99
%
rate the overall experience with our charter excellent or good
To make your RAGBRAI experience much more enjoyable!
The trip across the state is on air-conditioned charter buses and your bikes are transported by a professional bike packing company. Bikes do not require any disassembly and are protected with heavy packing blankets.
We have a registration table for easy check in. Each bus has a bus host who plays movies and assists with any questions you may have.
For those of you that stay with us for camping we go out to all the overnight towns ahead of time to select preferred campsites. In the majority of cases this is away from the main group of 3,000 riders but close enough if you want to spend some time in the main campground.
Once arriving at our campsite after biking you will have your luggage waiting for you along with canopies set up for you to relax in. This area will have numerous coolers stocked with a wide range of cold beverages. There will also be papers available that describe what is happening in town.
A generator will be set up for those of you that need to charge an electronic device and we will have a bulletin board with information and maps of the town that you are spending the night in.
A bike mechanic with over 25 years experience is on staff My Bike Guy.
We have Norther Exposure shower trucks with us every night except the first Saturday night. Showers cost $8 or $45 for 6 showers via a shower card and this cost is not included with camping fees.
We have 20 years of experience with running the charter and are available to assist you. We limit the number of campers we charter to keep the group size manageable.
Our goal is to help make the ride an enjoyable and memorable experience for you.
Option 1 $TBD: Charter transportation along with daily camping and baggage service. This provides bus and bike transportation from ending town to beginning town on July 20, 2024, and daily baggage service for the week. The bus ride will make a lunch stop on the way across the state. With the daily baggage service, we will provide the following items:
Option 2 $TBD Transportation for you, your bags, and bike, from ending town to beginning town on July 20, 2024. The bus will make a lunch stop on the trip across the state.
Option 3 $TBD: Daily baggage service along with the camping for the week. No bus ride. The daily luggage service will include the items listed under Option 1.
Option 4 $TBD: For those people that only need a few days of camping with our group. The daily luggage service will include the items listed under Option 1.
We have done both when we rode RAGBRAI and either one works it just depends on the amount of services that you want. We do believe for first time RAGBRAI riders it makes it easier for you if you do use a charter. There are people there to answer your questions and you are part of a smaller group which makes the ride less overwhelming.
RAGBRAI establishes a date when the charters are allowed to contact/visit the overnight towns. If a charter gets to a town and finds a spot they contact the campground chair of that town and let them know what they would like and then hope to get that spot. We visit each overnight town several times prior to the ride.
When the ride visits smaller towns that have between 2,000 and 10,000 people there are not as many options available.
By joining us you can make your trip easier. Just follow these steps:
You will park your car at the RAGBRAI designated parking area and then find Brancel Charters. We will notify you in our letter sent out in late June of our distinguishing features so you can easily find us. The ending town will have camping, food, showers and week-long parking. The parking will be available near the charter departure site.
You drop your bike off with us on Friday July 19, 2024 from 2:00 PM until 8:30 PM. Then Saturday morning you drop off your bags at one of our air-conditioned charter busses and get ready for a relaxing ride across Iowa. The busses will start to arrive at 7:15 am and will load them one by one and then leave as they are full. The last bus will leave by 8:15 AM. The ride will go by quick as you watch movies and talk with other passengers.
Once we arrive in the beginning town, we will unload your bikes and we will set up our camp site for the night. There will be a bike expo until 9 pm and the starting towns entertainment.
Yes! You can join us for camping during the week (Option 3) There are other charters that can provide you a ride back to the start if needed. You can get a parking pass for the week by going to the beginning towns website in the spring.
Each morning you will load your luggage on our truck to be transported to the next town. You can then take your time riding to the next city. When you arrive at the end city for the day, we will have BBC signs up as you enter the city pointing you to the location of our camp site for the night.
Once you arrive at the camp site, we will have canopies set up for you along with cold drinks in a cooler. The drinks will be there for a small fee. We will have Northern Exposure shower trucks, My Bike Guy bike mechanic, massage therapists, portable bathrooms, hand washing stations and bike pumps.
We will have a separate camping area for our group.
RAGBRAI provides a list of activities going on in each city and eating places. We will pick you up a copy of that so you can plan your activities for the rest of the day.
In July we will provide you with our camping locations and where to meet us.
We use a professional moving company to transport bikes. Each bike will be protected by a heavy packing blanket. We do not require you to disassemble your bike, if you would prefer to do so that is okay too.
We have a mid-week laundry service where you turn in some clothes on Tuesday night of the ride and we return them to you on Wednesday night. This helps if you need to have bike shorts or jerseys done during the middle of the week. The cost of this is $30 and includes a complimentary bag.
