Homebrew gels - anyone tried it?

prb007

JOGL'ing in May and will be riding 100+ miles for 9 days
Never experimented much with gels - just tried the ones that 've been given
on various sportives over the last couple of years.
Checked out prices and they are crazy expensive - £1 a shot or more!
Anyone tried any 'homebrew' alternatives, maybe this sort of thing...

http://www.active.com/mountainbiking/Ar ... gy_Gel.htm

any recipes/recommendations considered!

mercurykev

Not answering your question but I do a lot of long rides (up to 400 miles at a time) and I find that eating proper food is a much better way of staying fuelled, especially if you're doing multi day riding. Too many gels and sports drinks can really mess up your digestion after many hours on the bike. I find that gummy sweets make good back up bonk rations.

joeyhalloran

Look at jibberjim's (sp?) recipe, what I use (but with mango juice) and its very good, and very cheap. I agree you can't rely on gels, but they are fast acting and sure some in the back pocket would be a comfort and useful.

celbianchi

JoeyHalloran wrote:

Look at jibberjim's (sp?) recipe, what I use (but with mango juice) and its very good, and very cheap. I agree you can't rely on gels, but they are fast acting and sure some in the back pocket would be a comfort and useful.

Is that on Jim's blog or on this site somewhere?

Bronzie

http://jibbering.com/sports/gels.html

jibberjim

JoeyHalloran wrote:

Look at jibberjim's (sp?) recipe, what I use (but with mango juice) and its very good, and very cheap. I agree you can't rely on gels, but they are fast acting and sure some in the back pocket would be a comfort and useful.

Mango flavoured! funky? How well does that gel? Do you find it stays quite thin? And do you use citric acid with it?

edhornby

good luck with JOGLE :-)

you may find that food early on and carb drinks later in the day are the way to go, and the gels will be a backup, jelly babies are a good source of sugar hit to complement the complex carb

there was a good article in a recent cycling weekly that covered this topic, this may pop up on bikeradar soon

joeyhalloran

jibberjim wrote:

JoeyHalloran wrote:

Look at jibberjim's (sp?) recipe, what I use (but with mango juice) and its very good, and very cheap. I agree you can't rely on gels, but they are fast acting and sure some in the back pocket would be a comfort and useful.

Mango flavoured! funky? How well does that gel? Do you find it stays quite thin? And do you use citric acid with it?

It tastes very good and with a consistency close to that of shop bought gels. I used citric acid and normal shop bought pectin, although I keep a little more water in the mango juice and add a touch more to the bottle each time a fill it with gel to get it just as I like it.

I think its amazing and my friend said it was the best gel he's had. The apple one was good but I put too much cinnamon in, then tried mango and have been stuck on it since. I did once try 5-alive but turned out truly disgusting...I had to throw it away!

I'm still perfect my cooking technique, one thing I need to work on is making sure I get the lumps of maltodextrin out, thinking sieves are useful for this.

jibberjim

JoeyHalloran wrote:

I'm still perfect my cooking technique, one thing I need to work on is making sure I get the lumps of maltodextrin out, thinking sieves are useful for this.

Start with near boiling water, and add the Malto in small portions stirring well each time. Is what tends to work for me - the lumps form when there's an outside part dissolved bit on the lumps.

Glad you like the gels!

joeyhalloran

They are awesome, and now make them throughout the season. After a few test batches I ordered over 5kg of malto from my protein so I have a stock

One thing I do wonder with that method is, is it ok if I accidentally boil the malto? Will it get damaged in anyway?

jibberjim

JoeyHalloran wrote:

One thing I do wonder with that method is, is it ok if I accidentally boil the malto? Will it get damaged in anyway?

