KenH

KenH replied to the topic Packing list in the forum Miscellaneous 1 day, 13 hours ago

I rode in the rain one day without a rain jacket which I had along but left in the team SAG vehicle. I will never do that again! No matter what the week’s weather is generally or how warm it may seem on a day when rain is expected or even occurring when you set out it will often turn chilly during a rainstorm and if you are rain soaked you can get…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Attendance projections? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 6 days, 12 hours ago

That trooper supplied daily rider counts for years and when he retired a few years ago no one stepped in to replace him and we haven’t heard much about rider levels since then.

Well, registration supposedly closed yesterday. I still see the extension notice scroll at the top of forum pages but it has not been updated to indicate a further…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic What happens if someone misses the baggage truck? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 week ago

When I picture Jboz in conjunction with choppers for some reason I am seeing something more like those we might see in the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa this year. But with pedals. If you drop in there this July you can also catch the legendary Roadog motorcycle. I’d read about it in a newspaper article years ago and then was surprised and…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Attendance projections? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 week ago

Anna628: congratulations on your first rant! Nicely done, you sound like a pro!

I wonder how many of us have properly fitted N95 masks? At one time they were impossible to get for civilians and I rarely see anything that could even possibly be one out in the wild. Gases freely pass through the air filter on my car, I realize that it can be done.…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic What happens if someone misses the baggage truck? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 week, 1 day ago

Sometimes you just have to let them fail. Sometimes that is the only way they will learn. You’ve warned them and I suspect that you will warn them several more times before the wheels hit the road. After a morning or two spent wasting perfectly good beer money on hiring a local to transport their bags to the next town they will have learned an…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Attendance projections? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 week, 1 day ago

It was nice of the Doctor in the video linked above to talk about CO2 retention and measure it for us on a test subject. If you need that level of proof, then there it is. It is obvious from inspection however that there is nothing to the concern about CO2. The amount of volume in the space between your face and the mask is tiny compared to that…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Packing list in the forum Miscellaneous 1 week, 2 days ago

Your packing list will in part be driven by how you are doing the week. If you are going with a charter or the RAGBRAI truck then they will have rules that you need to comply with in terms of the number of bags and the weight of your gear. For example the RAGBRAI truck limits you to one bag of no more than 50 pounds:

Although each rider is…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Attendance projections? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 week, 3 days ago

Not so long ago on one of the Just Go Bike podcasts Dieter said that registrations were running well ahead of normal for that time in the cycle. More recently they extended the deadline. Those two seem contradictory but they could both be true. People who are confident in the way the pandemic response has been trending could have all jumped in…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic carrying gear? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 2 weeks, 3 days ago

There was a short, recent thread about this which you can find here.

Yes, people do carry their own gear. on this ride Most do not, some do. Among those who do some are bandits, some are not. So you might be mistaken for a bandit even though you are wearing a wristband. I have never done it so I can’t tell you much else. There are older threads…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic virtual route party free water bottle in the forum KenH 2 weeks, 3 days ago

I have not received a water bottle for my VRAP registration.

I did receive a nice metal water bottle with my name on it from my employer. It was in lieu of last year’s dinner for two office Christmas party at a very nice restaurant so not impressed.

If RAGBRAI wants to send me a sticker I can slap that on the company water bottle and call it good!

KenH replied to the topic Covid test requirements in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 3 weeks ago

In an old episode of Friends a couple of the boys are talking to a couple of the girls and the subject of condom efficacy comes up. One of the girls mentions that it is around 98% and the boys in unison say “Nuh uh!!”. And then the other girl confirms the first girl’s statement. “No, way, if that were true why doesn’t it say so right on the box?”…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Communication Devices (goTenna/Beartooth/similar or plain old walkie talkies) in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Cell phone text messages generally work well enough. There can be issues so patience is required and that makes them unreliable for urgent messages if you should have one to relay.

We used FRS for a couple of years and it never worked well for us. Range can be an issue, frequency overuse can be an issue, the person on the other end just not…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Covid test requirements in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 3 weeks, 1 day ago

You have (at least) three options:

1) Wait and see. This became an option today because the registration deadline has been extended to April 15 at 11:59pm.

2) Take the plunge. If you don’t like the way things turn out you may be able to sell your credentials on the gray market. Most years you could, this year it’s anyone’s guess how that would…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic What is everyone riding? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 3 weeks, 2 days ago

I’ve only done one RAGBRAI on a bike with drops and I believe that I had to get down in the drops for just one stretch that year (2019). My bike with the flat bars is actually running a Jones Loop H bar which has a wide range of hand positions, one of which is fairly aero, and I have used it with some frequency on RAGBRAI. Most of the time I ride…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Fort Dodge Main Campgrounds in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 month ago

In some pass through town in Iowa a few summers ago the crowd walking through town had its ears assailed by a freight train making a tremendous racket as it crossed the route a few blocks ahead of us. No sooner had the crossing arms gone up to their locked and fully upright position than a second freight did the same thing going the other way. It…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Advice for riding a Recumbent Trike in the forum Miscellaneous 1 month ago

I don’t ride a trike but I can comment on a couple of things. I echo the notion that there is not typically a huge bottleneck at the start of each day. There can be backups here and there and the crowd is likely to be denser at the start than it is a few miles down the road. I don’t think it would be an issue for most people so probably not for…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic What is everyone riding? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 month ago

I’ve done seven RAGBRAIs on a Fuji Absolute 1.0. When I bought it they called it a performance hybrid, later they started calling it a flat bar road bike. Except for the flat bars and 3×10 drivetrain it was almost identical to their entry level road bikes. Oh, and it will take at least 38mm tires which is what I rode for those seven years. I just…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Father and daughter duo looking for a team! in the forum KenH 1 month ago

I think that in your situation you should consider going with a team or charter, that way you have a built in source of advice. Once you see it all in action you will be prepared to do it on your own next time although many find their club or charter to be a can’t miss part of the experience. I’m three years ahead of your dad so if he has any…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Help in arranging overnight support in the forum RAGBRAI XLVIII – 2021 1 month, 1 week ago

My team usually camps in a motorhome. We just dry camp for the week to avoid the need to find the dump sites and wait in any lines there. Some overnight towns do have campsites with hookups but I think that is rare, we’ve had one in the 8 years I have done RAGBRAI excluding last year when the campsite and motorhome looked suspiciously like my yard…[Read more]

KenH replied to the topic Updated Site! in the forum Miscellaneous 1 month, 1 week ago

Please none of that, Amanda! Some of us hardware guys at work spent part of yesterday afternoon peering at a digital scope screen, trying to decode what was going on in an SPI bus by hand because even the software guy we managed to corral couldn’t figure out how to make it do that for us. We did it but that is all the work of the devil!!

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