Make SIS BETA fuel yourself just a few pence per bottle

[Dr_Alex_Harrison]

@trailhead

1. A little gatorade (or other drink mix), 1/2 tsp table salt and sodium citrate - fill up with normal sugar
2. A little gatorade (or other drink mix), 1/2 tsp table salt and sodium citrate - fill up with Malto (e.g. from bulksupplements.com for ~$10/kg) and Fructo (e.g. from bulksupplements.com for ~$11/kg) in 1:.8 ratio.

Primary goals for 2. would be to get less of a sweet taste (can do for 1-2h, but goal events are 10h+, where I usually get pallet fatigue) and optimize Gluc:Fruc ratio.
The cost difference is probably somewhere at ~$80 for around 12kg of drink mix (which should last ~3 months) - considering overall spending on cycling, this doesn’t seem too bad and still very cheap compared to Beta Fuel, Skratch etc.

Do y’all think that’s worth it or pointless optimization?

Option 3: use some sugar + malto + fruc and can accomplish all that number 2 accomplishes, but lower cost.

@trailhead

If going for 2, would Glucose be better than Maltodextrose?

No. Worse, if anything.

@trailhead

My limited chemical understanding is that Malto is basically just multiple Glucose molecules chained together.

Correct.

@trailhead

I also read that Malto supposedly tastes less sweet (or not at all)

Maltodextrin is less sweet than glucose.

Maltodextrin also has lower osmolarity than glucose, and while minimally important by comparison to overall energy density of the beverage for gut tolerance, osmolarity may matter in some small way, too.