Someone told me mixing sports drink, eg., Gatorade, with water, would keep the contents of the bottle from freezing. They were wrong. As I rode alone today (all my other pals wimped out because of the weather), I prudently brought two bottles. I even stopped for 15 minutes in Piermont for coffee (oops, I forgot to bring the water inside with me!), but by the time I hit 501 going back, I had slushies. I do have the insulated Polar bottles, but they're harder to grab with full gloves. Anyone have any other suggestions?
By the way, it was good seeing you, Jay, both ways on 501!
Morene
Frozen water/sports drink
When I ride below 35 degrees F I wear the classic (thin) camelbak under my winter jacket. You will also have to keep the mouthpiece within the jacket too so that it doesn't freeze and break.
I rode once when it was so cold that when I accidently spilled some water while leaning over my front wheel. When the water hit the spokes it instantly froze. Yikes!. (The wind chill made it feel about 10 degrees below zero F.)
Morene, when it's below 30 with a wind chill, here's an exercise that I find to be the most effective at keeping me comfortably hydrated.
From a standing position facing your couch, turn 180 degrees, bend your knees, and lower your hips onto the couch. Raise your right leg at 90 degrees and set it on a stability ball or footstool, whichever is handy. Repeat with left leg.
Now for the weight-bearing part of the series. Lift with both hands the five-pound Sunday New York Times that you've set nearby and place it on your lap. Repeat this motion 10 times or until fatigue sets in. Take a recovery period by unfolding the front page and reading until the section is complete. Repeat these moves move until you have completed the entire paper (discarding the Autos and Sports sections.) If you have any unread papers from the previous week, you can also add them to your routine.
Completing the whole sequence can take several hours, so be careful to properly hydrate during the process. I start with a fully caffeinated double capuccino, followed by a decaf version (so as to not over-stress my heart). By early afternoon, I have begun to alternate between Pellegrino and sauvignon blanc. Because the latter can withstand several hours of frigid temps before freezing, it's an ideal weekend sports beverage.
Good luck!
Camel Back makes a slim pack with insulated hose and a compartment for inserting hand warmers to keep the contents from freezing.
Add some gin, a dash of dry vermouth and one or two green olives for good measure to your bidon and you should be good to go.
Thanks for the quick responses. Carol, thanks for the chuckles!
Morene
add some salts (potassium chloride or sodium chloride) to your mix and the freezing temp will be lower, meaning that you stand a better chance of not having your bidon frozen (though I wouldn't recommend pouring the stuff down your shorts since it only works that way with liquids).
and how much will the salts reduce the freezing temperature? Enough that the stuff won't freeze at 20F?
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99263.htm
The salinity of seawater is about the same as one teaspoonful (level? heaping? unknown) of salt in a glass of water (8oz? 12oz? also unknown). Yuck.
I use about 1/2 teaspoon of potassium chloride in each bottle, which also includes a few oz of mix of apple juice +/- 1/2 pureed banana + water. I haven't had any freezing problems despite riding in 25 degree weather for 5 hours (recent century ride). So that seems to work. Also the potassium is a more useful electrolyte than sodium and it helps prevent cramps (which is why I put it in, not to lower the freezing point of my drink; I usually don't go out when it's that cold!).
As for the yuck factor, let's just say that the apple and/or banana mask it and I can tolerate a little saltiness in return for no cramps. This would also work with cytomax and accelerade etc. but why pay so much?
What is the exact brand and model glove you were wearing for that 25 degree century?
I got some descente gloves that do a great job of keeping my fingers warm in similar temps but my thumb gets really cold.
I used standard fingerless cycling gloves with cheap fleece liners. It wasn't supposed to be 25 the whole day, but it pretty much was (it got up to 35 by the end). Result? By mile 45 I couldn't feel my hands. My normal winter glove is this: a cheap nylon glove I got in Chinatown for $5. Works great! even if it's ugly. And has 5 fingers so operating the brakes etc is ok. A little bulky but hey, beats spending $65 on those Pearl Izumi gloves.
FYI I found this site with some info on freezing point depression in salt solutions (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/meltpt.html). Looks like a 10% solution would do the trick for most riding, though it would prob taste horrible!
I went on a 60-mile ride in Minnesota recently. There was no snow at all but when the ride got started it was -15 below and later warmed up to a balmy +17 degrees. I very tightly taped with athletic/paper tape (the porous kind) 6 individual air-activated hand warmers to each water bottle and it stayed liquid and fit in water cages just fine once I bent them out slightly. I on the other hand, halfway into the ride abandoned the slow-moving group I was with and furiously rode home at 20-22 mph without the benefit of a paceline. I’ve NEVER been so cold in my life! When I did finally make it back I was surprised at how good I actually felt. So, I guess it was a good ride after all.