Cycling UK Forum

What is the best energy drink to take with you when touring.At the moment i use maxim powder and mix it daily when i am touring. Anyone else got any better energy drinks

S.I.S., it doesn't contain sugar so you dont get the insulin surge associated with some drinks and bars, it uses maltodextrin, a natural substance found in corn. Hope this helps.

It's a very personal thing. Maxim makes me nauseous, so I rely on Isostar. That's difficult to find these days - something to do with shelf life, and having to dump if unsold, I'm told. Makes you wonder about the rest.

It is wise to get your gut acclimatised to the new stuff such as corn-starch before you set off, as you could end up with wind problems that can't be tackled with tri-bars!

Another danger, if holding anything other than water in a plastic bottle, is food poisoning. It may not be the bottle that makes you ill; but if you try to claim on your holiday insurance, and a hotel gets taken to court, their solicitor will demand to know what procedure you used to sterilise your bottles each night. No answer could mean no compensation for a ruined holiday. The smart solution is to add cheap brandy each night, shake up the bottle, taking a swig from the cap, then repeat in the morning. That wakes you up, I can tell you!

I would recommend Science In Sports drinks with Science in Sports Go bars, they certainly do the trick for me.

I use SIS PSP plain powder (cheapest) but never put it in usual bike bottle because of hygiene worries. Because I don't want to take a big bag of powder, I save it for emergencies and mix up a cupful on the road. If I don't have a cup, I've used a yoghurt pot! When doing a big mountain climb I'll make up a separate drinks bottle that I can throw away or sterilize at night.
But it does work and helps a lot.