I tend to carry around Nuun in a camelbak. No sugar in that, and I don't want my CamelBak getting gunky. Often I'll carry ShotBloks or ClifShot or Gu, sometimes Tang or Gatorade packed in a water bottle, for sugar.

Honestly I find a continuous feed of sugar much more optimal than a non-sugar electrolyte feed. I'm burning off energy rapidly and I favor performance over supposed health benefits--there really are none to a sugar-free ride. Without sugar intake, your body will burn more fat on longer rides--both literally by moving to lipolysis to avoid depleting glycogen stores and also figuratively as it's going to take the same caloric output to provide the same performance--but you're not going to supply 100% of your burn via a constant drip of Coca-Cola. Raising blood sugar by intake may slow down your overall fat burn, but it won't decrease your muscle building (might help increase it) and it'll definitely help you maintain peak output performance--although this only goes so far.

The reason I go sugarless is, as I said, I don't want to sugar up my CamelBak. I clean it by a quick rinse with water, drain through the feeder tube, then clear it out and use a sprayer to spray up into the upside down bladder for a clean rinse. Sugar might stick somewhere, and then become fuzzy. They're hard to comprehensively clean--it's 100% doable, but it's very systematic and very detailed. An oxyclean pill (some kind of self-dissolving tablet that's basically sodium peroxide percarbonate, sold as a cleaning kit for CamelBaks) will do it, but they're comparatively pricey while a water splash simply isn't.

I go with electrolyte tabs like Nuun (love the Citrus ones, the Orange not so much, the Berry is iffy... be your own judge) because they're easier on my stomach than pure water. Besides that, I sweat acrid, disgusting salt water--I lose magnesium like crazy as-is, but I have sodium and potassium leaving my body through the lymph system. I'm biking here in 106F, 108F, 110F weather and I don't pay much mind to the heat. Trust me, you don't want to replenish with pure water; you'll die. If you're not a marathon cyclist or a Tour de France racer and you're biking in 70-80 degree weather, you'll probably be fine. Pushing your limits and taking it in the scorching heat demands something more than straight water.

So, water, electrolyte (tablet) water, or sugary electrolyte (powder) water. Those are your choices, each addresses different needs. I can vouch for Nuun over Elixir though, only because I like some of the Nuun flavors more than the Elixir flavors. Nuun is also relatively cheap (Elixir isn't much more expensive, Gatorade can be a little more expensive to MUCH more expensive depending on what you buy).

You could try experimenting with the sugarless electrolyte stuff (Propel, Nuun, Elixir, Zym) and sugar shots (Gu, Clif Shot, Clif Shot Bloks, Gu Cubes) or just carrying around a double of iced tea or tang in a water bottle for sugar, if you're looking to experiment. I will say that I've found the liquid Gu/Clif Shot to give a quicker reaction than the gummies--and let's be honest here, sugar is a magnificent thing. The first time I used a Clif Shot at the end of my rope, all the pain in my muscles and joints dulled out in seconds and my strength and stamina returned to me immediately. You'd think you'd need some hard core drugs to pull that off, but plain old regular grade sugar does it. I rarely use 'em, but I don't leave home without a Clif Shot or a Gu.