Random musings: gloves, hot dogs, 52×28, nutrition
I prefer to ride with no gloves. I’ve always worn gloves until recently. I don’t get along well with padded gloves and the last couple of pairs I’ve bought had no (or very little) padding which suited me well. My favorite is a pair of leather gloves but my biggest problem is when my hands sweat and get the gloves soggy I tend to move around in the gloves a bit. So recently I’ve stared to ride barehanded. I like the feel, my hands don’t get sweaty, but I’m not thrilled as I’m always afraid of hitting the deck and landing on my bare palms. I was a teenager with a bike and a skateboard so I know what road rash on the palms feels like, it’s not good. Also last week on my fondo ride my palms were getting a little sore from such a long ride, something I never experienced before. So I’m on the search for a decent glove thats tight and won’t cause my hand to sweat too much. What say you, gloves yea or nay?
Never eat hot dogs before a ride, bad things happen. ’nuff said
I’ve found that I really like 52×28 on grades up to 5%. Yeah, technically I’m cross chaining but there is something about staying in that big ring.
My lack of proper nutrition at the fondo has prompted me to go back to the drawing board and expand my repertoire. I’m back to testing GU gels again. When I started riding I used them almost exclusively but then I got away from them when I went to more real foods, but on a long ride there is only so many solids I can digest. GU also seems to be the most prevalent thing at supported rides so I just want to make sure I can still tolerate them before I head out on a long ride. It gives me another option to my Honey Stingers, Untapped Maple, Bonk Breakers and Skratch. I’m also very intrigued with the SiS products, especially their gels. Supposedly their gels are isotonic which means it has the same concentration of the fluid make up in the body (or something like that). Essentially it means you can ingest/digest one of their gels w/o needing to take on additional water, unlike all of the other type of gels I’ve used which always say to take with water. Because it’s close to what the human body is doing naturally it will be digested and get into the body quicker. Anyone have any experience with SiS?
Specialized Grail gloves. Check them out, they’re pretty good.
Already have a pair, wore them most of last season. I thought they were terrific at first and just needed some getting used to but now they are ‘meh’. I just really don’t like the palm pad, I prefer no pad. My favorite gloves are Spesh’s 74 gloves but they have stretched and don’t fit as nice as when they were new. If I wear gloves now it’s the Giro SIV’s, but they have more padding then I prefer which is mainly why I’m sans gloves now. I may try a pair of the Zero II’s. which will give me the leather palm I like and a vented upper. Or maybe I won’t…
I’ve got a pair of the 74’s as well. Same problem, and they get a little slippery towards the end of a long day. I kinda like the palm pad in the Grail’s…
Ah, the suggestive sell! Drink our Gel because “it matches the body’s consistency!”
Dude, how do you think a Gu is going to stand up to the acid in one’s stomach? Not well. I can feel the added energy from a standard gel in about 30-50 seconds. That’s good enough for government work.
I take a banana (fresh, almost pre-ripe, so it isn’t mushy) and one Gu with enough caffeine to kick-start a horse for a 100 km ride. Oh, and a spare Gu just in case.
I don’t completely buy the stomach acid argument. If it were that easy we would never have gastric distress – hence why I learned not to eat hot dogs before a ride. 😉
Almost all gels I’ve used (except maybe Untapped, I’d have to check) tell you to drink water with them for a reason, so they get diluted and can be more easily absorbed into the body. SiS is just taking that extra step out of the equation. Gimmick? Maybe, but it can still be another option to try.
On a 100k where I might be out for 3.5hrs, I’ve never had much of an issue with what I usually take (chews, a gel and a bar), what got me was the 6+hour climbing fest where I needed more than I brought myself.
Yep, those six hour days in the hills are rough.
As far as the “what”, I’m a very fortunate fella. I can eat whatever I want and get right back on the bike, including hot dogs. That explains my view… My filter distorts the sample.
I wish I was so lucky!