Looking for Diabetic Bikers!

[fbrady95]

Hi all,

I'm a final year design engineering student at Bournemouth University, and currently working on my main dissertation/project.

For the project, I'm working towards designing a "Shock-Mounted Insulin Refrigerator for Overland Travel". I rode my motorcycle to the Sahara this summer, spending days at a time wild camping away from civilisation through both Europe and Morocco, having an incredible time. Having family and friends with diabetes, this made me realise that it must be incredibly difficult, if not impossible for riders with type-1 diabetes to be able to do a similar kind of trip, due to needing to keep their insulin refrigerated, especially in very hot conditions.

Therefore, I'd love to hear from any of you that have type-1 and your experiences with dealing with your insulin on any form of long trips. At this point, I'm also looking to gain some form of market scope, as obviously it will be a fairly specialist product and not just a cool box strapped to a bike!

My knowledge of the various different forms of insulin and how it is stored is a little hazy, so I'd also appreciate any help with what the most common forms of container are and generally anything!

I hope to hear from some of you soon!

Fergus

 

[Deleted Account]

I am not a biker but have spent long trips camping in hot environments with no access to a fridge for a couple of weeks.
I have always used Frio bags which work perfectly well to keep insulin cool in these conditions and just need water (which does not have to be cold) to “recharge”.
As I was trekking, being small and light was ideal.
I see no reason why these wouldn’t work with biking and for longer periods.

 

[Diamattic]

This is awesome.. Do more of this kind of thing!

I got my motorcycle license just about a year before I was diagnosed. I used to ride almost every day, but after being diagnosed I felt I had to give up on riding (lots of people say "No way, you didn't have too!") In all honesty I didn't feel confident enough with my sugars to go on rides any longer then maybe 15-30 minutes. I would ride in full gear - armoured overpants, jacket, full face helmet, gloves, and boots, and just didnt feel that if i felt high or low that i could deal with the situation fast enough.

Going low on a motorcycle, in full gear is terrifying - at least in a car i can test at a stop light.. on a bike you're trapped.

I would watch all the travel bike shows (Long Way Round is a fav) and was planning camping trips and everything :/

I still do the adventure part, just in a car instead (its still fun, but not the same) Maybe in the future I will pick things back up again but who knows..

Also I am an engineer as well, so we have that in common.


In terms of insulin storage it should be stored at 0-8 degrees C and it will be in a glass 10ml bottle, or 3ml vials. Usually i keep mine in 'Frio' brand bags and in a cooler. This doesn't keep them in the ideal range, but insulin has a life of 30 days once it goes out of that 0-8 range.. So theoretically if your trip was a couple weeks you wouldn't need to keep it cold, just cool.. like <30C.

If you could come up with a shock proof insulin pump case too that would be awesome - I was terrified that if I low-sided on a corner I would destroy my pump... so that's not something you wanna be thinking about while riding haha

PM me if you need anything else - I cannot promise a fast response but i will do my best haha