One of our newer club members revived a time-honored thread that occurs each year during the hot summer months. She bonked badly about a month ago, and was wondering: What are you putting in your water bottle on hot summer rides?
She uses Nuun. Apparently, she’s happy with it, but was wondering what other alternatives there might be.
Some chatter within the club turned up a few ideas. One member said she just makes sure her water bottles are frozen the night before a ride, and carries as much as she can — which works out to two 24-oz. bottles.
Others go half and half — one bottle with water only, and the other a mixture of water and some kind of electrolyte replenisher, such as Nuun, or diluted Gatorade.
Myself, I freeze water bottles the night before a ride too, and use the half and half method. I also favor Nuun. But I’m only concerned about an electrolyte replenisher if I know the ride will run much longer than an hour. My usual 90-minute or less rides during the week are just fine with water only.
Our club president uses one bottle of plain water, and adds a scoop of Gatorade and a scoop of Endurolyte to the second. When that runs out, he’ll find a store that sells Mexican Coke — the kind sweetened with sugar, and not high fructose corn syrup.
Others carry some Endurolytes or E-tabs, or such in a plastic bag.
What I’m not seeing is heavy use of Cytomax or Hammer products.
What do you normally take on a ride to prevent the bonk?
I’m not nearly as sophisticated, being new, but I just use PowerAid and in transitions, I have a couple of pretzel bites. I only do sprints though.
First bottle is always a 24 oz with Nuun … 2nd bottle is regular water … 3rd bottle is half/half gatorade … 4th bottle is water … ad infinitum … some folks use Perpetuum, but I have mixed feelings about the chalky taste 🙂
still experimenting with various electrolytes including homemade stuff with lime juice and sea salt
I’ve used Nuun, Petpetuum, and Heed to good effect. Not a big fan of Gatorade. V-8 juice is one of my favorite convenience store purchases on the road.
Gotta again give the nod to Skratch Labs, almost any flavor. All-natural ingredients, flavor is actually from fruit and not some chemical, low calorie, no stomach issues, different kind of salt, and actually tastes good…my biggest problem with a lot of the other stuff mentioned. Actually starting to show up in a lot of bike shops, although you can still order online.
I use water and when I stop, I eat Jelly Belly Sport Beans, don’t like gatoraid or the powdered supplaments, nasty taste. I’ll admit I haven’t tried them all but the sport beans go down easy, my favorite is fruit punch! 🙂
Skratch and Nuun. Best combo ever….
I’m glad someone mentioned Scratch Labs. You can quickly feel the results of drinking it. Its far superior to many products out there.
Diluted gatorade in all bottles.
I’d love to give Skratch a try, but they’re expensive, especially when you’re using bigger bottles. No single packages for a 21/24oz bottle. Then again, I have to do a tablet and a half of Nuun for my bottles as is…
I use Propel Fitness Water 99% of the time. It’s cheap, readily available, and tastes great. I’ve also used Skratch, which I love because it tastes very clean and is flavored naturally. It’s also expensive and not as readily available (i.e., gas station).
After a lot of trial and error, I pretty much only use Skratch Labs on any ride that has difficulty. It just seems to work far better than others. Usually on easier rides, I’ll do an easy mixture of low gatorade and water.
S! Caps … by Succeed.
I occasionally use High5 Zero tabs over here in the UK but not too fond of the taste (High5 or others) so I mostly stick with plain water and gels, again High5 – “energy” or “iso”. Every 30-40 mins does the trick for me even on my longest/hardest rides
Pro Bike Kit put some High 5 tabs and a gel in with my latest order. I thought they were pretty good. The tabs are very similar to Nuun.