Organizing a team that far from Iowa could be a challenge. Depends if you’re going all the way and converting a school bus. When I was in Minneapolis a team I was on had one and even that long of a drive some of us got rather sore from that bus. School buses are not designed for long over-the-road trips. Either in terms of comfort or reliability. And bus storage for a year was a challenge. The maintenance wasn’t cheap either.

You could go with an Iowa based team that lets you park at a staging location. Some do look for a number of riders each year but it depends on how many people you have joining. You get the fun of the team environment that way too with much less work.

The other way to go as a group is on a charter. Pork Belly allows groups on their charter. I’d recommend the tent service though as large charters can also have large piles of camping equipment and luggage to search through each day. The tent service delivers your luggage to an already set up tent each day. And picks it up the next morning.

Hi Thomas,

I live in Travelers Rest, SC and have done RAGBRAI 7 times. I usually go with the Melon City Bike Club out of Muscatine. I have relatives there so usually head there a week or so before RAGBRAI. But since I moved to SC, I have sparked a RAGBRAI interest in several of my biking friends in TR. So would be interested in your venture.

Ken Buch
ken@kbasoftware.com

I live in Lexington, SC. I’m 56 and I might be interested. I have not done RAGBRAI before. I am currently out of shape but plan to be back in riding form by July 2019. When you say “full concierge” do you mean using one of the charters like Brancel or Pork Belly? Let me know more details about your plans and I will let you know my interest level.

Perry Rainey
prainey2@sc.rr.com