DIY Sports Fuel Recipes
One long-form teardown per product: the recipe, a shopping list with specific SKUs, the carb-and-sodium math behind the formula, and an honest read on when the commercial product is actually worth paying for. Every recipe matches the brand on carbs, glucose-to-fructose ratio, and sodium — sourced from bulk ingredients that cost a fraction of retail.
Not sure how many carbs/hr you actually need? See targets by activity & duration →
Published Teardowns
DIY Maurten Gel 100: the gel half of the $3.50 hydrogel argument
The gel-format companion to Maurten's flagship drink mix — same alginate-pectin chemistry in a squeeze-pouch, even harder to justify on the matched-dose evidence at gel viscosities. Texture is the part DIY genuinely can't replicate.
·By Croix
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DIY Neversecond C30: the research-forward gel without the $3.50 price tag
Co-founded by Asker Jeukendrup, one of the most-cited researchers in modern carbohydrate-fueling science. The marketing cites papers where competitors cite palmares — and the formula is exactly what the literature would predict.
·By Croix
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DIY Maurten 320: the same 1:0.8 formula for a fraction of the price
The drink that made the alginate-pectin hydrogel a household name in the WorldTour peloton. Real chemistry, contested performance benefit, and a maltodextrin-and-fructose backbone that mixes cleanly at home.
·By Croix
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DIY Precision PF 30: replace the fuel, not the sweat test
Precision's real product isn't the gel — it's the personalized sweat-test number that tells you your hourly sodium loss. DIY can replace the fuel cleanly, but the test is what makes their decoupled system actually work.
·By Croix
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DIY GU Roctane: the premium-tier GU gel without the $2.40 markup
The race-day variant of the gel that brought energy gels to the US in 1993. Same maltodextrin-and-fructose backbone as standard GU, with a meaningful sodium upgrade and a small amino-acid blend layered on top.
·By Croix
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DIY SiS Beta Fuel: the most copyable branded fuel on the shelf
The most copyable branded fuel on the shelf. SiS's own marketing materials spell out the formula — there's no proprietary blend, no hydrogel trade secret, just commodity sugars at a research-backed ratio.
·By Croix
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DIY Tailwind High Carb: 90g of race fuel from grocery-store sugar
Tailwind's answer to the race-day premium tier, built without a hydrogel, without cluster dextrin, without a proprietary blend. Just dextrose, maltodextrin, fructose, and a generous sodium dose — exactly what you'd mix from grocery-store ingredients.
·By Croix
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DIY Skratch Super High-Carb: the glucose-heavy outlier, copied honestly
The glucose-heavy outlier in the high-carb category. Skratch skipped the dual-transporter optimum and bet on cluster dextrin's low osmolality instead — a defensible, expensive, and partially copyable design choice.
·By Croix
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DIY Skratch Sport Hydration: real-fruit flavor without the $1 scoop
Allen Lim's real-fruit hydration drink — moderate-carb honesty for all-day gravel rides and conversational long runs. Cane sugar, dextrose, lemon zest, salt. The closest thing in the category to a public recipe.
·By Croix
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DIY Tailwind Endurance: tune sodium to your own sweat rate
Tailwind's appeal is the one-scoop, one-bottle routine that handles fuel, sodium, and hydration without a second product to think about. The DIY case isn't really economics — it's the freedom to dial sodium independently of carbs.
·By Croix
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In the Queue
These products don't have a long-form teardown yet, but the Builder can already reverse-engineer any of them. Pick the product on Compare and hit “DIY It” — full article coming later.