Jno

Do people who tour (tourists?) use powdered nutrition in their water bottles, or do you grab food as opportunities arise because nutritional supplement is not worth the weight penalty?

Steve0000

Used to when I first started, never do now. Water is fine for me and if I need energy, I eat a muesli bar.
My partner still uses them but I think a lot of it is psychological.
Less weight to carry.

Happy Feet

Not me. The whey powder shakers get clumpy and it takes extra water to wash them clean, too much hassle and nutrition is met from normal food.
The only thing I buy on the road in the summer is a gatorade type drink daily (one only) as my preventative electrolyte replacement strategy. There are other electrolyte forms such as powders or tablets but I find those drinks pretty easy to find on route.

veganbikes

I use Nuun and Camelbak Elixir tablets (and in the past used CocoHydro) because they are quite important but I don't use like protein powders or anything like that.

Water is only part of the equation, if you are just drinking water you are missing out on electrolytes and such that you need. Plus after a time water can become unpalatable. A lot of people don't get it but when you hit that wall you will know. I remember my first tour I just couldn't do it and I felt like crap until we ate dinner and one of our friends had met us to bring food and drinks that weren't water.

Carbonfiberboy 

Bike touring, we carry as little with us as we can, therefore no powdered protein, drink mixes, etc. We do bring along a bottle of Endurolytes. We don't buy bottled sports drinks, either. Water's fine. In the Czech Republic and Germany, I'd have a half liter of beer with lunch, In Czechia, beer was cheaper than water. In the US, we just drink water.

Backpacking though, we bring that sort of stuff, since we have to carry it no matter what it is and powdered stuff is at least dry, so per pound that's as light as it gets. It's all just calories in and out when we're backpacking. But even backpacking, we only drink plain water on the trail.

indyfabz

Occasionally. If I plan a trip that has a long and/or hard day with few or no services I’ll bring a single serve packet of Hammer Perpetuem and start out with it in one of my bottles. I’m not a big user of products like that because I prefer regular food, but the stuff actually works for me.

Tourist in MSN

Nope.

Instead I suggest something like this:



Or this:




But you can expect to pedal a bit slowly for a couple hours after eating the above.

I often try to buy some granola bars or something like that as a backup plan for long days on the bike where you need the calories but do not have lunch fixings or conveniently located restaurants.

I think you are thinking a bit like a road biker here, not so much like someone on a long tour. A road bike rider is more likely to be riding at a higher wattage level for shorter period of time. Bike touring, often lower wattage but longer hours. Read this. Think about it. Read it again in a week or two.
https://www.roadbikerider.com/energy...e-intensities/

Bike touring you are relying much more on fats to fuel your ride than a road bike rider. Your hourly carb consumption can be much lower on a bike tour.

Plus you need some protein at end of day to aid muscle recovery. Most athletic trainers will tell you that you should have some protein within 30 to 45 minutes after strenuous exercise for better muscle recovery. I often try to have a protein bar soon after the end of a long day on the bike, thus often try to keep some in my pack. I often forget to eat them, but it is on my list of things I need to remember to do.

And, bike tourists can suffer electrolyte loss just like a road bike rider, so it can be a good idea to have some salty foods in your pack in case you start to bonk.

And occasionally some of this too:

Tourist in MSN

Speaking of water, I usually try to carry up to three liters of water on my bike. I do not recall if Smartwater one liter sized bottles are sold in Canada, I do recall seeing Life Water sold in one liter sizes. Those bottles fit well in water bottle cages. But the smaller sizes from those brands do not. The one liter size bottles do not have flip top lids, I use flip top lids from smaller bottles.

Many bikes can't take that large a bottle in the cage under the downtube, often smaller bottles needed down there. If your bike can fit that large a bottle in that cage, a velcro strap or something like it to keep it in the cage can keep it from falling out, the cages are not designed for that tall a bottle.



In the photo, the upper two bottles are labeled Life WTR. I bought those in USA. But when I was in Canada I saw the same brand labeled as Life Water in stores.

The bottles are intended to be disposable, but I bring empty ones from home when I go somewhere for a bike trip, I reuse them.

andrewclaus

I don't either. I keep handy a bag of raisins and a bag of nuts for snacks, and eat something that actually occurs in nature every time I stop for a break.

