What's your favourite drink to ride with and why?

[Bunged Knee]

But yeah, don’t listen to the know-it-alls here, just let people eat and drink what they want so that any saddle time remains fun and worthwhile.

Yeah, coloured water is tasty to drink and good for about 200 mtrs and ahh then stuff it til next time.
That`s enough exercise for the day.

[ColinOldnCranky]

I am in wonder that we ever had a clean shaven face or white clothes in the sixties and seventies.

Never watched TV, or a movie from that era? Even my old man had some vomit inspired shirts, and he was as conservative as Johnny United. Let alone the sideys

Water here. Like most I'd hazard I went the whole gamut of drinks, powders. tablets etc. Then worked out that not being an elite, semi elite or indeed semi anything water did the trick. If I get enough food, it's all good.

I played seriously competitive squash in the era when the number of competition players made it hard to be in the top 1 percentile. And energy drinks never featured in it. Water, or Coke if I'm burning energy in excess of what I am eating.

I'm of the belief that there is more proven science applied to their marketing practices than to their product.

[human909]

I'm of the belief that there is more proven science applied to their marketing practices than to their product.

Absolutely.

No matter how 'elite' you are unless you are almost haemorrhaging electrolytes then you aren't going to need frantic replacement. If you are drinking 10-20L of water then electrolyte replacement (of some nature) makes sense. If you are only consuming <5L of water then it is pretty much situation normal.....

[Scott No Mates]

Most of the time it is water for rides <1.5 hours however I may take a weak lemon cordial on a longer ride.

[Farmer Elvis]

For energy they are great.

It's junk food though.

People have been exerting themselves flat out for centuries without electrolyte powders.

I bet they weren't pushing themselves to the levels that elite athletes currently do. Let's stick you in 35 degrees C, send you off on a 5 hour ride in tough hills and make you really work hard - so you are really sweating it out. On just water and see how you go. That'd be a good experiment.

When I say flat out I don't mean just a little 10 or 20 minute session, I mean many hours and not just cruising about. I love those kinds of bikes rides. I like riding in hot weather too. I don't go excessively on the drink mixes, but I do use them on those kinds of rides and never have a problem.

If I'm going in these conditions I have one bottle with weak Powerade and one of water, make sue I'm well hydrated when I start, don't forget bananas

[andrewjcw]

Interesting to hear the debate. On one hand it's all marketing and not necessary or on the other it's an essential part of any serious riding. I will say it's hard to believe anyone that's done hard long rides in heat would argue that water is sufficient. I've never bought hydration supplements, but I've never ridden/trained regularly in heat before either. I think i will be soon though and am reading all peoples recommendations.

[eeksll]

I started off using a straight electrolyte drink, however as I moved to rides of 50km plus I found I needed some more energy on the go and picked up a canister of Endura with carbs for about $35 which has done the job thus far.

http://www.endura.com.au/Products/Product?groupkey=EPFL

Now that I am nearly scratching the bottom of my existing product, I am wondering what others use and why?

I find for 50-60km I don't need food and its only water and in cooler days I find I don't even sip much water TBH, but thats not riding hard.

On long group rides or when I feel taking food is going to be a PITA, I use a energy drink in my case I am currently using "SIS GO Electrolyte" I have another tub of "High 5 Energy Source", havent tried it yet, but main reason for switching is I think it will be less sweet. The SIS stuff is really sweet. However, I usually use this powder mix for running.

However, most of the time on bike rides Ill just take high5 energy gels which have electrolytes. I figure if I am out long enough to need electrolytes Ill need food too. And plus they are nicely packaged and don't go off (I use them way past their best before date).

in terms of DIY mix for electrolytes, get some "lite salt" it contains a portion of potassium as well as sodium. Just use the powerade portions to figure out how much to use. When I used to do that, the amount of salt to add to water is so small I couldn't even taste it.

[human909]

I will say it's hard to believe anyone that's done hard long rides in heat would argue that water is sufficient.

