Our gear is a cast, not a shopping list. Each object has a temperament, a range, and a way it fails. Know them before you need them.
Your pocket radio. Broadcasts GPS + text without towers.
Range: ~1–5 mi rider-to-rider in Iowa farmland; up to 15 mi to a tall trailer antenna with line of sight. Hills and tree cover cut this hard.
Temperament: Quiet. It will not tell you it failed. A "delivered" checkmark means the next hop acked — not that your teammate's eyes saw it.
Fails when: battery dies (charge at every rest stop), antenna gets bumped loose, or the node in your jersey pocket gets shielded by a sweaty back. If silence for 20 min feels wrong, it probably is — escalate to phone.
The camp hearth. Full internet wherever the trailer parks.
Range: WiFi reaches ~100 ft around the trailer. Beyond that, it's cell or mesh.
Temperament: Hungry. Needs clear sky, power, and a parked truck. Doesn't like trees, storms, or driving.
Fails when: truck is moving (dish unaligned), thunderstorms pass overhead, power draw spikes. If the trailer is in transit, assume no internet until it parks.
Not a vehicle. A partner you maintain.
Range: As far as you've trained for. RAGBRAI averages 60 mi/day — the bike doesn't care, your legs do.
Temperament: Loyal but gossipy. A ticking chain, a soft rear, a squealing brake — the bike tells you everything if you listen at mile 5 instead of mile 50.
Fails when: you skipped pre-ride tire check, chain is dry, cleats are loose. Every morning: squeeze tires, spin wheels, twist the saddle, tap the brakes. Sixty seconds.
Everything depends on it being charged.
Range: Cell coverage is patchy in rural Iowa. Assume no bars between towns. This site is cached — it works offline.
Temperament: Greedy. Map + Meshtastic + Strava + camera will eat a full charge by noon.
Fails when: heat kills battery, screen cracks on a gravel section, dropped in a cornfield. Carry a brick. Back up the emergency numbers on paper in your saddlebag.
The last thing that still works.
Range: Wherever you put it.
Temperament: Indifferent. Doesn't sync, doesn't die, doesn't argue.
Fails when: you didn't print it. Laminate the emergency card (team numbers, hospital per day, meeting point) and keep it in your saddlebag. If nothing else works, you hand it to a stranger.
The kit is a chain. The weakest link is whichever one you forgot to think about this morning.