Capilano Honey Shotz

I've been on Honey Shotz for about a week now so here's some feedback. Being Russian, I'll start with the conclusion - I like them.

Why:

1) Don't know about others, but I can't open gels without using both hands which means I have to let go of my handlebar to open a gel package. It doesn't bother me that much and yet, I'll never forget how Kivilev died - hands in the pockets, fixing his radio and then hitting something on the road. With Capilano Honey Shotz packaging, I can get the sachet, break it and squeeze the honey into my mouth with one hand. I think it's great. Less chance to hit the tarmac, I like it.

2) Once I'm done and put the sachet back into my pocket (yes, I'm trying hard to get rid of some of my Euro roots), it doesn't bleed and hence there's no mess in the pocket. Again, this is because of the packaging design; most of the honey gets squeezed out and whatever is left stays in the sachet.

3) Pleasant aftertaste.

4) Because of the honey's viscosity, it disappears from your mouth real quick without leaving that unpleasant sticky mess pretty much all gels create.

As to how it works, I ended up doing a little experiment this morning. On a 3hr ride, I put myself into a hurt box a few times, all in all about 30min of hard work. After I was done, I still had about 30km to go when the signs of a bonk started to appear. I wasn't setting myself up but I knew it could happen (shmall breaky). I left home with 6 Honey Shotz, 2 were already gone so I had the other 4 at once, washed it down with some water and kept going. 15-20min later I was still feeling very soft in my legs and then I realized I was getting back to almost feeling normal again. I knew the blood's sugar level was OK at that stage. The last time I bonked with 3 gels left in my pocket and 20km to go, I didn't recover.

This is an interesting product and I don't think many people use it because, well, how you're going to get it into your pocket without creating a mess? The closest we ever came to using it is in the panini but instead of using jam, we used honey (learned that from Danish racers).

What I would suggest/recommend to improve the product - I would like to see a little more honey per sachet. Currently it's got 7g (28 Cal) and I end up using 2 every time because 28 Calories is a little low. I think 9-10g (36-40 Cal) per sachet would be good.

Nikolai