colombo357

You cheap bastids can't even afford off the shelf sports drinks? You guys must be training 7 days a week, twice a day, 4 hours at a time to require that much drink.

texascyclist

I never suggested trying to slow absorption. The mix I mentioned is for maximizing absorption. Identical GI is not the way to approach this. It has been proven that there is an optimum combination of maltodextrin and dextrose. This is related to osmolarity and the osmolarity of the blood. Additionally, as mentioned previously, fructose has a different transport mechanism. It is highly advisable to play around with some fructose in your drink. I would not suggest anyone put fiber in their drink.

All maltos are not the same. Dextrose is not equivalent to maltodextrin. That's the facts folks.

texascyclist

Unless you are buying Gatorade thirst quencher, they are not cheap. I don't blame anyone for trying to save some bucks here. Cycling can be a prohibitively costly sport for some unless savings are looked for like this.

Machka 

Off the shelf gatorade doesn't taste nearly so good as the maltodextrin mixes I've created. In fact, off the shelf gatorade is rather horrible. Not bad for a short ride, but not something you'd want to drink on a long ride.

StevenAkaProek

It saves money, it also allows us to create our own drink, that way our energy does not come from cheap simple carbs that will just make your crash. Those gels cost like $2.00 when I can make a superior product for less than 5 cents

Kjag

Adderall and tap water.

agarose2000

I don't train twice per day 7 days a week, but I can consume a $55 jug of Hammer Infinit in 3 weeks or less just by doing 4-5 long rides of 65-85 mountainous miles.

More importantly, it doesn't make financial sense to me whatsoever to spend $55 for 5lbs of Hammer Infinit which is 95% if not 99% maltodextrin, when I can get 10x the amount for the same exact price. Even if I were a billionaire, it wouldn't make sense for me to buy the Hammer stuff unless they were sponsoring me and paying me to use it.

If I didn't do any long rides of 4hrs+ though, I wouldn't use any caloric drink at all. So if you don't do them regularly, you won't need it.

jfmckenna

1 ounce of Vodka, one quarter cup of orange juice, 1/4th teaspoon of salt, and the rest water does wonders for a criterium or cyclocross race.

carpediemracing 

In Africa they have "a pinch of salt, a fist of sugar". It's the universal way of making an energy/electrolyte drink for people recovering from illness. It's basically a poor person's Gatorade.

I drink Powerade Zero for the electrolytes. I buy some Hammer bars/gels to make up for skipped meals, esp on a race day where I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.

I started writing a post about the expense of doing even a trainer ride. $2-3-4 in food and liquids. I never finished it but maybe I will now, made me think of it.

wanders

Now you're talkin'! Can't wait.

jesnow

I was using powdered gator, but they changed the formula when they introduced the "G2" packaging. At least now the HFCS is gone from the bottled stuff (yay! though who cares if you're a cyclist), but the taste has gotten unbearable. It now has a metallic aftertaste I only ever get from artificial sweeteners like aspartame. I suspect they're up to their old tricks, juicing the sweetness with cheap artificial sweetener. Ecch. Drinking that crap is worse than a 15 mph headwind.

The best electrolyte drink I've ever tasted is called (I am not making this up, google it): Pocari Sweat. It's japanese and it goes down like ambrosial. Deadly expensive in the USA though. I never ride with it, but I do make a small glass, and dream about Japan from time to time.

Mhendricks

You're right about the gels! I now create my own gel mix of honey, blackstrap molasses, and a dash of salt. It's the shiznit!

SillyRabbit

Sounds interesting! What ratios do you use?

TheKillerPenguin

3 parts cocaine, + 1 part cocaine.

Soloist Assassin

lol nice.

I usually drink reverse osmosis filtered water, and then when the ride is over Myoplex. Sometimes I'll take a bar of some sort with me on a long ride, if I need calories.

SillyRabbit

That could get messy...

bumperm

Good info on malto at https://www.arniebakercycling.com/pub...tion%20ABC.pdf

I use this formula (makes two 24 ounce bottles):

2 to 4 cups maltodextrin (for 4 cups heat the water for quicker mixing)
1/2 package unsweetened Kool Aid (I use a small electronic scale to measure by weight)
1/6 cup granulated sugar (adjust to taste)
1/4 tsp lite salt

mix ingrediants into approx 1.5 bottles of water in a non metalic container. Fill bike bottles evenly, top with water. Any small clumps of maltodextrin will disolve within a few hours

Mhendricks

8 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of molasses, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Shake up really good and almost fills my 5 serving flask. Molasses has a crap load of Potassium.

coasting 

I do this but with green tea as it is more delcate and goes down more easily. A squeeze of lime covers up the salt even better.

bismillah

Probably the funniest thing I've read on BF