We offer a catered dinner at our campsite or have a Hy-Vee cook out at least one night during the week. If it is a cookout, you purchase the items you would like. For a catered dinner you purchase this the night of the dinner for $15.
We also offer morning coffee for $2 per day with refills. The morning coffee we get from Hy-Vee Stores or a local coffee shop.
With us you get to tailor it to your needs and not pay for what you won’t use.
This is an optional service where we provide a towel and then wash and dry it for you each day. This option is $20 for the week. The towel service is limited to the first 400 people that pay for the service due to laundromat constraints. Most locations that we camp next to offer towels with the shower for a nominal fee.
You can pre purchase with your registration 6 showers from Sunday night thru Friday night for $45. The normal price for a shower on RAGBRAI is $8 per shower.
2024 baggage guidelines will be posted here in the future. For those camping with us for the week a good slogan is “If you can’t wing it don’t bring it”.
Bike items
Camping gear
Clothes
Misc items:
We have a shower truck that will be at our campsite each night. We presell shower cards via our registration system or at check in $45 for 6 showers. Our shower vendor is Northern Exposure
Besides that, each overnight town sets up several locations that have showers. We post maps of each town on our bulletin board that show the locations of showers in that city.
The average cost of a shower on RAGBRAI is $8 and the cost is not included with your camping fee.
The recumbent is more difficult to pack and takes up more room than a standard bike.
Yes. We have a generator available during the daylight hours to charge cell phones and other electronics. We have a total of 450 outlets available. They are standard wall outlets to plug into. We recommend bringing 2 charging blocks. Use one to charge your electronics and have a separate one on our charging station. For cell phone use have it in airplane mode when you can to conserve your battery.
We will offer a food option at our campsite at least one night. We are close to food on most occasions.
During the ride finding food on RAGBRAI is like finding a fly at a summer picnic. Many people refer to this ride as eating your way across Iowa.
The food offerings vary from fair type food to church / community dinners. If you have specific dietary restrictions such as gluten free or vegan, then you may need to bring items to supplement what you will find on RAGBRAI.
For entertainment we have a band in our camp at least once during the week. Each town also has an entertainment committee that is bringing in a variety of bands especially in the evening. We don’t want to take away from the towns’ efforts in the evening to show off how well they did at providing you quality entertainment.
If we find locations that we are concerned about food based on our camping location, we will work to provide it and entertainment has never been an issue.
We do not provide this service.
Each person that uses our charter needs a RAGBRAI wristband. After the RAGBRAI registration deadline we frequently have people that are signed up with us that need to cancel and we pair them up with someone that is looking for a wristband. The wristband transfer then takes place between the two parties; we are no longer involved.
You must still transfer the liability waiver with RAGBRAI.
We offer limited sag service between overnight towns. RAGBRAI handles all sagging that occurs once you begin the ride for that day. We have limited spots since we are limited by how many vehicles we can take. Other than medical conditions we will offer this on a first come first serve basis.
No. One of the purposes of a charter is to help limit the number of vehicles in the overnight towns. The towns allocate space for parking for each charter according to the number of vehicles we say we will bring. Remember, the towns have shuttles and many of them are small enough to walk to food and entertainment — or you can even bike!
The shipping service is Send My Bike.
Yes, you get a discount of $5 per year for years 1 thru 4. Example one year with us is $5 off, two years with us is $10 off. After 4 years with us you get $20 discount.
Then an extra $10 off per year 5 and on. 5 years with us would be $20 off for years 1 to 4 and $10 off per year 5 which is $30 total.
The discount is capped at $100 for option 1, $35 for options 2 and $50 for option 3.
Tipping is common in service and travel industries. Any tips we receive will be divided among our college bound teens. As in other situations tipping is not required or expected but if you wish to show your appreciation to our young crew we encourage you to do so.
We allow transfers if you find someone to take your place.
We will provide refund, less a $30 cancellation fee, through June 17.
June 18 to June 30, we will provide a refund less 25% cancellation fee.
July 1 to July 12 we will provide a refund less a 50% cancellation fee.
July 13 and after we have a no refund policy.
We have researched other charters refund policy and we are very generous. It is very difficult to replace your spot in the month prior to the ride and this is the reason the majority of charter stop all refunds a month out.
rate the overall experience with our charter excellent or good
rate the value for services offered excellent or good
would recommend Brancel Bicycle Charters to others
19
years in the bicycle charter business
8,600
bicycles transported
125
combined years of RAGBRAI experience