I generally make my my own carb drink mix using maltodextrin and fructose, however, for longer days in the saddle, I need to add more carbs. I like to do this with either gels or chews. The problem that I’m finding is that most seem to come in 25-40gram doses. These companies keep suggesting taking between 90 and 120 grams of carbs per hour but then offer their gels in these small doses, requiring carrying 10+ gels. Why is it so rare to find 90 gram of carbs gel/chews? I’ve only ever seen 1 by Precision Hydration. The main reason this is a problem for me is that I broke my tooth opening a gel and now I have a crown. I struggle to open gels, so carrying 10 is less than ideal.
Since you’re already making your own drink mix, have you thought about supplementing with maple syrup? That’s what I do. The Hammer flasks work well to carry it. A Hammer flask of maple syrup is 135 grams carbs.
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According to the Skratchlabs website, their chews come in 76g carb packets - 4 servings per packet, 19g carbs per serving
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Can you elaborate why you need to “add more carbs”?
I don’t understand why you don’t just make more of what you are already making? You mean you put it into two bottles and run out when the bottles run out?
Buy a flask, I have a 300ml and a 500ml one, make your malto/fructose syrup and fill it into the flask. You can get 500g of carbs in a 500ml flask. Just heat with low amount of water to make a syrup. You can then drink the syrup out of the flask or whenever you refill bottles, fill the syrup in the bottles.
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I buy the big bottle of Hammer gel and fill a flask when I need those extra carbs.
I’m missing something… most of the gummies come in 3-4 serving packs, so come close to the hourly carb/calorie target if you eat a whole packet/hour.
If you had a gel packet with 90g of carbs and you consumed 20g and then stuffed it back in a pocket I’m guessing you’ll get some oozing out.
I’d say though the main reason might be they don’t have a lot of people asking for it
For Unbound last year I used Clif Bloks, but upped it from 3 bloks per every 20 min to 4, so from 24g of carbs to 32, for a total of 96g per hour and consuming to packs per hour.
Density is really a tough one to figure out and depending on how long you’re going it’s very possible you can’t carry it all.
Yeah, that could work. Possibly a challenge to stay hydrated too, but I take your point. Just can’t figure out why gels don’t come in larger sizes.
That’s a lot of blocks to carry!
The precision hydration version has a little lid.
Two check points for resupply and 2x 975 bottles with 200g in each. Iwas well fueled.
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With Gels, most people don’t want to put down 90-100g at once (and it’s better to spread it out for multiple reasons) and certainly don’t want to shove a partial gel back in a pocket. Which is why you see 25g and 40g options. If you want more, squeeze them into a flask.
I’ve never had an issue carrying enough gels or fuel for 6+ hours on the bike. Cargo Bibs help too, and you could always use a small top tube bag.
I’ve tried this and it does need practice.
If you get a bit eager you can accidentally mouthful 100g of carbs in one swallow. I’m pretty carb adapted and can do 140/hr in fluid, but this upset my stomach!
Good timing on this thread as I’ve been looking for some more “dense” energy sources for a 12 hour ride I have coming up that has limited places to refuel (3 rest stops but only 1 where I can resupply with gels so 6+ hours of fuel at a time).
Sounds like that 40g is probably the max you’re getting in a single serving of a gel and that leads me to SiS Beta Fuel. Is that a “standard” size gel or do they get the additional carbs by simply throwing in more gel (like the Maurten 160 or PH 90)? Even better, any idea how many ounces it is? Ideally I’d like to get something in bulk so I can fill a flask as I find it a struggle not necessarily to get a gel open but to make sure I’m not littering when putting it away, not to mention carrying around the sticky mess leftover. I’m hoping not to have to carry 4-5 flasks and ideally I want to keep my water bottles for hydration instead of fuel.
EDIT: Answered my own question by a bit more googling…looks like the Beta Fuel is 2oz which puts it pretty close to good old maple syrup for carb density…just 10x the price.
Cargo bibs have become one of my favorite things. I put a few gels in left cargo pocket. A few gels in my jersey pocket. Empty gel wrappers go in right cargo pocket.
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Exactly what I do - hard to ride without them once you’ve started using them.
Big Stash in the rear jersey or bib pockets, smaller stash that I’m grabbing from left leg. Discarded wrappers (and my Dynaplug / Stans Dart) in the right pocket.
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Maurten and SIS Beta Fuel are about the same size for the 40g gels. They’re larger in size, you just need fewer of them.
If you want bulk, buy these and fill flasks, or just throw a bottle in a jersey pocket 
The issue I have with those is I don’t see any Fructose, and you can’t tell the carb ratio. I personally like the 1:0.8 of the Maurten and SIS.
Maybe what I should actually be looking for is easy to open 40gram gels. I broke my tooth opening the old school sis gel.
