Ragbrai Support??

[Ti_on_Steel]

I'm looking at doing Ragbrai for the first time this year, and see that there are lots of support companies you can hire to do it with. I know people who have used Pork Belly Ventures and say great things.

My question is do you need to hire a support service like PBV, or can you just let Ragbrai carry your gear and do it on your own?

[csm]

My dad uses Out of State Charters every year. this will be his 8th? I think. The year I rode it I used them also. they were great. makes it a lot easier to find your stuff and the charters have a seperate area to camp.
they also chartered busses at the end to shuttle you and your bike to the beginning of the route. made it simple for us living in the east to get home.
I am on pork belly's email list and looked their camp up when I rode. they looked like they were having fun.

[woolly]

I've done RAGBRAI umpteen times, and while I've never rode/camped with PorkBelly, I have used their services for getting from the airport to my team's camp at the start town, etc. I've also ran into many folks on the ride that were using them, and the feedback was consistently positive. Seems like a good, fun (but not out of control) way to go.

Re: doing it the bare-bones way, with your 1 bag (I think it's still 1 & only 1) put on the big RAGBRAI semi, & poured into the mountain of luggage at the camp town, with some of the worst campsite space. . . we'll I'd rather get a touring bike & ride self-supported with the bagger crowd. But that's just me. :)

[Elefantino]

No, you don't have to.

YES YES YES you want to.

[gone]

I'll second what wooly said. Imagine riding into a town you don't know at the end of the day in the rain (yep, it happens), trying to find the camping for that day (usually well marked) and then finding your one bag in a huge pile along with everyone else's. Then finding a place to set up your tent, unpack your stuff, ...

Having a smaller outfit with staked out campsites waiting makes a huge difference. Even better are the ones that set up a tent for you. Sure, it costs more but like I said: you get there, it's raining, ...

All depends on how much you want to rough it.