as you may or may not remember/care, my physiological penchant for getting cramps on long rides is largely mitigated by staying good and hydrated with a halfWater/halfGatorate mix, and by taking SALT STICK CAPSULES at hourly intervals on the bike. the capsules are essentially salt, with a smattering of electrolytes and other vitamins in there. there are a number of different types of these supplements available at nearly every sporting goods store in the country, this just happened to be the one they had on hand when i visited the MASHSF storefront some time ago, so it’s the one i use.

keeping capsules in a jersey pocket is convenient, but it can get nasty. when you sweat on something that’s designed to dissolve, it gets sticky at best and it starts to completely break down at worst. so i’d had my eye on the SALT STICK MINI DISPENSER for quite some time, due to it’s handlebar end-plug design, which is meant to fit into road drops. (there’s also a full-sized version for straight bars or aero bars.)

so upon receipt, i began to install the dispensers on my most frequently-ridden steed, the MASH bolt build, and i IMMEDIATELY despised the way they looked. the big red bulbs at the ends just look SO out of place, and i don’t just mean because they’re red on a largely silver and black build. it’s their size and the degree to which they protrude from the ends of the bars that bothers me. it just looks … wrong.

this was a huge disappointment because i was really looking forward to the convenience of this product. but rather than just calling it a loss, i started thinking of other ways to use them. each one of the dispensers comes with a little clip which you can put on a belt or a pocket or something like that, and i realized that by using those with a strip of velcro belting, i could put them right on the stem, side-by-side, which is not only far more aesthetically pleasing to me (in other words, fly), it allows me to use the same two dispensers on all my bikes. my initial intent was to get a different set for each bike, so this was a huge sell because i don’t have to spend any more money. another benefit was that by not being permanently attached (in as "permanent" as any component is), i don’t have to have them on there day-to-day. they’ll only be mounted on long rides and i don’t have to worry about them on commutes or short hops where i won’t even be taking the capsules.

once i had that figured out, i loaded them up so that i could test the actual functionality. it’s quite a simple design, you just turn the knob counter-clockwise till you feel resistance, and then shove three capsules up IN there. to dispense, you turn the knob clockwise and a capsule crowns through the little bladder, from whence you liberate it, thusly…

i’m really thrilled about this product despite it’s simplicity and niche appeal, and i’m very much looking forward to testing it out this very saturday (weather permitting).

/// UPDATE \\\
on the primavera metric century this weekend, i was able to use these dispensers and found all the wins and losses inherent. don’t get me wrong, this is largely a winning product — it’s well thought-out and extremely easy-to-use. but there was one thing i noticed which could have been engineered a bit better. the clips which hold the dispensers don’t have a strong enough grip to override the force it takes to push a capsule through the bladder. that is to say that when you turn the dispenser, the entire unit turns before the pill comes out. this is nothing that isn’t easily remedied with some friction tape, however. on the road this weekend, i just held the dispenser in place while i turned the thing. easy enough to do, even at speed.

another thing i noticed wasn’t really a product failure, i think it was either user error or it was improper use. i had loaded the capsules in there such that when half of the pill came out and i grabbed it to pull it out completely, it came apart in half. if you think of how a capsule is made, you realize that one end goes over another. i had it loaded in there such that the end that goes over was facing in. so i basically pulled the inside half out of the outside half. i got around this issue later by just twisting the dispenser until the entire capsule came out, rather than pulling it once only half was out. in the future, i can further remedy this by taking care to load them facing the other way.

as to that last note, funny story — i pulled the half-capsule out and didn’t know what to do, so i held the half-cap in one hand, then pulled out the top half and REASSEMBLED IT AT SPEED. that’s gangsta.

8/10 CLANKS!

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