My Bad.. Listed now:)

Double bad… still not listed under Main Menu FORUMS

Double bad… still not listed under Main Menu FORUMS

Oh-boy oh-boy oh-boy!

Two questions:

Is it too early to start training?

What is the route next year? Oh, come on, there are just a few of us here right now. You can tell us, we won’t spread it around!

I won’t tell

I vote for bringing back the gravel loop. I liked the small pass-through town without such a huge crowd. Regular road wheels work fine but I recommend tubeless tires which do eliminate pinch flats.

One comment, I know routing riders past the same route vendors twice has it’s upside but it does make that potion of the route extra crowded. Unlike the Karras loop we’re not looking for added miles to fill out a 100 mile day. How about no loop, just and alternate route forward on gravel?

Let’s make TJ’s 2016 post the official 2016 thread…. To many other 2016 threads have been started.

I doubt many people care about gravel in 2016. If they include it again, great. If not, it’s because not enough folks care.

I do think a lot of RAGBRAI vets care about doing a southern route. Glenwood to Keokuk!

If they mimic the XX route – maybe cut out 30 or so miles on two of the steeper days – I think people would like it. Ends in Keokuk!

mootsman said:
I vote for bringing back the gravel loop. I liked the small pass-through town without such a huge crowd. Regular road wheels work fine but I recommend tubeless tires which do eliminate pinch flats.

I too feel that some gravel on the route is appropriate … but it should be a part of the route, not an optional loop.

I’d also like to see a return to the original concept of one day being a pure century without the need for loops to make the additional mileage.  If we could do it back in the 1970s and early 1980s on steel-framed Schwinns and imported bikes like the early Fujis, Peugeots, and Raleighs with five speed clusters, friction shifting, 27×1¼ tires, and center-pull brakes that were barely a step up from dragging ones feet, it should be a piece of cake for anyone who has one of today’s bikes with the ‘improvements’ like electric shifting, disc brakes, ultra-thin/puncture-resistant tires, and frames and components made from titanium, aluminum, unobtanium, and carbon fiber.

-“BB”-

BB,

You have many of RAGBRAIs under your belt and maybe you could confirm or deny what I heard. I heard they use to have gravel sections on RAGBRAI but eliminated them one year when there was lots of rain and a large number of crashes resulted on the gravel section. True?

I figure another reason they do loops (always below the route counter clockwise) is to avoid additional left turns across oncoming traffic. But likely I think the vendors are a bigger factor.

Gravel used to turn up someplace every year. it might be a short stretch getting into or out of a town, it might be a couple of miles out in the middle of nowhere. And the muddy slimy mess of a couple miles one year was about the last of it. A lot of people stayed on pavement to get around that section

Although it didn’t bother me — I always ran a rig with full fenders anyway — there were a lot of complaints and general grumbling among the riders, and what I ended up hearing through the rumor mill pretty much agreed with what jwsknk posted.  But to my knowledge no one ever stood up and gave any sort of “official” reason as to why the gravel/dirt sections became fewer and farther between after that episode … but I suppose that reason is as good as any other.

-“BB”-