Cycling UK Forum

Someone once posted a picture on here of the top off one of his bottles with the nozzle removed, and it was full of block slime like you see when cleaning out drains. That convinced me that I'd made the right decision to never put anything other than clean tap water in my bottles.

If you got on OK with gels, you can make something similar yourself, much cheaper. Get a bulk bag of maltodextrin and make up a 70% solution (700g in a final volume of 1 litre). This can be tricky because the amount of water is small, you can reheat in the microwave to help it dissolve. It makes a thick solution, like honey, but it hardly tastes sweet and, IIRC, doesn't have the tooth damaging effect of sugar. Stick that in your small squeezy bottle and you're good to go. I agree with others that normal food or some kind of energy bar/ball of oats and dried fruit is probably better for most of your fuelling.

mattheus wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 2:27pm touring energy honey

.... GSOH, would like to meet like-minded cyclist, for long rides on sunny days, ...

The sell Bush Honey in NZ which led to slightly inappropriate thoughts.

mattheus wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 10:29am

pwa wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 10:09am I used to do a lot of Audax rides, travelling light and not hanging about too much, so sticking carbs in water and consuming on-the-go made sense. But I was always aware that doing that was a compromise for a day or two, and not adequate or sensible nutrition to continue throughout the year.

Have you seen the Mike Hall film about the unsupported Trans-america race? One rider tries to get all his nutrition (10days? 7? dunno ... ) from carb powders, sent in bulk to Poste Restante* every few hundred miles.
Hilarious!

*or some USA equiv.

No I haven't seen it, but I know that after 12 hours or so of relying mainly on carbs out of a bottle my guts were not happy.

pwa wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 5:12pm

mattheus wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 10:29am

pwa wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 10:09am I used to do a lot of Audax rides, travelling light and not hanging about too much, so sticking carbs in water and consuming on-the-go made sense. But I was always aware that doing that was a compromise for a day or two, and not adequate or sensible nutrition to continue throughout the year.

*or some USA equiv.

No I haven't seen it, but I know that after 12 hours or so of relying mainly on carbs out of a bottle my guts were not happy.

Yeah, you need proper training and acclimatisation to survive off those! I did RideLondon a couple of times entirely on gels and one bottle of energy drink, one of water. No stops, smashed the whole lot on 3 gels (reserving one for emergencies) and both bottles. Sub 4hrs.

However I knew that in 24hr races I needed proper food alongside energy products.

I've seen, from ride leading, the outcome of high use of energy products on people who up until then have never ingested anything like that amount of carbs in such a short space of time. It's not pretty.

Eric Beard the fell runner seemed to do alright on honey butties.

His record feats speak for themselves: the Welsh Three Thousanders (five
hours nineteen minutes), the Skye Ridge (four hours nine minutes), the four
Cairngorm tops (four hours forty-one minutes), the incredible Lakeland
twenty-four-hour run (fifty-six summits, eighty-eight miles, 33,000 ft of ascent
and descent). Primed on honey butties and hot sweet tea, he remained fleet of
foot to the end, for shortly before his death in 1969 he had run from Ben Nevis to
Snowdon, taking in Scafell on the way; this to be followed by his run from
John o’Groats to Lands End with variations—-844 miles in eighteen days and
a few hours.

https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com/2012 ... dible-man/

jawaka wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 12:23pm I've just done a search for honey as an alternative to gels and energy bars but haven't had any results. It would be easy and convenient to take a squeezy bottle, stick it in a back pocket and fuel up on the way.

Very tasty and natural (maybe organic is better). I'm not so keen now on cereal bars with the long list of ingredients.

340 gm has about 4,000 cals bags of energy there.

Organic is not better, just more expensive. Natural is not better, just more expensive when advertised that way. From the nutrition point of view honey is just a sugar solution with a highish proportion of fructose and a few other trace things. As others have written, it rots your teeth. Also, honey is often fraudulently adulterated, 46% in this report: Food fraud: How genuine is your honey?

If you are concerned about being natural, why not take natural breaks from time to time and eat normal food? Enjoy the stop; look around. You can ride a bike without any special foods. Bananas?

I make my own Apricot flapjack. Easy to make, high in energy and no additives.

plancashire wrote: ↑10 Apr 2024, 9:21pm Organic is not better, just more expensive. Natural is not better, just more expensive when advertised that way. From the nutrition point of view honey is just a sugar solution with a highish proportion of fructose and a few other trace things.

Do you think "trace things" are unimportant?
I don't advocate - let alone use! - high-sugar products for fuel (they're just treats for me), but suggesting honey has the same nutrition as a mix of sugars is ... probably wrong.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. : - )

1 The point about adulteration has been made and even without that there's fair bit of variation in the composition of honey.

2 I'd separate honey as a nutrient when you're knackered or want to avoid being from honey as a long-term dietary constituent.

3 For the former I don't think that there's much to be said other than that experimenting is a good idea.

4 For the former I don't know of any particular reason to suggest that honey should be any better than any other collection of sugars.

5 For the former I wouldn't expect trace constituents to have much effect on fuel availability. They could conceivably affect laxative properties. They could definitely affect palatability.

Jonathan

Buy (or make) some good quality flapjack type bars - many have very few and identifiable/understandable ingredients eg Stoats Oats Bars

Stoats are good - but smaller than they used to be
I used to take them for breakfast as 50g was enough with a cuppa to get me out of the campsite to a cafe for toast... Now 42g I think.

Slowroad wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:32pm Stoats are good - but smaller than they used to be

Still bigger than weasels though.

Slowroad wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:32pm
Stoats are good - but smaller than they used to be

Still bigger than weasels though.

Best answer of course!

Thank you and I've done some research which as expected gives no definitive answers..

So I will be in the Alps and a a simple recreational rider and mid 60s I take a long time to do the climbs and the longer it takes the more energy needed.. So i need to carry food but have to go with what is in the french shops. I've always bought bars, maybe there are better things but I've not seen them.

A dentist I know has said that I'm not doing the honey often and if I swig a drink after there shoulndn't be problems; Kids were being given sweet drinks daily so that was a sustained teeth assault. Recommends a drink after fruit too.

Sugar on the tooth is one issue but gum health another and the health bars are chewy and it is what is stuck between the teeth which attrract bacteria over a longer period which is a concern too. Apparently crisps are particularly bad with the startch slowly breaking down and lots of time for baceteria to get going. Some researchers think that honey is actually beneficial for gum health

I noticed some bars have red for saturates too Harvest Morn for example.

Not too keen on artificial sweeteners as come in the bars and from a lab refining plant products or chemically created from scratch. Some are researching also whether they affect adversely the gut bacteria,

oh yes it is 300 odd calories in honey but eyes at 70 years aren't up to reading the tiny figures, it is 1300 KJ not calories.

I also came across these Buzz sachets
https://buzz-power.co.uk/products/buzz-power-eco-pack.

So for help, does anyone know what i can find in France to do the job for me?

I've thought of bananas but if a climb is 3 or more hours, and fuelling every 1/2 hour , that means carrying 6 bananas. there are dried banans but they are high in potassium and probably laxative too

For riding at home and not on tour I take a banana +malt bread/ flapjack
=