Alcohol & Cycling

Headhuunter

I was wondering about this whilst riding home after a couple fo drinks the other night. I wasn't totally hammered but I'd had a couple of beers. If you cycle after having a couple of drinks, does your body use the alcohol you have ingested like a fuel? Could a little alcohol help with performance? If your body is able to metabolise alcohol that you have recently ingested on a ride home, are you effectively reducing the chance of a heavy hangover the next day by burning off some of the alcohol in your system? Any thoughts?

roger_merriman

Headhuunter wrote:

I was wondering about this whilst riding home after a couple fo drinks the other night. I wasn't totally hammered but I'd had a couple of beers. If you cycle after having a couple of drinks, does your body use the alcohol you have ingested like a fuel? Could a little alcohol help with performance? If your body is able to metabolise alcohol that you have recently ingested on a ride home, are you effectively reducing the chance of a heavy hangover the next day by burning off some of the alcohol in your system? Any thoughts?

Used to go MTBing the day after, and the first hill would be awful but after that the hangover was gone.

Mind you was 20 years ago now....

Cleat Eastwood

I always found that beer doesnt make me go faster - it just makes everything else seem to go slooooower.

kelsen

Didn't they used to neck a bottle of wine every night after finishing a stage in the tour de france? Seemed to enhance the performance of those guys.

team47b

30% of the alcohol goes straight to produce fat regardless of how much you exercise.

There are about 15 grams of carbs in a pint so a couple of pints might keep you cycling for half an hour.

When you drink your liver can't provide glycogen as glucose for energy if needed as it is 'busy' clearing toxins so if you use up all your energy in your system you will bonk, best to eat a kebab with that beer!

Headhuunter

team47b wrote:

30% of the alcohol goes straight to produce fat regardless of how much you exercise.

There are about 15 grams of carbs in a pint so a couple of pints might keep you cycling for half an hour.

When you drink your liver can't provide glycogen as glucose for energy if needed as it is 'busy' clearing toxins so if you use up all your energy in your system you will bonk, best to eat a kebab with that beer!

Good answer... A scientific reason to have a kebab... I like it....

davis

team47b wrote:

30% of the alcohol goes straight to produce fat regardless of how much you exercise.

Source?

Kendal Black Drop

One week I timed myself cycling home from a friends house (approx. 5 miles) after drinking different amounts of alcohol.

Sober: 20 mins
2 pints: 22 mins
4 pints: 24 mins
6 pints: 26 mins

Headhuunter

Kendal Black Drop wrote:

One week I timed myself cycling home from a friends house (approx. 5 miles) after drinking different amounts of alcohol.

Sober: 20 mins
2 pints: 22 mins
4 pints: 24 mins
6 pints: 26 mins

Yes but pints are heavy.... Try it again after shots of neat vodka...

meanredspider

Kendal Black Drop wrote:

One week I timed myself cycling home from a friends house (approx. 5 miles) after drinking different amounts of alcohol.

Sober: 20 mins
2 pints: 22 mins
4 pints: 24 mins
6 pints: 26 mins

It's the weaving about that means you travel further...

UndercoverElephant

Last time I cycled after beer (five pints or so?), my legs were crap. I felt like an average human on a bike.

I've never been so ashamed. :oops:

Gussio

kelsen wrote:

Didn't they used to neck a bottle of wine every night after finishing a stage in the tour de france? Seemed to enhance the performance of those guys.

Wine and brandy during stages was the norm. There are great stories (and photos) of domestiques raiding bars along the route of the Tour. Probably helped take the edge off the amphetamines.....

t4tomo

Gussio wrote:

kelsen wrote:

Didn't they used to neck a bottle of wine every night after finishing a stage in the tour de france? Seemed to enhance the performance of those guys.

Wine and brandy during stages was the norm. There are great stories (and photos) of domestiques raiding bars along the route of the Tour. Probably helped take the edge off the amphetamines.....

that was to kill the pain the legs were feeling wasn't it.

team47b

davis wrote:

team47b wrote:

30% of the alcohol goes straight to produce fat regardless of how much you exercise.

Source?

you're right that was a bit misleading! :oops:

What I meant was alcohol hinders fat metabolism by around 30%, so if you drink the fat you already have is not so efficiently burnt, ie while the liver is busy metabolizing alcohol, it is unable to metabolize fat.

Cleat Eastwood

team47b wrote:

davis wrote:

team47b wrote:

30% of the alcohol goes straight to produce fat regardless of how much you exercise.

Source?

you're right that was a bit misleading! :oops:

What I meant was alcohol hinders fat metabolism by around 30%, so if you drink the fat you already have is not so efficiently burnt, ie while the liver is busy metabolizing alcohol, it is unable to metabolize fat.

Sauce?

