Disclosed are water soluble polymeric reagents comprising the structure POLY-[Y-S-W]x,, where POLY is a water soluble polymer Y is a hydrocarbon~basedspacer group, x is 1 to 25, and S-W is a thiol, protected thiol, or thiol-reactive derivative. Preferably, the water soluble polymer is a PEG polymer.Also disclosed are conjugates of such polymeric reagents with pharmaceuticallyrelevant molecules, and methods of their formation and use.