Not a cheap shot. I just picked on you because you didn't seem to know how they function. Many of the riders posting on this thread seem to have very little experience using a variety of these products, or even understand how they work. One may comment on a product without me grousing about it when they have used same on a hot, mountainous 400k brevet or similar. Even a short ride like RAMROD can count. Or ridden a thousand miles on a single tour while using a product - takes longer to accumulate experience on a tour because the demands are so much less.

Comments on these forums are best when they are from personal experience, not from supposition. Disclaimer: I have only used Endurolytes, Gatorade, Cytomax, and HEED on brevets. Stoker uses Endurolytes, Cytomax, and Tums.

Hammer's sponsoring or not is uninteresting. The point is that they developed their products while working with racers and that these riders use their products while racing under the most difficult conditions imaginable. They wouldn't if they didn't work. Racers also use other products. If one is interested in this subject, one might try asking other LD racers what products they are using. Lots of useful information to be gained that way. NUUN and Ensure are common. However, as Nancy points out, for touring they are pretty much unnecessary. Wrong forum. LD racing is another story.