Nope... nothing bad would happen at all. Well as it's a sugar solution, standard disclaimers about boiling sugar and being careful as it can boil over quickly, but that's more at a risk of making a mess of the kitchen and burning yourself rather than any problem with the solution itself.

prb007

thanks for the tips, guys and your best wishes for JOGLE.
Took half a squezy bottle of honey on a 72-miler, on Tues as
well as two bananas, 2 x clif bars and some Maltodextrin tabs.
Got back feeling ok ('twas a cold, hilly 72-miles, over the Rhigos
and Bwlch climbs used on the Dragon Sportive - ice on the side
of the road by Treorchy ), but that was my third long-ish ride in three
days (did 200 miles in 3 days) and after my 25-mile round-trip commute
on Wed and Thurs., feel pretty wiped out atm (hence typing not cycling!)
I have a fairly good 'constitution' i.e. nothing much upsets my stomach,
but having a 'proper' food break in the middle of a ride sets me back quite
a bit, I find - 'full belly, empty leg' syndrome!
JibberJim - honoured to have you answer my post - i love your site, btw

Probably ramped up my training a bit much this week, tbh, prob 40% more
than i've done in prev few weeks, but as a shift worker and living in Wales,
I took full advantage of it being sunny on my days off and gave the bike
a hammering!
Trying to replicate the 'day-in-day-out' routine that JOGLE in 9 days
will become.
Hoping to arrange a 'sportive training ride' in a couple of weeks,
taking in the Bwlch and Rhigos climbs, getting some of my mates
who are JOGL'ing with me to top and tail 'guest riders', doing a 70-miler
via two local caffs (free tea/coffe) with cake and biccies at the
finish-line for all participants & 'charging' via a contribution to our
Justgiving page for our chosen charity... do you guys think this is
something BR forum members would be up for?

berliner

This is interesting stuff. At the moment I'm hooked on Soreen with Morello jam from Lidl at 39p a block. I'm really interested in DIY sportfoods.

more please

TomBombadil

Simple,

If you are doing real long miles and want convenient soft very digestible food try just boiled potatoes. Small potatoes can be boiled in salt and kept in tin foil. They are soft very easy to digest and one of the easiest foods to eat on a bike.

I have done many 200 miler days with these as the mainstay. You actually feel like you are eating real food.

Try this and you will be surprised - for a real quick solution just buy a large tin of new potatoes wrap in foll and eat - has benefit of added salt.

Tom

inigomontoya

hmm, I like your thinking tom - maybe a hard boiled egg too.

On the gel front, is there any particular benefit to using the pectin? I would rather drink a syrupy drink than a gel, does the maltodextrin precipitate out as it cools without the pectin?

Poulsy

Stupid question deleted!

jibberjim

inigomontoya wrote:

On the gel front, is there any particular benefit to using the pectin? I would rather drink a syrupy drink than a gel, does the maltodextrin precipitate out as it cools without the pectin?

The Gelling helps stop spoiling, but isn't necessary.

Poulsy wrote:

How long will these keep for?

Depends how thick it becomes - any free water is a problem as that encourages spoiling - otherwise it's a jam and lasts a good length of time, particularly if you refrigerate it.

inigomontoya

Depends how thick it becomes - any free water is a problem as that encourages spoiling - otherwise it's a jam and lasts a good length of time, particularly if you refrigerate it.

Thankyou, explains it perfectly. hmm, maybe the icecube tray could be useful, either for drinks or creating "shot blox"

Poulsy

Would using Gelatine work instead of Pectin? Supermarket only had the former!

jibberjim

Poulsy wrote:

Would using Gelatine work instead of Pectin? Supermarket only had the former!

Well... yes and no, I suspect you'll have to make it solid rather than gloopy as I believe gelatine gels are not temperature stable so as they warm up in your pocket they'll become increasingly more liquid.

You can probably aim for a more solid like product like Gu Shot Blocks or similar.

Never tried it, but you can certainly gel a malto solution with pectin - check out recipes for wine gums or similar at home for how to use the gelatine.

Pectin is very commonly available - although it's not really jam making season yet.

Poulsy

Thanks. I like the idea of the shot bloks and might give them a try but wanted gel, so will search for Pectin elsewhere.