Dehydration
At last! A biker subject upon which I can pontificate with some authority.
Just to clarify that, I have about 2,000 hours as a glider-pilot.
A glider is a mini-hot-house with wings. Dehydration is one of the biggest killers of pilots.
The affects of dehydration are extremely subtle. You 'think' you're doing okay, whereas, when dehydrated, your mind becomes tunnel-visioned. Ergo, you see what you 'think' you should be seeing but, in fact, you're seeing what you 'want' to see.
Dehydration is a lot like being pissed, except you don't get the buzz. All you get is the loss of focus.
And around the next corner comes something you weren't expecting, your brain has more or less shut down, even though you 'think' it's still doing normal stuff, and poom! You're another statistic.
But there's a rule of thumb you can use to avoid dehydration, but first allow me to assert, you simply cannot objectively establish dehydration. It just happens, and it happens at different rates for each person.
You get to objectively consider it while laying in a hospital bed, or on the road, as you lay there with sundry folk poking you in an eye to see if you're alive. Or some gung-ho type like me who finds a piece of broken mirror to start performing the tracheotomy.
The rule of thumb is this. Water in/water out. Question. How much in and where does it go?
Answer. Lots in. And I'm talking litres per hour if you're in leathers or black gear.
You should be swallowing enough water to allow you to sweat out a lot but still need a piss every two hours.
If you don't feel the need for a serious piss within any two hours, believe me, you're dehydrated.
In seriously hot conditions (Christmas/summer) you sweat like nine bastards. This sweat is body-fluid leaving you to join the great circle of life. Yet, as you ride at a reasonable speed, the passing wind evaporates the sweat.
You 'think' you're doing okay cos you feel cool...in all senses of the word on a bike....Cool you may be, but unless you need a piss every two hours, then you might feel cool but your head is in a very dangerous space.
At race and track-days (during summer) , given I know a lot about the affects of dehydration...If I don't want a piss after coming off the track from the last round, then I'm a danger to myself and all around me.
There's a very technical explanation regarding dehydration, and loss of body-salts, etc, but just take the simple advice.
If you don't feel like you need a piss every hour or so, on a really hot day, dressed in leathers, then drink more water till you do feel the need.
Coffee and alcohol are diuretics; ergo they strip water from your system and, with it, the salts which are vital to your continued proper brain function.
And so, when you stop for a double-shot Latte, enjoy it, but drink a litre of water before you saddle-up. You'll be amazed at how you still don't feel like taking a piss, two hours later.
And remember, the cagers haven't the foggiest idea about dehydration, other than when they watch their tomatoes drying in a dehydrator.
They sit in their cages, trying to ignore the screaming children, the nagging wife, the vile heat. Their brains are miles away from the task in hand.
Two dehydrated motorists, (one on a bike, one in a cage) heading toward each other, even 50 Ks apart when the dehydration kicks in, are a fatality waiting to happen.
You stay hydrated. You lessen the chances of becoming a statistic.
Only 'Now' exists in reality.
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Originally Posted by dpex
That makes at least 4 of us on here. 
). Despite knowing the purpose of it, I just couldn't get into drinking it. The other drink that is so popular there goes by the wonderful name of Kalpis water, which is pronounced like cowpiss water, so you can imagine that we didn't really take a fancy to that either!!
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