Beaker

Do any of you switch between Perpetuem and Sustained Energy for longer rides? If so, what makes you choose one or the other, and do you interchange them?

I'm just getting into longer distance riding; I completed my first century a couple of weeks back. I think my fuelling strategy worked out well - I drank 3bottles of perpetuem and 4 bottles of HEED during my ride. When on HEED I popped an extra gel (i.e. ~200cal total) and a couple of endurolytes. Finished my century feeling fresher than I could have hoped (6h 37m; 103miles, 6000ft climbing, ~200cal/hr). The perpetuem really helped, but I don't think I could have used that exclusively - the temperature got to 90F later in the ride and it was just a bit heavy for me by then.

FalconDriver

I've got a jug of each - Perp and SE downstairs.

Increasingly, I'm reaching for the Perp first, as it doesn't make me burp like SE does.

I'll just use one or the other in-ride.

I'll switch from Perp/SE to Heed in-ride if the day gets hot, or lots of climbing.

Beaker

Thanks - I ended up using both last Saturday for the Wine Country Century. Turned out that the weather was windy with lots of rain, so never got to find out how it tasted in warmer temperatures. Seemed to have a similar underlying flavour to Perpetuem, but without the orange/vanilla part.

So far, so good.

borg

From what I understand, both are essentially fuels serving a similar purpose. One has fat, one doesn't. Whatever works for you is the way to go, and I would assume it would be hard to notice any difference between them...but maybe that is just me.

For a while I used to mix HEED and SE in the same bottle, but now I reserve my SE for 3+ hour rides which is very rare for me these days.

Beaker

Likewise, I've been doing quite a few longer rides lately, but anything up to 2-3hrs it's HEED for me. I think a big part of this is getting used to the flavour and texture of perpetuem/SE - first time I tried a free sample from Hammer it felt like I was drinking full fat cream from my water bottles.