I used it for awhile, but the price seemed high, and it was a 100 calories. I stopped buying it, I now get pedialyte pops instead.

I'm happy with plain water but if it's hot I use NUUN, Camelbak Elixir, etc... These are electrolyte tablets that disolve in your water bottle to help replace electrolytes lost due to sweating. They add a bit of flavor to the water to help it go down too.

I like the gatorade, but I learned while running to cut it 50/50 with water. Otherwise, your stomach will sideline you before your legs do.

On anything less than 20 miles I just take water.

On 20-30 I take one water one gatorade, gatorade first, and I don't take any food.

On 30-60 I take one bottle each 10 miles, alternating water first, then gatorade, then water, etc, up to 6 bottles. These rides will also have food, eaten at 10 mile increments as well (but I'll usually skip eating the first 20-30 miles).

For 60+ I just stop at stores and buy more water rather than taking ridiculous amounts of bottles.

I color code my bottles. I have 3 blue 3 red. Blue = water, Red = gatorade.

I use powerade zero. It has zero sugar but still gives me the electrolytes and flavor I start to crave when I'm riding. A 32 oz bottle is only $.78 at wal-mart. I'll use it in my two 20 oz bottles and top the rest of the way with water. I'll play with the ration depending on the temp outside. Generally on a cooler day it'll be even. on a hot day I'll do a full 20 oz of powerade and the other basically half and half to start with. I can't believe how much sugar you get with gatorade.

for longer rides I use one bottle water, one bottle half gatorade half water.

Bought the giant Costco sized Gatorade powder. Lasts about a year. When it starts to setup, you just scrape it with the scoop. Its just moisture and you are about to mix it in water anyway.

Everybody's got their preferences, but to me Gatorade is gross. Ick.

Can't stand it unless there's absolutely nothing else, and it has to be very cold.

When we responded to the BP/Transocean spill, BP had this for us in the mornings to load into our galleys for the length of the excursion.(2am departures every day for a month).

It is disgusting, and I'm still not convinced it's a benefit to anyone. Made my bowels move uncontrollably at 100 miles offshore on a rocking vessel. Quit drinking it.

They went to G2 exclusively, and the sugar difference is immense. Now g2 tastes too sweet, so if I had a G1 now I might vomit. YMMV.

I just did a 200k on Saturday with some other guys; start temp 85F, finish 100F+'heat index'. Two bottles Hammer HEED for the first 100k, two bottles HEED (I carry powder) for the next 50k, two bottles Hammer Endurolytes Fizz for the next 25k, and another two bottles Fizz for the final 25k. Ate Hammer Perpetuem Solids for the first 150k and then onto Hammer Gel for the last 50k. Finished great and felt good!

I am generally a water only guy when i'm riding, however the past couple weeks have been pretty warm and humid so I have been hydrating more on my rides and refueling with any one of a few drinks I have Pure Sport(massive amounts of protein) / Endurox r4 / Accelerade Hydro. I have one water bottle that is devoted to "mixed drinks" and the other is water only (its really hard to get the flavor/taste out). Lots of sweating means lots of lost salt, it needs to be replenished drinks/gels/chews/bars there are many ways to do it.. I have all the "mixed drinks" because I use them for running recovery..

Hammer gels, Heed, and Perpetium. No artificial sugars, natural ingredients, and it works.

I go through about a 24 oz. bottle per hour, alternating sports drink and water. I've been using Heed since it's still palatable when the Heed is ambient temperature (~100 degrees in the summer), but have gone back to Gatorade since I've found at least one flavor that's still palatable when hot - Fruit Punch. OTOH, I can't take the original lemon/lime flavor unless it's ice cold. Gatorade is about 35 cents per 24 oz. bottle when mixed full strength from powder, or about 1/4 the price of Heed.

I use Heed for rides longer than 30 miles. It's has maltodextrin instead of sucrose. The maltodextrin breaks down into glucose, so it is more easily and quickly absorbed. And it doesn't give me the gastrointestinal distress that Gatorade sometimes does.

I make my own drink.

1/2 cup of OJ
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp salt

mix and heat in microwave for 1 minute then stir until dissolved. Add water to make one quart. Chill until next morning ride, but I freeze 1/2 bottle and then add fill out the rest next morning. Helps keep drink cooler a little bit longer in this Texas heat.

Saves a ton of dough too.

Not exactly. The labels are "1 Prime", "2 Perform", and "3 Recover".

'1' is the pre-workout sludge, which has extra carbs and some vitamins.

'2' is what we've thought of as Gatorade for the past x years.

'3' is the post-workout recovery with protein.

Complicating matters is 'G2', which is a sub-product in the '2' Series.

The difference between 'G' and 'G2' is that G2 is low-calorie - 20 calories per 8 oz instead of 50.


If you want all the calories of your 'normal 'G', then look for 'Rain' flavors. The full 50 cal/8oz, but with about half the taste. I prefer them.


It's complicated - more than it needs to be.

Gatorade is pure garbage. If you remember when Gatorade first came out, it was pale green/yellow and it tasted like sweat. It had a lot of water, a LITTLE SUGAR AND A LITTLE SALT - What you actually need to rehydrate.
Since the taste of sweat doesn't sell, they added 10x more sugar (or better yet nasty Sucralose), freakish flavors, unnatural colors, and 100000% more marketing. Now every sucker thinks they need it. Just like bottled water.
Brilliant marketing, useless product. But it sure tastes good! Heck, if a person walks into a 7-11 and a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade cost the same, what would most people buy?

I used to put gatorade in my bottle, when they stopped carrying the ones I liked at costco, I just went with water. No difference in performance for me at least. If anything, these "sports" drinks are good for encouraging you to drink more, other than that, I don't think the added electrolytes make a big difference unless you sweat a ton and are doing some sort of crazy endurance training. That's been my experience anyway. The added hassle of cleaning the bottle more thoroughly does not justify the added cost or perceived benefit. But I'm lazy so take it with a grain of salt.

Been said already but repetition is the key to everything, they say.

Use the powder and make it to suit but not real strong, diluted is better. If you use bottles mix it up half and half.

Having a bottle dedicated to GatorAde is probably a good idea.

I do agree that the GatorAde I drank back when I played football in the 1980s tasted way different than today. Lemon-Lime or Orange was all that was available. It was probably better too.

^^ keep in mind, though, that gatorade also contains calories from sugars. There's a little more to it than just rehydrating, it's keeping your body fueled to continue performing athletically.

All sorts of water additives are different tools for different jobs. For example, NUUN is all electrolytes, light flavor, and virtually no calories (it has like 3 calorie per tab) - it's more akin to what original gatorade was. It's all dependant on what your overall strategy for hydration/nutrition is on/off the bike.

^^ This ^^ You can also carry the powder in a zip-lok bag and mix on the road.

I don't like constantly drinking sweet stuff, which is reason I forsake stuff like Gatorade for Hammer Nutrition products like Perpetum. It uses maltodextrin instead of sugar for the carbohydrate.

Whatever you call it, it still tastes like a bottle of spoiled protein shake.

"Garbage" is a really subjective term as far as food/beverages go.

There's a correct application to something that has a lot of sugar in it (and is 14g/8oz really even that much sugar as far as beverages go? I mean, I know it's sucrose syrup, but still, I'm sure you do worse.) A lot of cyclists ride long and hard enough that a bottle of gatorade is more beneficial than just drinking water.

On the other hand, just as you suggested, if you're wandering into a 7-11 looking for a beverage and you're sedentary/not using those carbs, gatorade's really unnecessary