I would find it hard to believe that anybody could argue otherwise. (Assuming we are still talking about just 'drinks'.)

Simply put there are many possibilities. Water is sufficient for liquid intake. Calories and electrolytes are good when your are exerting and sweating but there are plenty of non liquid ways to consume these. Also our typical modern diet involves excessive electrolyte consumption anyway so most people aren't lacking in electrolytes.

Take this bloke:
"61 days pedalling a mountain bike around Australia"
"14,134km averaging 230km a day"
"He consumed 135 litres of milk, 43 meat pies, one V energy drink, two Red Bulls, 12 coffees and 72 iced coffees, surviving on only 343 hours of sleep at an average of five hours and 32 minutes a day, without a tent or a sleeping bag."

He ain't you regular MAMIL, or your regular elite cyclist. But for some people his riding certainly could be considered elite. He does 30,000km+ a year

I don't see Gatorade, Torq or any other fancy sports marketed product there and from my conversations with him they are not something consumes. One of his main non water liquid intake is milk. The fact that it is MILK implies it pretty much does contain the essentials for life. Of which 'electrolytes' are certainly one. Which is something I've never thought about before until now, but it is the logical conclusion. Sure enough:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-an ... 150xr.html
http://mooscience.com/Dairy-Is-A-Great- ... Drink.html

I think I'd personally chugging a gatorade over milk but each to their own. There are so many ways to feed our bodies their nutrients.

[andrewjcw]

Fair enough. To that end it seems the usefulness of a liquid is the ease and speed of digestion and other practicalities. I'm sure an iced tea and a meat pie would do for energy for a lot of people, but might not be the best thing at 3 hours into a ride before some 8 min sweet spot intervals up a local hill.

I guess the main thing you need is salt, but any sort of snack thing with salt is going to be hard to digest. That's my initial thought anyway, duno if there's any good reason for it. I'm sure it's nice to get the whammy of potassium/magnesium/carbs that energy drinks provide, but I'm keen to hear of real food alternatives, or if maybe the assistance of those things is largely overstated.

[human909]

I pretty much agree with the above assessment. I'm tempted to comment more but I think I'll get on the bike for an afternoon/evening ride.

[warthog1]

Obviously this stuff has all come from the medical world where fluid replenishment is commonplace therapy. Drinking lots of water on it's own can be quite bad for you (even fatal). Adding salts makes the drink isotonic (you can google that yourself if you want but basically it means that the water you consume is at equilibrium with the water in your cells). If you've ever been on a saline drip, I think that is the main reason it is saline. Lots of sweating can also cause low sodium, which is where the electrolytes come in.

I would say that if people find these drinks helpful, then they shouldn't be mocked for using them. We are all different and I readily accept that for some people it might make a noticeable difference. Some people sweat a lot more than others. I don't see anything wrong with getting replacement salts via a convenient and refreshing delivery method, two birds with one stone, so what's the problem?

Thanks Silent
Well said again.
Staminade works for me. Cheaper than most of the other goers and a little bit of magnesium.
Just don't get the coconut water flavour. Quite disgusting when it goes warm.

[g-boaf]

If V energy drink and Red Bull is what we are supposed to consume on account of some guy riding around Australia, I think I'll pass on those. I can't even stand the smell of that stuff - it is enough to make me want to spew.

[human909]

If V energy drink and Red Bull is what we are supposed to consume on account of some guy riding around Australia, I think I'll pass on those. I can't even stand the smell of that stuff - it is enough to make me want to spew.

Don't know where you get that idea from.

But hey when you are doing 22hours in a day then you can understand a desire for caffeine...

[chuckchunder]

I found this Tedx talk by Tim Noakes helpful after a disastrous 400km brevet a couple of years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lzs5wpLkeA

[kb]

I’m blaming Christmas for misreading the title as “who’s your favourite ride to drink with and why?” !

[trailgumby]

This talk on hot weather riding prompted me to put up a short post on my blog on the subject. Enjoy.

http://www.simplycyclingtraining.com/ri ... ng-summer/