Tired of plastic zip lock bags and mushy electrolyte capsules?
3 years in development and testing, and available in early 2006, the Saltstick ™ is a unique, patent pending, holder and dispenser for nearly all electrolyte (salt) capsules on the market. One-handed operation and water resistant, this nifty dispenser fits INSIDE many tri bars and MTB bars, many carbon steerer tubes or can be attached on the frame, and holds 5-6 capsules.
The Saltstick ™ Mini is a smaller version that fits INSIDE road drop bars and holds 3 capsules.
Saltstick prototypes were used in Kona by several pro and age-group athletes including the 2004 Men’s winner and 2004 Women’s 2nd place. Check out the NBC broadcast this weekend and see if you can spot the little red dot in use.
Photo: Kona 2005.
Please visit the website for more info: www.Saltstick.com and look for this new product in upcoming issues of Velonews and Triathlete Magazine.
That looks pretty cool but it can’t hold a lot of tabs for those of us who have really salty sweat. Save your money and do tic tac boxes (each can hold 11 thermolytes) and velcro to the top tube. Works great.
True, with 2 dispensers installed (1 in each aerobar) you can hold and dispense only 12 capsules, but I don’t know too many athletes who use more than that in Ironman races. Besides, you could always reload from special needs- reloading is easy, by pushing the capsules back in through the nozzle. Plus, doesn’t the rattling noise from the Tic Tac box drive you insane, not to mention dropping the capsule now and then?
They actually don’t make much noise on the bike; moreso on the run. I know several people who do up to 1000 mg sodium per hour in the heat. This kept me from cramping at Florida too. For me I leanred the hard way how much sodium I need after I ended up in the med tent at timberman needing two IV bags. I just happen to have very salty sweat.
I use one of those little containers that they sell those little M&M’s in. OF course I do eat the m&m’s first. They hold alot of tabs, fits easily in your pocket, one handed use with the flip open top. And, it costs less than 1 dollar. Its not water proof, but then again, I dont carry my tabs on the swim.
COOL looks pretty much like one I drew up last year. Problem I ran into was that you couldn’t fit all that many salt tablets in end to end like that. How many can you fit in there? I love how it fits in the bar, never thought of that. How does it dispense, is there a plunger motion which pops the tablet out! I finally decided to stack them like Pez in a Pez dispenser to fit more tablets but then I got bored and gave up;)
The best container I found was the flip top skittles mint container. You could fit as many salt tabs as you needed for an entire IM, the flip top makes it easy to use on the bike, and because its flat it fits comfortably in your jersey.
I just use the powdered stuff from Hammer and put directly into my water bootles or just open the capsules and pour into your bottles, then you have one less thing to worry about…
Seems like a good idea, but not a great one. Like some of the other posters above, I don’t think it holds enough salt to be worthwhile over the IM distance. When I race, I take 3 Thermolyte tabs per hour, 4 if it’s especially hot. I’m unlucky enough to be a high salt rate guy. I can’t imagine reloading the thing every two hours. Maybe over the 1/2 IM distance it’d be useful.
My state of the art salt carrying system costs me nothing - I stop by the local photomat once per year, and pick up 4-5 empty film cannisters. It holds a ton of stuff, and it’s fairly easy to manage. It’s far from perfect, and the rattling sound can be annoying, but for the cost it’s money.
I’d like to see more thought and development go into this kind of product. I think there’s a real need there that can be addressed by something like this that has a greater carrying capacity that can easily be attached to the bike frame.
