Thursday, December 08, 2005

Cheap gel flasks?

Where, oh where, can I find gel flasks cheap enough to throw away on the course instead of having to bring them home and clean them out? It seems that they should be cheaper than water bottles, but they're not. Maybe it's a supply-and-demand thing. The best prices that I could find are:



Tri-sports.com sells these 4-ounce flasks for $2.25 each in quantities of 5.







National Running Center sells these 6-ounce flasks for $3.99 each.

The best price that I could find on eBay was $1.80 per flask (shipping included) for four 4-ounce flasks. That's getting closer, but....

Those prices just seem too high to me. I'd like to find about six 6-ounce flasks for under $1.50 each. Maybe I should do like Ellie and just use cleaned-out mustard bottles. But I don't even eat that much mustard! Or maybe an old Elmer's Glue bottle?






Update: Thanks to Rob Buethling for pointing these out to me, at the Container Store. They might work, probably leak less, and are only $0.99 each for the 4-ounce version! Plus they would probably fit in my bento box on my bike better! Great find! Except I can't walk into that store without dropping $100 or more, so it might not be a money-saver in the long run!!!








Update 2: Yay! Dale from TRI-DRS found 5-ounce gel flasks on sale for a buck apiece at the Hammer Nutrition site! SOLD! Why not splurge and get a dozen!?

4 comments:

Fe-lady said...

How about a baggie (heavy duty) and you can bite a hole in one of the corners...uh-now I have never tried this mind you, but at least you will be able to throw it away! (And it's cheap!) Also-have you tried the Clif Blocks (Blox)? They are kinda like a gummy bear in consistency- I think they are good and lass messy than gells and you can just throw them in a pocket (clean out the lint first! :-)) They are fruit flavored...they need chocolate in MY opinion!

Nancy Toby said...

Um... I need to carry it for about 20 miles in the marathon. I think I would be wearing a lot of gel (YUCK!) with the hole-bitten baggie technique!!

Nancy Toby said...

And oh yeah, I make my own gel. That's part of the whole reason I need these.

Ellie Hamilton said...

You can get little bottles like these in Wal-Mart for $.50-$.99, in the cosmetics section, either separately or in "travel-sets" with various sizes in a package. I'm also perusing mustard etc. bottles for possibilities. I've discovered you need one in which the hole is off-center... if it's centered the flip-cap gets in your way while trying to sip out of the hole.