is bonking while riding long distances fatel? reason i ask is me and my friends talked about riding to tenn from ala.

No, although in Australia, you can catch aids from bonking without a franger.

can happen anywhere

I think you are getting your "A" countries mixed up...

Carbohydrate depletion to the extreme can be very uncomfortable. It can be fatal if you lose control of your bike from disorientation due to low blood sugar. Your body will usually make you stop before that. You won't have a choice, because your body's choice of energy substrate, at this point, is fat--which takes longer to metabolize than the carbohydrate stored in your muscles and liver or the glucose in your blood.

A trip, if well planned, will include a nutrition/hydration/electrolyte aspect to the plan. If you know your needs and formulate a plan to meet those needs, then all you have to do is stick to the plan.

Gawd I love you Aussies!

On the last Brevet we had a rider come real close from using Tiger Balm which caused a loss of blood to his legs and he bonked hard and barely kept from passing out on the side of the road. He said his doctor friend said he was really lucky and should have had his good samaritans take him to the emergency room. Apparently Tiger balm is meant to be applied to skin that doesn't have expanded poors from excersize and a few other things that occur because of excersize that I can't remember. Anyway, applying it during excersize caused much more than normal to be absorbed through the skin and basically caused an OD type reaction.

Sounds more like an allergic reaction than carb depletion which is what "bonking" refers to.

Thank you mrbike27. Do cars still stink?

Who has the "Don't Feed the Troll" sign?

Bonking is carbohydrate depletion. This can happen to diabetics who have taken too much insulin also. Your body will recover from the bonk and it's not life threatening unless you are doing something dangerous that requires focus and control. However, for a diabetic, that has too much insulin, his/her blood sugars will continue to go lower unless they are replenished with carbohydrates. The insulin will continue to lower blood sugars until blood glucose is completely depleted. At this point you would expect to find the person in a diabetic coma, which in many cases is fatal.

But, for the average Joe that doesn't have to worry about trying to control insulin output with shots, you don't have to worry about being killed by the bonk. Your body will automatically shutdown the release of insulin well before you're in danger.

A lack of carbohydrates to the muscles would be a bonk, which happened in the above case, albeit for different reasons than usual. As for a purely natural bonk death, I am not sure that is possible unless a person had a very low body fat index and even then it is pure speculation. That video of the lady collapsing at the end of a triathlon looks like that comes pretty close though to a body shutdown.

HUFFYTOUR '07. Unless your friend rides a magna.

Do you have a link to this video?

Bonking without a franger? I thought it was boinking with a stranger.

I think he's talking about Julie Moss' (in)famous video. She lived. But dehydration was the issue, not severe glycogen depletion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRB1p89k7_I

That video is awesome. Awesome.

Never had any of that happen to me before.
But, then again, I've had plenty of "slow-mo" bonks, as I would call them.
They're the type where you're only able to crank out about 8-10mph and the road to your destination is kind of plain and bleak looking.

Those are the kind I get, usually takes an hour or two to pull out of it.

you won't die, but riding slowly between repeated series of dry heaves by the side of the road coupled with a cruel headache can be unpleasant.

They say no question is a stupid question :-D
So here's mine, what is bonking? I never heard of that term before, so my guess it's slang?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_%28condition%29

I think bonking while riding long distances is fatal. You tend to move around, disoriented, less alert, like a drunk. Makes it easier to crash into things, like trees and cars moving at high speeds...

It happened to me the first time I rode almost 40 miles in one go. Not enough fuel (energy bars/carbohydrate calories) left me milling around the MUP, swerving everywhere like a drunk. I nearly crashed into some club riders , fell off the bike, back into the street, when I maneuvered it onto the sidewalk , and nearly collapsed from exhaustion by the time I got home from the ride.

I think that bonking on a Huffy Stonehaven would be fatal. I think that boinking a Huffy Stonehaven would be fatal too.

East Hill

There's a link in that article that describes bonk training:

HOW TO BONK TRAIN
1. Upon waking, drink 2-3 cups of coffee, up to 45 minutes before cycling. Don't eat.
2. Ride at endurance pace- 60-70% of your max heart rate, or a casual pace that doesn't make you pant when you talk.
3. Keep it up for 20-90 minutes.
4. You can do this on consecutive days, but mix in at least one normal breakfast per week.
5. Eat your typical breakfast as soon as the ride ends.
6 . Watch the blubber ignite!!

Looks like if I up the caffeine intake a bit, and drink my coffee before the ride instead of after I'll be bonk training. Sweet.

hey! That's my regular "commute to work" routine!