Any recipes for homemade hydration drinks? Ideally as close to SIS tablets

Squash

Eat a banana for some potassium, packet of crisps for some sodium.

Water with juice and a bag of pea nuts.

Half apple juice, half water, good pinch of salt.

Take 3/4 glass of water. Top it up with water and drink it.

Works every time.

I buy a big bag of maltrodextrin and dextrose from Bulk Powders or MyProtein and just add to water. They are only a few quid for a kilo.

Thanks everyone so far, water is lovely, I drink 3 litres a day to offset … anyhow thats enough about beer!

I remember when I started to teaching, a key advice was to keep drinking water as you spoke all day long and moved around. I have spent 23 years shouting for a living and my vocal cords are a bit knackered.

I only drink water on a ride, but want a good prep and post ride hydration regime and homemade stuff is always the best.

Can we have some serious recipies?

Can we have some serious recipies?

The first 3 replies were all serious. What more do you need?

If you want something similar to the SIS tablets then these are £2 for two tubes (40 tabs) in Home Bargains.

Personally can’t be bothered faffing so just use hydration tabs, wiggles own are good too.

I used to use hydration tablets, then I had a proper look at what was actually in them after noticing they didn’t do a lot for my stomach – they pretty much all use artificial sweeteners like Sorbitol, sucralose, aspartame etc, some of which are actually laxatives. Other stuff too, they are all packed with chemicals, ditto gels. This seems like a bad idea to me and my guts.

There’s a proper shortage of anything similar using all natural ingredients, closest I could find was the Skratch Labs stuff, which works for me on one-off, big ride stuff, but is expensive and relatively hard to source.

Other than that, I use a mix of fruit juice and water maybe with a pinch of salt thrown in if it’s warm and I’m planning on serious sweating. Eat bananas and food. Team Sky used to use dilute pineapple juice partly because it’s more interesting to drink than plain water, s it get drunk more easily.

Tap water costs £0.0016 a litre while bottled water costs around £1.00 and fizzy “sport” drinks even more. If you want to add energy, buy plain maltodextrin from Myprotein and add a finger or two to your water bottle. If you think you’re in danger of sweating all your salt out, add a pinch of salt to the bottle. You can also add a teaspoonfull of sucrose if you like.

thisisnotaspoon

Subscriber
Eat a banana for some potassium, packet of crisps for some sodium.

Last time I tried this the other folk in the chainy weren’t too impressed

Last time I tried this the other folk in the chainy weren’t too impressed

Pro tip: decant the crisps directly into your back pocket, that way there’s no messing about with packaging 🙂

Don’t try this with bananas though, it’ll end in smears.

Torq and SIS etc, are basically 2:1 maltodextrine to fructose. Maltodextrine can be had from myprotein, and fructose from Tesco’s. Then just add a pinch of salt and maybe some cordial and you have an energy drink. Add caffeine if you’re feeling adventurous but bear in mind the quantities are very small and you might get some proper rocket fuel. I can’t remember the exact numbers but it was working out at <20% of the price compared to the market offering.

And if i was doing a longer event like a 24 hr teams or solo, then I definitely be having a few nuts and crips as well.

Hydration drink is just electrolyte mix. You can buy this in bulk from bulkpowders.co.uk, it’s £5 for 100g, but it’s not really necessary unless you are working very hard for a long time and/or it’s very hot:

https://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/electrolyte-powder.html

Energy drink includes maltodextrin, which is carbohydrate. Also available from bulk powders at £3 for 500g

https://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/maltodextrin.html

That is all that is in most energy drinks and this works out far cheaper. Also you can flavour it with squash which makes it much tastier than SiS.

Can we have some serious recipies?

What do you actually need that isn’t water?

If you take on excess salts your kindneys will filter it out and you’re just making expensive wee. Not enough salt can in principal be a problem, but tends to be the result of a medical issue unless you completely eliminate it from your diet. Have a bit of lo-salt on your dinner and your body will retain what it needs. Magnesium, zink etc come from fruit and veg.

Think there was a recipe on bbc food site that had salt added to squash as an electrolyte.

The WHO recommend a recipe of 1tsp salt and 2tbsp sugar in 1l of water for simple oral rehydration (admittedly this is for sick people, rather than people who are just thirsty).

Agree with those above that say some water with juice should do the trick. If I want something that isn’t sugary but don’t just want water then effervescent vit C tabs from the supermarket do the trick for me. Taste a bit like SIS but not as strong.