You know to go with the kebab.

il_principe

It feels faster, but Garmin says it's slower.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Headhuunter wrote:

I was wondering about this whilst riding home after a couple fo drinks the other night. I wasn't totally hammered but I'd had a couple of beers. If you cycle after having a couple of drinks, does your body use the alcohol you have ingested like a fuel? Could a little alcohol help with performance? If your body is able to metabolise alcohol that you have recently ingested on a ride home, are you effectively reducing the chance of a heavy hangover the next day by burning off some of the alcohol in your system? Any thoughts?

A few years ago I rode home from work after a very heavy session that started at lunch, finished for me somewhere around 7 during the tag cocktail drinking phase, and was followed by me sleeping on the floor of my room at work for another 4 hours.

I was completely hammered when I woke up and got into my kit, so much so that I fell over a number of times. I realised pretty early on in the ride that I had embarked upon A Very Ill-Advised Undertaking.

About a mile from home I threw up all over the handlebars/wheel/my feet. I am still inordinately proud of the fact that not only did I not stop or slow down during this event, but I managed to maintain my pedal stroke uninterrupted. Small victories, etc...

There is no doubt in my mind that my head the next day was very considerably better off for having heaved my guts up.

On the other hand, the risk I ran of having ended up under a lorry during the ride home was unacceptably high. And my bike and shoes took a long time to recover.

walkingbootweather

I'm fine with wine,
Whisky makes me frisky
Brandy makes me randy
Beer is best avoided.

y33stu

I find if I've had a couple of beers, I'm sober by the time I get home (7 miles or so). Any more and I still feel the effects although a little less.

Whats the deal on cycling over the drink drive limit anyways? any legal issues cycling on a bike path, or on the road?

Kieran_Burns

y33stu wrote:

I find if I've had a couple of beers, I'm sober by the time I get home (7 miles or so). Any more and I still feel the effects although a little less.

Whats the deal on cycling over the drink drive limit anyways? any legal issues cycling on a bike path, or on the road?

It's drunk and disorderly that you could be arrested for. There is no specific "riding while under the influence" law to be broken. Plus you can't be forced to provide ID.

y33stu

Seems fair enough. Guess I'll have another pint then before I ride home!

rick_chasey

I had a house party when I was younger which got broken up by the police.

All the police did was say to every single person "it's dangerous to ride drunk" as about 50 absolutely battered 18yr olds hopped onto bikes and cycled off into the night.

2 fell of and got properly bruised on the way home.

Anonymous

I did the commute from Canary Wharf to Parsons Green last year. Its pretty hard when you're that pissed (I could barely walk) but I did make it home. The hardest bit was steering as you lose the precision when you're totally blotto so I kept weaving around in the road, crashing into the pavement a few times and falling off

walkingbootweather

Went to the pub directly after my final 'A' level. Six pints later we naturally got on our bikes to ride home. Half a mile up the road one of my mates rode into the back of an ambulance. The lights were on and the doors were open as the paramedics were treating someone inside a house. Fortunately he was more embarassed than hurt, but illustrated that we were rather worse for wear than we had perhaps realised.

TheStone

I find whatever I drink (within reason), I feel totally sober within a few hundred yards of cycling.

Always quicker, but roads much quieter too.

Clever Pun

Rick Chasey wrote:

I had a house party when I was younger which got broken up by the police.

All the police did was say to every single person "it's dangerous to ride drunk" as about 50 absolutely battered 18yr olds hopped onto bikes and cycled off into the night.

2 fell of and got properly bruised on the way home.

4% of cyclists agree drinking and cycling is bad

BelgianBeerGeek

I find that when I'm in the pub a little fairy has attached stabilisers and a wee engine to my bike. The way back is so much easier...
Once upon a time I rode out to a pub about 16 miles away with a mate, I had the worst hangover ever. Forced a couple of pints down and whipped his sorry ass on the way back. I did sleep about 16 hours that night, though.

Boy Lard

While I used to think it was ok to have a few pints and then ride home I no longer think so. That being said, I have/had a fairly serious problem with alcohol. Not that I drink often, but when I do I sometimes have huge blackouts and have even lost a whole 36 hour period once. This would be ok if I was inactive during this time, but often tis is far from the case.

Anyway, one time I remember leaving the pub, sort of. 4 Hours later I remember a crowd of concerned people checking to see if I was ok assuming I had been in a hit and run. Actually I fell off my bike going round a corner and just went to sleep where I fell.

I am currently trying to go TT, and that doesn't involve funny shaped bars and helmet.

merkin

Good luck with that. Have you asked your GP for assistance?
(A rare serious post from me)

Gussio

merkin wrote:

Good luck with that. Have you asked your GP for assistance?
(A rare serious post from me)

General Publican?

kiwimatt

Rather random worst occurance involved student Swedish New Year celebrations on schapps and beers in Amsterdam - and then cycling home at about 2am completely away with it. Rather safer cycling environment than the UK but still not clever. Other similar occurances involved slippery crashes over frozen canal bridges late at night in similar Amsterdam traffic free circumstances... Not something I'd consider nowadays - pint Friday lunchtime then commute home about as impaired as I'd consider safe in these parts