Re hydration - What do you drink when riding?

BBC reports aside, I'm interested in knowing what people drink before / during / after rides.

I'm old enough to remember when the choice was water or squash, and then all the terrible tasting stuff that came out in the 90's. Skip forward to 2012, and I am now doing more active riding than I have done in years, with a son who is a keen road rider.

We are currently trying all sorts of stuff, including the freebies that Wiggle and CRC kindly send us and which make 500ml of tap water taste like 500ml of fruit flavoured battery acid.

We currently have a stock of Torq, which seems to work and tastes better the more thirsty you are, and I have just bought two huge tubs of powder from Bike Food, but not tried them yet (although the bars are really good).

Any suggestions of stuff that actually tastes nice?

Ribena, or after watching that programme on the beeb I will be following the flying scotsmans advice of water and a jam sarnie.

For short rides I like Nuun's and for anything a bit longer I'm currently using SIS Go lemon and lime. I did like the Bike Food stuff too and will probably get some of that when the SIS runs out.

I didn't see any BBC program. What was it so I can catch it on iPlayer?

I stick to water on the bike. I'm not doing long enough or hard enough rides to suffer from too much electrolyte loss I don't think, and I try not to ride on an empty stomach.
And a glass of milk post ride is supposed to be good for the muscles, but you canny whack some tea and cake.

Before. Nothing special but usually involving coffee to clean out the system before leaving.

Road:
During: Rides over 2 hours - 500ml High 5 4.1 in one bottle. High 5 Zero in the other. Extra Zero tabs (I don't think it tastes like battery acid) for bottle refills at taps en route. Or a 75ml bottle in the jersey. Energy gels.
Rides below 2 hours - just High 5 Zero.

MTB
Rides over 2 hours : Camelbak with just water. Won't put manky stuff in it.
Bottle of 4:1 or Zero depending on distance.
Gels.

Last weeks Panorama was all about sports nutrition and equipment. I have not watched it, but I get the feel it was more aimed at the corporate sell of these products.

Kaiser: Like the PowerBars of the past, the last time I tried SIS, it was like super concentrated Lemsip; lemon / saccharin flavour...yuk!

I'll put it on my possibles list.

Any ride less than an hour = nothing usually, unless it's baking hot, then just water.

Longer rides = water or "High5 Zero" or "SIS", or weak orange squash with a little salt added.

Very long rides = as above, but will eat food also (enrgy bars etc), and stop for cups of tea etc along way


It;s very much down to what you like and what you can tolerate when you're on the bike. In my younger days I used to swear by flat watered down cola, but now it just makes me want to heave. I tried a few different energy drinks to see which I liked the most, some of them just tasted horrible, whilst others would repeat on me or make me feel ill, so you just need to experiment and find which suit you best.

Post-ride I just drink the same stuff (this is one area I probably should look into more tbh), I have tried Maximuscle "Viper" recovery drink, but again I didn't really like the taste. Personally after a ride I think my favourite is a glass of chocolate milk and a banana (I sound like a big kid but it's actually quite good fuel)

dbmtb":ls3ptmnv said:

Extra Zero tabs (I don't think it tastes like battery acid)

Click to expand...

Ahhh, but you knew exactly what I was talking about :twisted:

And they do taste like battery acid, but hey, free is free so I still drink them

Zero for me too, although I find last night's dinner and breakfast have more of a bearing on how I feel

orange squash for me,and a few bars along the way for carbs . and am afraid to say the bikefood honey stuff is not for me, just to sweet


chocolate milk and bannana sounds good, and maybe a peanut butter sandwich