Comments on: 1 Riding Tip That Will Save Your Life

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:57:52 +0000

Carrying an extra bottle in addition to (and in) your hydration pack is an excellent tip and one that I have thought about before, but so far haven’t done. It is a pretty bad feeling to go for a drink and find that your hydration pack is empty. For me it usually happens on longer, unfamiliar rides and you are not sure how much longer the ride is and starting to feel a little tired and then…oh no. You just never know when that last sip is going to come. So having the extra bottle as backup to ration out to the end would be nice. I have run out of water on longer familiar rides and since I know I am only a mile or two away from the end I can tough it out a little easier. 100ml is not always enough.

By: 198

198 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:36:37 +0000

@RedRocker: “salted out” is a great way to describe that feeling. Your body almost feels like it is in slow motion.

By: 198

198 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:36:06 +0000

@jmilliron: The freezer trick is a must do even if you don’t put anything but water in the bladder!

By: tenbsmith

tenbsmith — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:30:29 +0000

You can’t just drink water. I’ve seen people taken to the hospital in an ambulence because they drank only water during day-long exertion in the hot Georgia summer. Drinking just water depletes your electrolytes leading to a condiction called hyponatremia. Hyponhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia
Key to keep the salts up with sports drink, tablets or food. Gatorade, or similar, at the end of a ride is probably one of the easiest ways to get the salts in.

One other pointer, use the powdered gatorade, as that uses dextrose; all the liquid gatorades sold at convenience stores I’ve seen use high fructose corn syrup.

In terms of bladder cleanliness, I never use anything but water in the bladder. I leave the water in from last ride, but make sure there is no air. Air allows things to grow. Then I empty and rinse the bladder before filling for my next ride. I’ve been doing this with my current bladder for over a year.

By: jmilliron

jmilliron — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:10:34 +0000

I ride the other way around. I keep a light Cytomax mix in my CamelBak and a bottle of water on my bike in case I run out or I need liquid without sugar in it. Has served me well.

Oh and I drain and toss my bladder in the freezer when I get home. It seems to keep anything nasty from growing in there!

jmillirons last blog post..Vassago

By: RedRocker

RedRocker — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:58:53 +0000

I am very on-board with this.
I’ve started taking an extra bottle w/Gatorade on most rides this summer. I was on a longer ride in north GA this spring and really felt “salted out”. I’ve been taking the water bottle ever since.