Many of the supplements use HFCS as a major ingredient. I just stay away from that stuff. And if you're not careful in warm weather, the inside of your water bottle starts looking like an art project.

djb

this is very true. On day rides I used to regularly use gatoraid powder that you buy in large cans at the grocery store, and thats fine, but the few times that I took this powder on actual bike tours, I really had to be on top of washing out my bike bottles well or else you start to get growy stuff going on. I even took a little long dishwashing brush thing once on a trip to try to properly clean the bottom and sides of inside the bike bottles. Was a pain to have, so just now use my scrubby thing in my kitchen kit and a borrowed long wooden spoon or whatever once in a while and it does a good enough job--but importantly I try not to put sugary etc drinks in my bottles.

One exception to this however was in my Central America trip, where at times I could recognize that I really needed extra electrolytes, so I always had with me pharmacy bought little packets of electrolyte powder, very common in stores there because of diarrhea issues being so common with locals and for kids, so I when absolutely needed I would use ONE bike bottle for this and make sure I rinsed it out really well as soon as the day was done.

I also found that bananas are a great thing for hot days. Have become my go to snack, and I while Im not usually a salt person, I do listen to my body and buy and eat salty stuff , salted peanutes, chips etc easily found in corner stores. Mexico in particular has the best small salted and (HOOOT) pepper powdered peanut packages, they were a staple for me also.
So yes, its possible with regular store bought stuff to help keep things in control, but be aware, a cross canada trip will entail lots of areas where you'll have mucho distances between stores, and a lot of times only gas stations. We drove across Canada once and I certainly remember noticing this and realizing that on bike you'd really want to have snacks with you a lot.
Don't worry, you'll figure out next summer how your fueling and drinking needs are with lots of training rides and some short test tours. Get it sorted out beforehand and you'll feel a lot more confident about if you and your friends do this Canada trip.
And also dont worry, after a week on the road, you figure stuff out.

djb

all really good points
Jno, I didnt read the link, but he's right on about lower wattage but for longer hours.
You really just need to listen to your body and fuel when needed. For me, little snacks when my body says "now" is important and makes all the difference. Not going along with your riding partners and waiting 30mins or an hour to eat, have snacks nearby , easy ones, quick to have, and this is what makes all the difference for me. Plus a little snack break for a few mins gives your arse a break, nice too.

Listen, you'll probably take maybe too much food with you sometimes, but running out of snacks when no stores in sight for hours is a drag. I still remember on my very first bike trip totally bonking and not having any food, not fun and heck, this was in 1989....so the memory stayed clear. I've had similar situations a few times , but this is life, we learn and adjjust from mistakes, and figure out what works for us, as everyone is different for fueling or whatever.

Tourist in MSN

Really good point. I would not be surprised if in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, if you at times went a long distance between small towns with good stores. And at times your route might bypass the good stores by significant distance. Trip logs from CrazyGuyOnABike might help on this.

When a friend and I did the Pacific Coast, we brought about a day of freeze dried as a backup plan for food. We never ate it and brought it home. It stayed in the bottom of a pannier and just having that as a contingency meant that we never obsessed about where the next grocery store was. And not having to worry about the location of your next grocery store stop can reduce some stress.

When I did my Maritimes trip, my research indicated that the North End of Cape Breton Island can be a food desert. So, before I left home I tried to find the grocery stores in the area and put them into my GPS. I am not suggesting that you do this for a distance of three provinces, but it would be a good idea when you are riding to know how far in time it is to the next major community that is likely to have grocery stores so each time you shop, you know how many days of food you need to buy.

In the photo, I think this was the first grocery store I saw for about five days on North Cap Breton Island, it was about a km or two off my route but I knew it was there because I had put it in my GPS when still at home.

Happy Feet

For western Canada, especially the prairies, I find google maps to be useful. I look at each days expected route (approx. 100km's for me) and see which towns are there. Then I zoom in and use street view to look at the store front. One thing I found was that many smaller prairie towns are now hamlets with or without basic services. There's a name on the map but really only a collection of houses. You should expect 50 km jumps between a garage or store and plan to hit them during business hours and maybe not on Sunday. The larger towns have normal services.

As a rule of thumb I keep a one day reserve of food just in case I missed a store. Only one though, it's not a wilderness

axolotl

Your question makes the assumption that touring cyclists need "powdered nutrition", and that if we don't use it, it's because of its weight. I don't use "powdered nutrition" because IMO it's completely unnecessary, regardless of whether I'm touring.

MarcusT

Real food is my touring diet. With the occasional cereal bar on the fly

Machka 

I use food ... not powdered nutrition ... for touring. In fact, food is part of the joy of touring.

If I were doing a century ride or a randonnee, I might go with the powdered nutrition, but I've even gone off using it in those situations.