In-race drink systems (like Spidi's bladder-in-hump system)

[cactusjack]

My mouth gets incredibly dry when racing (adrenalin makes me breathe through my mouth and also inhibits salivation), enough so that it becomes a distraction. And staying hydrated is a constant battle in the pits, even though I always have a bottle of water/Gatorade in hand. I'm thinking of remedying this with an in-race drink system.

Has anyone tried using one of these systems? Spidi makes a bladder system very similar to a Camelbak that fits into their hollowed-out back humps. I'm sure Nate can rig my non-Spidi hump to accept a bladder, but I'm wondering about how the drinking part actually works.

Cage racers typically drill a hole in the chinbar of their helmet to have the bite valve readily available. The SNELL foundation used to get prickly about drilling helmets, but SCCA and many other organizations look the other way; in any event, I don't think chin bars are mandatory in SCCA so I guess it doesn't matter that much to them (at least in closed cockpits).

I don't think drilling a moto helmet would be a good idea. Especially the chin bar.

One way to do it would be to clip the hose somewhere convenient and use my left hand to put the bite valve in my mouth on long straights. Basically what I would do mountain biking, just a few MPHs faster. But that would be a distraction too.

Has anyone figured out a clever way to somehow clip the bite valve to the helmet so that it's reachable with the mouth without manual intervention?

Or am I crazy?

[Bartman]

Desert racers have been using camelbacks for years and having one on during road racing is no big thing, no need to mod your leathers just use a camelback and tape the bite valve to the chin bar.

[davy4575]

Had been thinking about doing that as well. I used one off road and dessert, always worked well, even if I did get alot of water down the front of the shirt....or was it beer?

[cactusjack]

Had been thinking about doing that as well. I used one off road and dessert, always worked well, even if I did get alot of water down the front of the shirt....or was it beer?

A bit of water down the inside front of a suit at speed would be awesome, instant A/C. Beer doubly so. And the fizz of the carbonation would be an added benefit!