Creative team buses add to the color of RAGBRAI. Here's 3 of them.

ATLANTIC — The shape and lines may be recognizable as old school buses, but for most, the iconic yellow paint is gone replaced by outside décor ranging from garish to artistic to, well, not suitable for a family newspaper.

If bicycle riders are the stars of the Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, the team buses are the behind-the-scenes backbone for many teams making the trip carrying the riders, all their gear and the ever-important provisions needed to fuel them across Iowa’s countryside.

Interiors of these converted school buses can range from rustic functionality to opulent splendor complete with kitchens, bathrooms, showers and even the essential-for-RAGBRAI bar.

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Many of the team buses serving RAGBRAI teams are exactly what they appear to be — old school buses finding a new life in a RAGRAI world. Most have strived to make Department of Transportation-mandated changes such as installing water, cooking facilities, refrigerators, water, toilets and other amenities so it can be re-classified as a recreational vehicle and not require a commercial driver's license to operate it.

Drivers of some of the buses interviewed by the Des Moines Register in Atlantic said their vehicles were purchased at auction and then customized by team members to make the ride a rolling statement of what that team is all about.

Team Road Show: Signatures of past riders, 3 cooler system

One of the best examples is Team Road Show comprised of members that were once part of an Iowa State University juggling club. Their members can often be spotted at stops along the route, juggling such items as fire and knives while riding their unicycles.

“They try to engage kids in town and teach them how to juggle,” said Steve Gotcher of Madison, Wisconsin, who helps drive the bus.

The rainbow-colored bus is sure to draw attention, but a closer look shows paintings of RAGBRAI scenes and members juggling from unicycles along the bottom of the vehicle. The interior roof of the bus is covered with signatures and messages from team members over the years.

Some of the artwork is purely for functionality like the signs painted on the bottom of the bus reading “Not Beer,” “Beer” and “Good Beer” with a corresponding arrow pointing to the appropriate cooler beneath.

The 1996 school bus was purchased by the team in 2015 and like most aging vehicles, “It requires some attention,” Gotcher said of keeping the bus roadworthy.

Gotcher said the team incorporated as a nonprofit to share the expenses of keeping and maintaining the bus that is now stored in Muscatine and is only used for RAGBRAI.

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The current edition is the team’s sixth bus and all have provided at least some adventure for occupants.

Gotcher remembers one bus from about 10 years ago as a diesel motor that ran on used cooking oil.

“Everyone would have to get out and walk beside the bus when we went up steep hills,” Gotcher said.

Another year a brake rotor and caliper failed. Someone from another town drove out with the parts needed for the repair and told the team to just pay him when they went through his town later on the route.

“That’s the kind of thing RAGBRAI is,” Gotcher said.

The bus was able to offer assistance of its own this year when it came upon a car on fire on Highway 71 outside of Atlantic on the way in from Red Oak, providing the car's occupants a place to stay until emergency personnel could respond.

Team Jefferson County Ciderworks: Home to 3 generations on RAGBRAI

The old 1994 Ford diesel powered Thomas bus sponsored by Jefferson County Ciderworks of Fairfield is truly a family affair. Long before it became a RAGBRAI home-away-from-home, it was driven by Bonnie Black who served as a bus driver for 17 years in the West Liberty school district, including carrying her son who is in a wheelchair.

Purchased by the family in 2009, the late Rob Black, Connie’s husband, was a welder who installed the bike racks and tubes that supply an on-board shower.

The bus is decorated with images of classic rock album covers, a tribute to Rob Black’s favorite music as well as a mustachioed happy face dubbed “Mr. Happy” that describes his late father-in-law, said Jared Anderson of Muscatine.

Anderson and his wife Sam, the Black’s daughter, are traveling with their children on the bus that will host 15-20 riders from the team during various phases of the route.

Between his in-laws and now children, Anderson said the bus has been the RAGBRAI home for three generations.

“I like that it is a five-speed,” Anderson said pointing to the manual generation, before quickly adding, “We’ve had to change a few batteries over the years and we make sure to check the oil every day,” to keep the 30-year-old vehicle roadworthy.

Hills Angels: Beer taps line the front dash

The 1998 Bluebird bus owned by the team Hills Angels out of Ohio has a feature so unique that a trooper pulled them over to take a closer look.

The old bus has several decorative beer tap handles attached to the front dashboard.

“We had a trooper stop us one just to see if they were connected,” said “Diezel” Dave Moss of Lebanon, Ohio, who drives the bus.

Moss admits that keeping the older bus roadworthy can be a challenge and the team spends about $5,000 a year keeping it up to snuff.

“This is the first time in five years we’ve had air conditioning,” Moss said.

Moss said the leader of the group, “Grand Poohba” Randy Goehls, is the leader of the group but was not able to attend this year.

The red bus boasting black stripes also hauls a trailer that features showers, storage and a bar, and an awning that folds out from the side. The trailer has Iowa roots with the Ohio team having purchased it from the Tall Dogs Bike Club based in Des Moines when that group “out grew it.”

Hills Angels had 12 riders this year and they advertise on RAGBRAI sites for additional riders who may want to tag along.

While Hills Angels may be a playful take of a more notorious motorcycle gang with a similar name, there is an important difference, according to Dave Moss’s brother Jim who lives in Belgrade, Serbia.

“We’re more badass than the Hell’s Angels,” Jim Moss said.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Creative team buses add to the color of RAGBRAI. Here's 3 of them.