Long Distance Cycling - Polar Bottles and Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem

I am doing the RAIN ride - 160 miles across Indiana in mid-July. I would like to mix 4, 2-hour water bottles with Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem to carry on the bike so I will not have to bother with premeasured portions in plastic sandwich bags and mixing the contents on the ride. I would also like to have some cold water if I get too hot.

Do Polar water bottles keep a Perpetuem mixture cool enough and insulate from the sun's rays well enough to keep it from spoiling over an 8-hour ride?

How long would they last and what is the best strategy? Is putting ice cubes and cold water the morning of the ride good enough or is pre-mixing and freezing the bottle overnight the only way to do it?

I was thinking ice cubes and cold water for 2 bottles to be used the first 4 hours and maybe premixing and freezing 2 bottles overnight to be used the last 4 hours.

I have read that the amino acids in Perpetuem do go bad but I have never done anything special to try and prevent this while on a long ride. I once left a 3 scoop bottle on the bike the night before a long ride, in an upstairs apartment without AC with 80+ degree temps at night. The next morning the bottle contents smelled pretty bad so I made a new bottle. But I've never found the need to cool a bottle on a ride.

The more I think about it I try to consume a 2 scoop bottle every 3-4 hours. So maybe it's just that I the bottle really are not exposed to heat for as long as you are contemplating.

The bottle won't stay cold more than a couple hours in 80 degree heat with ice cubes and cold water at the start. Even if you freeze it solid, it will pretty much thaw out completely in 3-4 hours at most. As far as perpetuem spoiling on a ride, I wouldn't worry about it. I seem to remember reading either on the package or the hammer website that they just don't recommend you making the mixture several days before the ride due to risk of spoilage.

Rick

This is what Hammer's website says. I am looking for actual experience for someone starting out at 7:00 A.M. in the morning and wanting a bottle to last 4-6 hours or 6 to 8 hours as will be the case for the last two bottles. Maybe I should just mix a bottle and carry the rest in plastic bags.

How soon after I make Sustained Energy or Perpetuem do I have to drink it?

Ideally, it should be within 3-5 hours, with up to perhaps 6-8 hours (depending on the temperature) being the longest we recommend. Dr. Bill Misner explains:

I'd go with plastic bags and mix it up as needed. Any of the protein replacements get a bit skanky tasting after a couple hours, especially if you're out in the heat.

I can't recommend a freeze/thaw cycle on pre-mixed protein replacements, because who knows what sort of structural damage you're doing to the molecular structure of the proteins via water crystallization shear force. (I work in biotech, and we have all sorts of additives that go into frozen storage biologicals to keep water from crystallizing and doing molecular damage. I'm assuming the same type of damage to protein structures in a replacement drink.)

one bummer about perpetuem and polar bottles is that the mouthpiece can get pretty funky...make sure you pull that off and rinse it well or you might get a funky suprise!

I put the powder in the DRY bottle the night before. I add water just before I get on the bike.
I carry a double ziplock bag of more for later. (I tried a single bag and had dust everywhere)

Yes, do wash your bottles a ton after the ride. Frightening things can grow quickly in a nutrient rich environment.

I would send an email to Hammer. They are pretty good at responding quickly.

I carry a water bottle with just the powder inside in my jersey pocket with (4) 2 Tspoon servings marked out in magic marker on the outside of the bottle. I carry 2 water bottles on my bike and just add 1 serving of powder per 16 ozs every couple of hours.

The extra bottle in the jersey pocket is not that noticable and is easy to transfer to the water bottle you drink from.

I put the powder in the DRY bottle the night before. I add water just before I get on the bike.
I carry a double ziplock bag of more for later. (I tried a single bag and had dust everywhere)

Yes, do wash your bottles a ton after the ride. Frightening things can grow quickly in a nutrient rich environment.

Ziploc 'snack size' bags put into a quart size ziploc storage bag. Yeah, I had a single bagged pouch open up inside my h'bar bag and turn everything in there into an orange, sticky mess. :mad: