You’re very welcome! 
I used to do this for 3 hour racey group rides where there was no stopping unless you were dropped.
I do a orange gatorade / maltodextrin mix. When I try to cram calories in one bottle, I go with more malto since it has very little taste. A little bit of salt (sodium citrate) seems to dampen the sugar taste.
I bought a USWE for gravel fondos. I carried 1200 calores for a 5 hour event (300 grams) with just water in one bottle. I finished it about 3/4 the way though but then found more gatorade and water at a pit stop. Plus I ate some bars and a couple of bananas.
All in all, the USWE was pretty awesome. My buddies started lagging on the final hills because they didn’t have that extra 1200 calories on board. I guess the other way is to carry 10 or 15 gels. The USWE wasn’t uncomfortable and supposedly provides a tiny aero advantage.
I’ve had good results with doing 6 to 8 scoops of Roctane in a large bottle. Each scoop is 125 cal so effectively a gel plus a little. In a 24 oz bottle that means every 2-4oz = gel. 3 oz is about 1 medium big pull on a bottle. When I do this I wear a uswe pack with 2L of plain water.
For a long ride where I have water stops I’ll carry the 2nd bottle w/ dry mix and hydrate it at a water stop to save weight.
Effectively what you have is a bottle full of 1/2 strength gels that are much less fussy to consume. And fresh water you can drink after which helps with taste fatigue. Plus no garbage. This also gives you the option of taking small sips more frequently, or bigger pulls if you’re behind on calories. Much more versatile than gels overall.
Yeah. This is definitely an approach I’ve considered. I do like untapped maple syrup so I usually have those so I can mix things up. I just don’t care to need to open 2 or more gel packs per hour. Untapped are probably the easiest to open and consume quickly.
I’ve switched from gels to 2 5oz flasks of maple syrup. Got the flasks from Hammer Nutrition. Much easier to deal with than gels and no trash.
Don’t eat too much sugar, your cholesterol might get too high. JK.
Yes, you can make one concentrated bottle and one bottle of just water. I do this fairly often, actually. I’ve gone north of 120g/24 oz with dextrose/fructose, or maltodextrin/fructose combo. I bet 200g is doable, just make sure you shake it before you take a swig, as it may be more a suspension than a solution at that point. =)
I’ve done 400 grams of sugar in a 1.5 L bladder easily, and I expect I could do more. I’d just suggest using hot water initially to get it to dissolve. I put in less than half a litre of hot water and it dissolves pretty much immediately with a little light agitation. Then you can either add ice if you need it cooled quickly or just put it in the fridge as needed.
From all the other responses you’ll see that to make a concentrated bottle or flask, most people are using some combination of drink mix/maltodextrin/sugar. The first attempts I made to increase carbs was indeed just adding extra scoops of commercial drink mix, but I found that the concentration of flavour went up much more than the concentration of carbs and it became very difficult to drink!
I do this with my Infinit a lot. For Steamboat Gravel, I wore an USWE pack with just water and had two bottles on my frame with each containing around 1000 calories per bottle. I mark the bottles so I know how much I am consuming. Each time I take a sip of nutrition, I also take a big gulp of water to help dilute it in my belly. So far, I have not had any problems doing this (and I consider myself as someone with a sensitive gut).
I do 300g of sugar in a 750ml bottle for brevets. Usually I get lucky and that fuels me to the control point. I like to keep the carbs separate is I can rinse my mouth, and only have one crusty bottle to clean. It’s an old school pop-top so they don’t mould like camelbaks did.
So i tried this out today. I had a 4 hour ride with a lot of water stops so I could always just dilute the concentration if I didn’t like it. I did 8 scoops of skratch in a 950ml so concentrated but not as much so as some. I just planned to do 1/4 of the bottle each hour and then gels and other food for the rest of my nutrition. I just drank the skratch maybe 2-3 times an hour. Drank water the rest of the day. That actually worked well because I’d was very hot I drank a lot of plain water. The skratch was sweet but more than tolerable. Certainly in the heat having plain water was nice
I did a 100 mile 5:36 hour gravel race yesterday using a Trek Voda 34oz bottle with 600g of carbs. I divided the bottle into 6 parts and put lines on the bottle with a sharpie. Then I just made sure at the end of each hour I was down to the next line, sipping every 15 minutes. No issues and it worked great. Good enough for 4th place overall with a 2 hour solo effort to finish (in a torrential downpour no less).
What was your mix?
Gatorade powder, sugar and sodium citrate.
I have started (since March race season) to make a concentrated carb (2 servings/bidon) mix in two 800ml bidons and carry a full 2L USWE plain water for hydration. I also supplement with SIS gels every 40 minutes.
One serving of my carb mix is malto:fructose 1:08 76:58g with 6g Sodium Citrate and 3g Potassium Chloride (total 143g). Two servings go into one Bidon. Take two such bidons on the bike.
No cramps, no bonking, races are milers between 5-7 hours. Has saved time stopping at aid stations and from being dropped from the lead group. Means I have been in contention for results/podiums.
This is done when there is no allowance for outside support. Otherwise will still do the same or drop and grab if allowed.
Working for me but I had to test myself to get to these quantities. Wasn’t an overnight thing.
Naturally taking small shots/sips from the Bidon every 9 minutes and water every 11 minutes.
If possible, will take a handout of water/coke when passing an aid station but not imperative I do.
Don’t have any solids on my rides.
Also means I have done a solid carb load the day before aka Dr Tim Podlogar style and eaten (carb replenish) before on race day/morning.
With a blender, 300g of maltodextrin/sugar/fructose/whatever your mix is, in a regular “large” 24oz bottle is pretty easy and you can do 400g if you push it. That much sugar nearly fills an empty bottle alone…it is a freakishly large amount.
Joe
I think that you need to be careful with how you make your concentrate. Simple sugars as a concentrate could lead to GI distress because of the osmolarity especially if mixed with electrolytes. That’s why Skratch uses cyclic dextrans in their Super Carb mix. That’s why Maureen uses a hydrogel. The idea with both of these is that the absorption is largely delayed until the product is in the small intestine.
Some people have issues digesting maltodextrin too. But I am not a nutritionist and YMMV
That’s marketing BS, you just need to train the gut. I just finished a race with 600g of carbs in one 34oz bottle. That was consumed in 5 hours with under 3 liters of water that I drank to thirst.
Not sure it is marketing BS as gut to serum osmolality differences are known to cause gi distress. That is after all how many stool softeners work. As an example Miralax is not absorbed and the osmotic differences is what causes diarrhea when you take too much or have a prep for a colonoscopy.
I said I was not a nutritionist but the MD in VikingMD did take some studying and knowledge of gut physiology.
always wondered about the magic behind the “colon blow” medicine taken before a colonoscopy.