I typically use a combination of Gatorade Endurance Gels, SIS Caffeine Gels, and the Untapped packets.
Clif shot citrus has been my gel of choice this year. No GI issues and the 25mg of caffeine is manageable for the longer efforts.
I like the SIS gels. The only flavor I didnāt care for was berry because it tasted like cough medicine. If you listen to enough cycling podcasts, one or more is usually mentioning a 25% discount code.
I usually take SIS, GU, or hammer gels on every ride but I use these often on my groups ride and trainer workouts as they taste great and are super cheap. Amazon.com
If I just considered my favorite to be the gel that Iāve consumed the most of bar none, would be SiS Lime gels. Theyāre easy to take it always due to the easy flavor profile and you can get them cheap. I just recently tried the SiS Salted Strawberry and Iāll certainly be going back to get more since the flavor was real nice.
When I want to get the āgoodā gel for big, long events, my favorite gel is Gu Roctanes. Lemonade or Blueberry Pomegranate. Regular Gu has good chocolate flavors.
My third favorite 
might be Honey Stinger gels, just because they have a unique flavor and I have responded well to them.
For races: Hammer gel in a flask (mixture: 4 gel/1 water). Easy to consume with 1 hand.
For group/solo rides: Clif Blocks* and/or Hammer gel in package (no tagged top, but consumed at rest stops so no litter issue)
*ā also consumable during race if package pre-opened, but less easy to digest at speed.
SiS work for me an donāt give me any tummy problems, favourite flavour currently is vanilla
Iāll need to start mixing them with water to get a better taste for them. As it stands now eating them all straight ā¦ I think itās the texture of it but they all just taste awful
Iād be interested to know more about your recipe and process, how you store it, how long they keep, etc. Flavoring for me is the tricky part - Iāve been using āreal lemonā powder, which is OK, but Iād like to find something better. Iāve moved to mostly my own electrolyte mix, and Iād be interested to be able to something with gels.
Iām a big fan of making my own gels. It saves a ton of money. I get my hydration/salt from Osmo in my water bottles, so I donāt add any salt to this. Hereās the recipe I go for that give me about 5oz of gel thatāll fit into a Gu Flask.
Ingredients
- 150g maltodextrin
- 100 to 140 g water depending on how thick I want it
- 2 packets of True Lime or True Grapefruit (this gives the flavor and citric acid is needed to gel)
- 15 g Sure Jell fruit pectin
- Bring the water to a boil in a kettle then pour it into a glass bowl and add the True Lime
- Add 50g of maltodextrin at a time to the bowl and mix with a hand beater, the malto dissolves easily but I mix it for a minute or two
- Pour the mixture into a small sauce pan and heat up to just below boiling
- Mix in the pectin and keep the heat up for another minute or two while stirring
- Let it cool and put it into a flask, which I keep in the refrigerator
Iām also toying with replacing some of the maltodextrin with fructose to get that 2:1 glucose to fructose ratio for longer rides and upping the carbohydrate intake per hour. And since itās a 10 or 15 minute process, I have a few Gu Flasks and will make a big batch, filling up a couple flasks at once. So long as thereās no air in the flasks and is refrigerated, itāll store just fine.
Iāve had good experiences with the Maurten gel, and Iām going to try replicating their hydrogel. All the ingredients are available on ModernistPantry.com, and I donāt think you need to heat the ingredients to make the hydrogel, which is just the modernist cooking spherification - sodium alginate and calcium carbonate should gel at room temp. I think as long as itās stored in a flask with the air squeezed out since itāll absorb moisture from the air, it should keep.
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Sure, hereās what I do:
For a batch of 1800gr I use
- 750 gr water
- 700 gr maltodextrin
- 360 gr fructose
- sea salt
- a dash of vodka (I donāt know what it does, but it was part of the original recipe)
I carefully heat the water to about 70C and then mix in the ingredients, stirring a lot because the fructose tends to clump. When itās a homogeneous liquid I add flavoring and pour it these tiny plastic cups we used to keep baby food. Like these
For flavoring I use fresh lime juice and ground cinnamon, for the recipe above about 6 limes and half a teaspoon cinnamon. The final product tastes almost a bit like coke. The consistency is much like power bar gel or high5 hydro gel, could be made thicker with less water in the recipe.
I put it in the deep freezer at -10C where it keeps forā¦ I donāt know. Weeks at least. For rides and runs I take it out the night before and transfer it to a Soft flask
Buying bulk this recipe comes down to about 4,80ā¬/kg (compared to 40-60 for GU and 60-90 for Roctane) and delivers 230cal/100ml.
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Thanks to everyoneās advice here, lots of support for SiS. I actually got to try one on a ride Saturday, I believe apple flavor, and it was pretty decent, was just surprised at how large the packet was.
Just ordered a bunch of these for myself, SiS has so many good deals it was hard to pass up. Ended up getting 2 of the Ultimate Samplers, and 2 of the Isotonic Variety Packs, $15 off, free shipping, all said and done got 34 for $40
I donāt know if you are aware of this (@Pete also mentioned it on the podcast once) but if you squeeze the clif blocks package, one side pops open and you can easily get the blocks out one at a time.
I wasnāt aware of this before, but itās a game changer!
Iāve always noticed the light perforations or whatever there, but never figured out how to open the thing, this is a game changer for sure!
I actually learned about that from @Jonathan on one of the podcasts as well - yes, its pretty cool. I use them on group rides, and really like them. However, I found the gel easier to swallow at speed. I may try doing both in 2020 races.
For those using the SiS, how many are you consuming per hour? I typically only go through 2 hammer or Gu gels per ride, 2 typically only if Iām doing something close to 100mi
This is less a question about the gel brand than about caloric consumption in general.
Nearly every brand of gel has about the same calorie total (90-100 calories), so how many you eat an hour should not vary based on brand but instead based on your needs and what else you are eating
As for the answer to your question - there is no universal approach for this across riders or even ride types
For me - if Iām out cruising around doing an endurance ride (i.e. Iām not focused on performance) I will often consume very little, perhaps 160 calories an hour between my bottles, gels, bars, bananas, whatever Iāve got with me.
If Iām doing something performance focused I will eat significantly more. During long but intense road races I will typically consume around 350-450 calories per hour.
If Iām doing something that is, for me, extreme in duration (6+ hours) then I will set aside intensity and consume closer to the 350-450 range
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Torq Summer Shandy flavour.
I saw these and gave them a try. Reminded me of my youth.
I wonder if someone will bring out a Malbec and Prosecco flavoured alternative for a more refind pallet?
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Depends on training vs. racing situation but Maurten 100 gel is my go-to now, especially for running. Havenāt found another gel thatās so easy on the gut and effective and you donāt need water for the gel. Maurten 300 mix is great too.
Just ordered a box on your recommendation!
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