how to carry tablets/pills on tour without turning them grinding into powder ?
 

Am curious if there's a good way to carry pills without them becoming their own grinding machine over the millions of jostles they'll encounter during a tour. Last multi-week tour I did a bottle I took reduced some supplements I brought (not a hard coated exterior on them) into about 60% pill 40% powder.

Advice? I think those that carry this know exactly what I'm talking about.

Easiest idea I've thought of is just placing them in a 15x15 grid (~200 tablets) in a sandwich of cellophane, then rolling this up so that there's no contact between each. But, I'd need a few weeks of destruction to test it out.

Thanks

Cotton balls, or pieces of kleenex or paper towels
stuffed into the bottle to keep the pills from rattling.

@I - you could comment on your experience with this technique ? As I imagine this helping with some near the top, but it seems to leave quite many interacting amongst one another.

As an aside, a pill bottle is effectively, on smaller scale, the same exact mechanism used for grinding rock into fine dust (my industry).

A flat pill case will work. If it's too roomy, put cotton balls on top.

@TTS : flat pill case for 200 pills? (see earlier post) I can't even imagine where to find such a thing.

I'm starting to like my cellophane sandwich thought a bit more,

but would really like advice from those carrying 200+ pills (~2-3weeks) that have have success with seeing no powder afterward with big quantity over mixed terrain (not smooth road riding). Note : it's also important to take into consideration the somewhat airtight container in which pills are in, especially over several weeks of time.

Tried searching for a bit on this, no luck.

+1

Works quite well.

And if you're carrying more than about 50 pills, carry them in several small bottles, with a cotton ball stuffed in the top.

These days, of course, many painkillers, allergy tablets, cold meds, etc. come in foil strips with blisters to hold the pills. So when I'm travelling, I'll take several of these foil strips and put them into a ziplock baggy.

I find that carrying the bottles of meds in my handlebar bag cushions the road vibration enough that I carried pills for months at a time with no problems. My pills may be more durable than yours though.

Blister packs are fine.. if they are not sold in that manner..

roll them up in a paper towel, or cling-wrap,
placed so they don't rub against each other?

I am a liver transplant recipient thus require a large amount of meds. I currently take 3 doses of 14 different pills (27 total) a day so I go through a lot of pills. These pills are not readily available in small town pharmacies and typically take a few days in a major metro area to get so I have to carry at least a week's extra at all times. As a result, I carry gobs of pills for a tour and have to ensure they are all safe and sound.

What I do is to use tiny recloseable (zip-lock) bags (about 1"x1") that I buy on Amazon (I buy 1,000 at a time). These bags are the kind you see small beads at a craft store in or a small part is put in. They come in different sizes.

Before I leave, I put each day's doses (dosi??) in one bag. I then put the three doses in a snack size recloseable bag. I then put about 5 days into a regular bag. I put all the weeks in to a gallon sized bag. I then stuff the pills in my sleeping bag so it is insulated from the heat since some of my pills begin to melt at 98 degrees which is quite easy to get 1 foot off the pavement in summer.

This may seem a bit bag overkill, but when I started on the pills, I had to dedicate almost 75% of one front pannier to pills by putting each dose in individual bags plus it was pain to keep the days/dose from being mixed up. I can now take a four-week supply (810 pills!) in about 1/3 the space. I take out the next day's pills out of this weeks bag so I don't have to do nearly as much hunting to find the correct dose (each does vary from day and time).

The key to making it smaller s to get the air out of the bags. Use a stick pin or safety pin and make a couple of holes each bag you use. Place heavy books on them and it will greatly reduce. Keep the gallon bag hole free but wrapped with a rubber band so it stays tight and doesn't allow air into it.

By putting the pills in the sleeping bag, they are not only pretty much shake-proof, they are insulated from the road heat which can easily melt my pills in the summer if left outside the bag.

I would also recommend the cotton balls in a bottle (above and below the pills) and then pack them in the sleeping bag if they melt or rattle too much. For me, I can't do bottle deal as I would have to drag out the bottles every time to do a dose and the chance of spilling, melting, etc. are not worth the risk to me.

Buy a bottle of Bayer aspirin and see how it is packaged. Cotton is stuffed into the bottle to stop the pills from grinding each other up. Don't know when Bayer started doing this. But as far back as I can remember its been this way. And I presume they ship them all over the world by truck and train and ship.

Has always worked for me carrying my pills. Obviously the cotton needs to have some compression to work.

Maybe you could use a vacuum sealer and make your own blister packs? I will have to check on the Bayer...I haven't had cotton in the top of a pill bottle in quite a while.

Aaron :)

Packed down the pills can't grind against each other. Been there, done that.

Thanks for thoughts everyone, @TJ - that's exactly the type of experience (quantity/preservation) I was curious about, best wishes on your treatment. Good idea for the mini bags, air decompression, and weekly organizing - question : now that we're all plastic-paranoid, any concerns from you about some of those apparently reactive pills obviously being in close contact with plastic that may not be food grade quality ? (surely those are coming right off a chinese press )

I gonna try a mixture of the cellophane style sandwich and cotton ball plug and see which works best. These supplements are just about like old aspirins in the glass jar, to give an idea for how "soft" they are and not-coated. I didn't think the cotton was used as an anti-shock means - more as a desiccant. Truck driving for 2-3 days or shipping is a lot different than suspending a bottle in a perfect spring in panniers over offroads. It's really the ideal way of making powder.

Remember to keep your prescription with you... It's unlikely to be a problem but the police's ignorance is unpredictable.

Until the ability to ride a bike on tour across the Pacific Ocean exists, the garbage Patch discussion belongs in P&R. I moved those posts there, or will in a moment. The thread is temporarily closed.....back in a couple of minutes, cleaned up, folks.

The Garbage Patch discussion is located at http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...7#post14239547

If you don't have P&R Access, PM me and I'll hook you up..

A few points that got lost in the shuffle here ...

1. You should be able to ask your pharmacist to package your pills into smaller bottles for you. Rather than carrying all 200 pills in one large bottle, have the pharmacist package them in lots of 50. That might be easier to carry and may help preserve them. Also, if you happen to lose a bottle somehow, you'll still have enough pills to get you to another pharmacist.

You might also be able to ask the pharmicist for brands which have coating or something to make them less likely to disintegrate.

2. Carry your prescription. For both travel between countries and also to be able to order more if necessary.

3. Carry your pills in their original bottles. This is especially important for travel between countries.
Advice on how to carry prescription medication: http://www.voyage.gc.ca/Net/drug-tra....aspx?lang=eng

4. Don't travel with any pills that you don't need, or if you do, travel with small quantities of them and buy more along the way as necessary ... especially if you're travelling between countries.

As far as supplements like vitamins and minerals, unless you need a certain dosage for a medical reason, get your vitamins and minerals from your food. Try to eat a well-balanced diet with a variety of foods, and lots of fruit, veg, and whole grains.

One thing you might try is that self sealing plastic wrap to make a "blister pack" of some pills. I did this to carry a small selection of pills in my seat bag.