The Ink-Stained Wretch

The Gel-Bot wants to be your friend and would never enslave you for its own purposes

Mr. Cruft has recently returned from Mrs. Cruft's ancestral homeland bearing gifts.

He knew two things about me: I love me some cycling gadgets and I'm cheap, so I buy my Hammer Gel in bulk.

Buying the gel in bulk is a bit cheaper, and eliminates the little foil packets that have to be thrown away and make things pretty sticky on a long ride.

So, Mike and Michelle saw me nipping at a flask of Hammer Gel on the fateful Angel Ride and although I doubt he made a connection between the crash and the flask o' goo in the back pocket, the Gel-Bot must have seemed the perfect solution.

So, what is the Gel-Bot? It's a water bottle with a secret compartment into which you can squirt a gel or two, making both available via a single container.

If you pull out the drinking tip, it's a normal water bottle. If you leave the tip in, you can suck the gel out of the secret reservoir.

So, how does it work? Pretty well, actually. There's a little sliding bottom to the container which moves up as you consume the gel, so it delivers it pretty well. Better than the gel flask, actually, since you don't need to turn it upside down to get the last bits out.

The only downside is that the compartment only holds two gel shots, so enough for the first 90 minutes of a longer ride. But since I usually stop to refill water bottles on a longer ride, I could just refill the chamber from the gel flask in the pocket (which holds about 5 shots worth) and get the best of both worlds.

I'll admit that drinking water is not as convenient as with my podium bottles, but the combo effect of nutrition and hydration in one will be great for longer rides.

All in all, an excellent addition to the collection of bike stuff I'll actually use.