Sugar Water as Fuel - My recipe

There's something you quickly notice the more you ride at a higher pace for longer - nutrition costs keep adding up. Over the years, I have found myself scooping out less fuel-mix into my bottles or eating fewer gels in a bid to save some cash.

This (on hindsight) was foolish.

As RedWhite became more successful, I allowed myself a larger budget for on-bike nutrition. This included boxes of SIS gels and bags of Tailwind Nutrition's endurance fuel. I like both products and they'e good. Easy on the stomach and the fuel hits quickly.

They are expensive though. In Singapore, a 50 serving bag of Tailwind costs $75. 1 serving has 25g of carbohydrates. In order to fuel a 2 hour ride, I typically use 4 scoops for a total of 100g of carbs (50g / hour). This is insufficient for harder rides and I typically complement this with SIS gels (1 gel an hour with 25g of carbs) for a total of 75g / hour. 

I buy a pack of 30 SIS gels on sale for roughly $70. This means on a hard 2 hour ride, my fuel cost is $10.67. Not all my rides are hard and on easier efforts, I go through only 4 scoops of Tailwind over 3-4 hours. I should consume more, but it's expensive.

I typically ride 10 hours a week and this goes up to 15 hours 6-8 weeks out from a bikepacking trip. Last year, I did 360 hours on the bike. Assuming I fuelled at a rate of $5 / hour (based on that $10.62 cost for 2 hours), my cost for the year would be $1800.

Can I afford it - yes. As a business owner, I am making enough a year to pay this. However, I grew up with frugal habits and the first 34 years of my life was spent at a relatively frugal state (building a business means you don't pay yourself much for years).

I simply cannot accept spending so much on what is basically sugar and salt - so it was time I started making my own sugar water.

Cost Breakdown

When I say sugar water, I literally mean that. 

I got a 1kg (2 lbs) bag of cane sugar. The cheapest house brand from the supermarket. This cost me $1.80

I measure out 60g per hour for my Zone 2 rides (goes up to 90g / hour for hard rides). Assuming I train myself to consume 100g / hour, the cost will be $0.18 / hour. For a 360 hour training year, this works out to $64.80

Does it work?

To be frank, it takes some getting used to. The mix is hyper sweet. You will need to put up with this and take some time to get used to it. 

I also find that it takes a bit longer to digest and hit your muscles compared to an engineered mix from the big brands. This means you need to always stay on top of your fuelling and fuel ahead of when you need it.

How to make it

Put all the sugar you weighed out into saucepan. Measure out the amount of water your container will hold (250ml in my case) and pour into the pan.

You can simply leave it at this point and the sugar will dissolve into the water. However, gently warming up the water speeds up the process. You'll get a nice solution that's hyper sweet in a few minutes.

You can add salt and flavouring to take some of the edge off the sweetness. I use 300mg of salt per hour and a splash of lemon flavouring. 

You can use real lemon juice as well. I just can't be bothered to buy and keep lemons and pre-squeezed lemon juice concentrate costs more. 

When I mean cheap - I really mean cheap.

Eventually, your sugar-water solution will look like this. Let it cool down to room temp and put it into a container of choice. My recommendation is to use a soft hydration flask that runners use. I like the 250ml one because it fits easily into 1 back pocket. You can use a 500ml one as well - but do note that they will stick out a fair bit in your rear pocket.

And that's about it. 

What about that 1:0.8 ratio between glucose and fructose? You can absolutely do that and it should fix the speed of digestion. However, I just can't be bothered to optimise that since the simple mix works well enough. 

I finish my rides feeling well fuelled and only notice a lag in sugar hitting the system - something I fixed by simply consuming more upfront. Before the ride starts, I take a big swig of the mix (1/4 of the flask).

I hope you found this email useful and I hope you consider giving sugar water a try. The cost savings are truly tremendous. 

I plan on using my savings on an upcoming cycling trip in Taiwan in mid May 2025.