To Camelbak or not

[irishpitbull]

I’m doing a bunch of NUE series events (100miles events) this year, I did local endurance racing but they laps on small loop where most of the NUE events will be one griant loop. I was wondering, are guys running paks? We get two bag drops along the way so I was gonna just throw 2 bottles in each drop bag and run two scoops of Infinit per bottle which would meet my calorie intake per hour in one bottle.

The problem I’m running into is starting with 2 bottles (1 hour per bottle) with 2 bag drops only gives me 6 hours of nutrition, I’m planning on being on the bike 8-10 hours. So I think I will carry 4 baggys of drink mix to at the aid stations.

Now the camel can carry 4 hours of nutrition, but it is so heavy. Loaded I think was like 10 pounds (Lugo model 100oz).

In short I guess I’m just asking what other people are doing.

Thanks

[Greg Heil ✓ supporter]

This is a good question. I’m doing my first 100 mile race in April and I’ve been wondering about this myself.

Right now, I’m thinking about going with one bottle on the bike and 2 liters of water on my back, and refilling at the aid stations as needed. But I’m really interested to see what people with experience have done!

[MTI]

After yesterdays ride I was thinking of the same thing. My Camelbak was way too heavy and I only drank 1.5 liters of water and a water bottle of gatorade in the 35 miles but than again the average temp was only 45 degrees. I looked at some online pics and it looks like the pro’s dont carry the packs just the water bottles. I think with the rest stops with water refills I am going to use my smaller 2 liter back adn drop the small first aid kit and extra crap I carry. Gregg I hope some of the experienced riders give their suggestions as you wrote in your last post.

Now trying to drop my Camelbak weight I have a question. My new bike is set up tubleless. I will have a 2oz of Stan’s. In the event of a flat (I know Jeff had one when he ran into heat problems last summer and I think he was tubeless) should I carry a tube? May be a dumb question but I don’t know much about tubeless.

[Corey Maddocks ✓ supporter]

"MTI" wrote

should I carry a tube? May be a dumb question but I don’t know much about tubeless.

Yes, carry a spare tube, and a Park Tools tire boot kit.
http://goo.gl/q3Bv0

[fleetwood]

"maddslacker" wrote

[quote="MTI":2kxvtmpi]should I carry a tube? May be a dumb question but I don’t know much about tubeless.

Yes, carry a spare tube, and a Park Tools tire boot kit.
http://goo.gl/q3Bv0[/quote:2kxvtmpi]
+1 on the tire boot kit.

[irishpitbull]

Just follow up on what I have desided to do. I purchased this from REI. [url:307td568]http://www.showerspass.com/veleau-1[/url:307td568] It holds 42oz of drink and has space for tools and I hope a tube.

I will also carry bottle in the cage and an extra baggy or two of mix in the pocket and have some at the drops if needed.

any thoughts?

[Greg Heil ✓ supporter]

I just got an email from Cohutta 100, and apparently there will be 8 aid station passes, 6 of which you can have drop bags at. With that many passes, I imagine that you could easily ride it with just bottles!

However, I imagine that not all races have quite as many aid stations.

[gar29]

"irishpitbull" wrote

Just follow up on what I have desided to do. I purchased this from REI. [url:22xlfniq]http://www.showerspass.com/veleau-1[/url:22xlfniq] It holds 42oz of drink and has space for tools and I hope a tube.

That’s pretty cool, I’ve never seen one of those! Might be interesting for my road bike on one those extra long rides. I’d love to hear how it works.

[MTI]

I still think I will ride with my smaller 2 liter Camelbak and leave the 3 liter Mule Camelbak at home. I will feel more comfortable with extra hydration even with the extra aid stations. I remember Jeff saying they ran low on water last year at some aid stations. I rode with the small camelbak it the other day and it was so much more comfortable than the mule. I did not realize how heavy and BULKY the Mule is. I’ll keep that for my rides when I won’t be near a water source but for the race I am going smaller.

[Dustin Gaddis]

I’ve done a few of the long races, but never a 100 miler. It all depends on the course IMO. If there are aid stations less than 2hrs apart, go with two bottles. Send ziplock baggies ahead with 1bottle worth of your drink mix powder in them to each aid station. If you can’t send stuff ahead to each aid station, carry the ziplock baggies in your jersey pocket. Use the small ‘snack’ size baggies, they’re easier to deal with than the sandwhich size.

If you think you’ll need more, look into a minimalist camelbak. I’ve got one that carries 50oz and has a pocket just barely big enough to carry a set of keys, and that’s it. It’s great. Light weight, small ‘footprint’ on your back. With that plus two bottles you should be set.

If you’re not used to riding with bottles, race day isn’t the day to start using them. You need to make sure you’re drinking enough, and that’s easier to do with a pack. Especially if the terrain is really technical, bottles are hard to use. For the Snake, even though I could get away with bottles as far as time/sag distance/etc is concerned, there’s few places I want to take a hand of the bars for more than a second. I use a pack. If you’re doing Cohutta, with lots of gravel, bottles are easy.

For races I tend to not carry much repair stuff as far as tools are concerned. I use a saddle bag with a tube, co2, minitool, spare derailleur hanger (get one of these if you don’t have one!) and a few powerlinks for the chain.It all fits in a medium size saddle bag and it will cover 99% of anything that might happen. Make sure your bike is tuned up and in good condition before the race.

Here’s a quick post I wrote a while back on getting ready for a big event: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-re … bike-prep/

Hope some of that helps!

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