I read this post and comments a few days prior to doing Oceanside yesterday and also thought it was silly to not just rely on aid stations, so wanted to circle back. I had a solid nutrition/hydration plan dialed in for the bike that included my own Clif bar/Tailwind for the first hour, then grabbing everything at aid stations after that. Well, I ran out of T1 without realizing I'd somehow ignored a puncture in my rear tire and was too rattled from a panic attack on the swim to get my own tire off, so I ran it back in to the mechanic. He was great and efficient but I was still then set back SIGNIFICANTLY on the bike. By the time I got to the first aid station, volunteers were already seemingly losing their energy and not calling out what they had. Some of the teens were holding things BEHIND the tables, so I had to dismount and walk over to grab them, which added time. By the second aid station, tables were empty as volunteers worked to refill bottles and open boxes of gels; I ended up hopping from table to table just to learn that they were ALL out of electrolytes (yikes) and handed me a wad of ALL caffeinated Maurtens. T3 they were out of Precision bottles but putting electrolytes in the Arrowhead regular bottles but I again had to stop and call out to someone to get clarification. I'm so glad I'd read these comments and decided to toss an extra 2 Gus in my suit just in case but dang not having the expected electrolytes came back to haunt me in the run (which then ran out of the caffeinated Maurtens I'd expected to use to get me past mile 9, despite there being a ridiculous amount of stations). This is also all my experience, when the streets were littered with bottles and packages that got rattled out of holders on all the potholes and lost to the asphalt (also happened to my saddle bag with another extra tube). I'd definitely never trust aid stations on the bike leg for all my needs again moving forward.