Torq and SIS etc, are basically 2:1 maltodextrine to fructose. Maltodextrine can be had from myprotein, and fructose from Tesco’s. Then just add a pinch of salt and maybe some cordial and you have an energy drink.

i use this @ about 45 ml per half litre bottle. I’ve found the cheapest Fructose is from holand & barret on the 2 for 1 thang (maltodextrine is about £7 for 2kg online). For flavour sainsburys do 1.5 litre double concentrated squash for a pound a bottle so usually have lemon orange and blackcurrant to choose from. The biggest draw back is even though the squash is no added suger it’s still sweetened so the drink can be overly sweet to taste.

Pre ride – Tea
During ride – Water
After ride – Milk or Chocolate Milk very occasionally.

Other nutrients from food.

When I’ve made my own, my favourite by far has been lime juice, sugar and salt. On occasion I’ve added mint, though I’ve managed to resist the temptation to follow it up with a load of crushed ice and a good slug of white rum 🙂

Does anyone make a titanium cocktail glass?

The WHO recommend a recipe of 1tsp salt and 2tbsp sugar in 1l of water for simple oral rehydration (admittedly this is for sick people, rather than people who are just thirsty).

That’s to mitigate the effects of dysentery in the 3rd world, not entirely the same as quenching your thirst halfway round Cannock Chase.

If you take on excess salts your kindneys will filter it out and you’re just making expensive wee.

I sweat a lot and I work hard (cos I’m fat). After a long ride, I sometimes find it impossible to quench thirst, and in this situation drinks with electrolyte really help and make me feel immediately better. I suspect the general advice of ‘you don’t need electrolytes’ refers to 60 mins of football or 45 in the gym or whatever. Burying yourself for four hours on a bike, even if you aren’t a pro*, is a different style of exertion which is why people who spend 45 mins in the gym tend to fold on bike rides quite quickly.

* cos it depends on how much you’ve stressed your body rather than how fast you were actually going.

Can we have some serious recipies?

Sorry.

Salted cashews instead of peanuts.

Thanks everyone,including the just water brigade!
We can all agree that lagerzade/beerozade is the ultimate one.

I am looking for homemade, for cheapness,but also for knocking up in a corner shop/ middle of nowhere for when I do the NZ ride, on another thread.

I have done two rides in NZ where I have been caught out for various reasons thinking a diary/corner shop was near; one was riding 20 miles on 500 ml of water and a gel; another not really getting the true meaning of a trail called Stoney Batter combined with a hangover

I am looking for homemade, for cheapness,but also for knocking up in a corner shop/ middle of nowhere for when I do the NZ ride, on another thread.

So you want something you can buy in a cornershop? Lucozade Sport or Gatorade have electrolytes. If it’s that important… But really if I’m caught out in need of energy I just get Coke. The caffeine helps more than a few mg of electrolytes.

If you think you’re in danger of sweating all your salt out, add a pinch of salt to the bottle.

I think if you manage to sweat your salt out you would be dead.

Burying yourself for four hours on a bike, even if you aren’t a pro*, is a different style of exertion

Still not going to get low salt from 4hrs on a bike!

Just drink water and eat food, the natural stuff is amazing apparently, but some people are put off because it hasn’t been marketed to them in a posh bottle at inflated prices

I am looking for homemade, for cheapness,but also for knocking up in a corner shop/ middle of nowhere for when I do the NZ ride, on another thread.

Ah! In that case I’d go for salted pistachios give yourself a bit of a treat.

I have done two rides in NZ where I have been caught out for various reasons thinking a diary/corner shop was near; one was riding 20 miles on 500 ml of water and a gel

So you’re looking for an energy drink, rather than a ‘hydration’ drink?

The water comment was actually perfectly serious re: hydration.

If you want energy, then try fruit juice + water. Coke, Lucozade, etc. will also work fine. My preference is apple juice mixed ~50:50 with water. I really don’t like gels, but can neck kilos of Jelly Babies (which probably aren’t that different). Nothing beats real food for long rides IMHO.

Whatever you opt for, the critical thing is obtaining them before setting off for 20 miles (off road, I guess?), rather than running on empty.

Last time I tried this the other folk in the chainy weren’t too impressed

Pro tip: decant the crisps directly into your back pocket, that way there’s no messing about with packaging 🙂

just get pringles, they are nicely stacked in the tube.

just get pringles, they are nicely stacked in the tube.

Hmm how to convert the head tube to a pez style pringle dispenser?

Still not going to get low salt from 4hrs on a bike!

Probably not going to loose that much salt per se, but if all that’s being replenished is water won’t that reduce the salt concentration?

Tillydog, thanks for the advice. Water is great, but sometimes something else is needed. I only put water in my camelbak

On the said occasion I had been dropped off after 5 days riding in Ohakune, to ride to Te Aroha to ride to my overnight stay, I had rolled up camelbak to save space and just had the bottle never again….

one was riding 20 miles on 500 ml of water and a gel

seems about right, although i’d probably leave the gel in the bin. 😉