Randingo

On long days, 60+ miles, what do you eat? I am using cliff bars and other like foods. Concerned that like items might not always be available on my TransAm ride next year. Thanks!!

DropBarFan

Food options on the road are limited but if one can stop every ~3 days or so at a good grocery then one can make own snacks & meals that are fresher & healthier. Cook white rice & split lentils for 30 minutes to make "kitchree" & add proteins/veggies if desired. Very digestible but energizing.

Machka 

When I'm touring, I eat whatever I find along the way. In fact, one of the joys of touring is trying out different foods ... haggis, millionaire bars, and macaroni and cheese like I've never had it before in Scotland; ice creams to die for in Germany; excellent little shortbreads in Hong Kong ...

OK, I had the haggis, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I could live happily never having it again. But I'd return those places just for the other foods I mentioned.

Don't limit yourself to cliff bars (boring!!), try stuff along the way. Stop in at cafes. Browse through grocery stores.


A few hints:

1) Go to your local grocery stores and see what they've got. Try things before you go.

2) At lunchtime, we often stop at a little grocery store somewhere and buy buns, cheese, deli meat or tinned meat, tomatoes, yogurt, a piece or two of fresh fruit, and a dessert item like a small cake or something. Then we'll put together sandwiches for lunch and have them with the yogurt, fruit and cake.

3) At lunchtime, we'll also pick up what we want for breakfast in the morning and for dinner in the evening. This varies depending on what's available and what we feel hungry for. Breakfast might be granola or cakes or frozen waffles or whatever. Dinner might be eggs, tinned dinners, packaged pasta or rice, or whatever. We'll usually try to pick up some veg and fruit too.

shipwreck

I never touch a cliff bar on tour, or any other energy bar. However, there will be gas stations and such that may have them, as well as grocery stores. There seems to be Dollar Generals all over nowadays, a great place for granola bars, cheap pop tarts, cookies... I find that I need calories, and if I got them all from expensive sports bars I would be spending craploads of money every day.

Mostly I try to depend on cooking real food, picked up at grocery stores whenever possible. Recently I started dedicating an entire front pannier to food, and the other to cooking gear. But I have eggs, fruit, any bread that is on the sale rack, cheese, sausages... Usually I stop and eat something cold that I have with me during the day. Its nice to do that somewhere scenic.
I also stop at gas stations and get something fried. One of my guilty pleasures on the road. The more rural and gross the gas station the better, and if it looks like it was fried in 30 weight, so much better.

irwin7638

I usually carry a bag of trail mix to snack on between meals at camp or restaurants. It's also emergency calories when I am between towns for too long.

Marc

indyfabz

Pay attention to the maps and grab snacks where you can. As for energy bars, you might be surprised. I have seen Cliff bars in many stores and markets located along the Montana portion of the TA. Even the small market in the tiny town of Wisdom had them. Bike shops along the route are another good place to look.

bradtx

Randingo, Welcome to the forum.

For meals and such I like to find what's good locally like sea food on the coast or sausage in the Czech regions. For snacking I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Another favorite is peanuts and Dr. Pepper.

Brad

Michaeh

I always have like 20 granola/trail mix bars with me to snack on and I just eat out at whatever restaurant I come across.

I find it helps to bring some multi vitamins with me because I eat so unhealthy on the road.

khutch

On training rides up to 60 miles or so I rely on what I ate yesterday and this morning's breakfast. I would be the first to admit that sometimes that works fine and sometimes it doesn't.

The only tour I do is RAGBRAI and on RAGBRAI there is plenty of normal food available all along the route and that is what I eat with excellent results. If you want to subsist on fair food or specialist sports food and energy bars they are available too. Normal food works fine for me however. So if I were to do a tour somewhere else, somewhere not "supported" like RAGBRAI, I would just eat in small town restaurants along the way.

fietsbob

Ideally, I stop at a very nice restaurant. Part of why I liked touring Europe.

AusTexMurf

Lentils or split peas w/ rice and veggies(if available).
Nuts - smaller retail packages when stopping at stores w/ limited options or in bulk when you can. Pecans, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc… Lots of calories for the weight/time and good fats to burn.
Oats/oatmeal with nuts in the am.
Granola/power bars some to fill in the blanks.

Treat yourself to a local restaurant and contribute to their economy.
Stop at a hostel, campground, or bunkhouse and pitch in on a communal meal.

Classtime 

Peanut butter sandwiches cut in half are very comparable to a cliff bar in carbs and protein. Get some heavy duty bread and make some up in the morning wrap in plastic wrap or I use snack size zip locks.

Tourist in MSN

I have never had a cliff bar.

But, I have had powerbars and other brands of granola bars. I like to carry some on a bike tour, but I rarely will have more than one or two bars during a day. Most of my caloric intake is from other foods.

Breakfast, some carb rich foods and if possible some protein mixed in too. But not much fats.

During the ride, I try to average about 200 to 250 calories per hour, mostly carbs but also small amounts of fats and protein. And that is by eating every hour to hour and a half. I might have granola bars, power bars (usually half at a time, these are big), candy bars, ice cream if available, other junk foods and baked goods when available, etc.

Lunch, I avoid big sit down meals because for 2 or 3 hours later I am really slow. I usually have a sandwich - sometimes half a sandwich and the other half an hour later.

Supper, I try to have as much protein as practical and I often have more fats with supper too. For health reasons, I have to have a low carb diet, so my suppers might not be applicable to what most others want to eat. Consider adding olive oil to your one pot meals (if you are cooking) as that is a good way to easily add calories to the meal, but adding fats like that is best done at end of day and not when you have many more hours of riding to do. If you think you are running too much of a caloric deficit, you can add half or a full ramen noodle packet to most one pot meals to add more calories - but if you do the flavor packet is optional.

The body is amazingly good at making you hungry for what you should be eating. For example, if you are starving for potato chips during the day, you probably should eat some potato chips to boost your salt levels. And if you are hungry for ice cream bars or cinnamon rolls or donuts, that probably means your salt levels are fine but you just need some fast carbs.

If you are a regular coffee or tea drinker, keep up your caffeine intake, there is no reason to change.

fietsbob

Knackered at the bottom of a Climb, a fresh Baguette Sliced , with Nutella On it
is a Treat (and a sugar rush) with Filbert Butter and chockie.

Leebo

Try some dried hard salami. Will keep in the heat.

MixedRider

Snack Size Snickers and a legit sandwich. Sometime I get jelly beans!

DropBarFan

I've wondered about long-distance tours w/just gels & sports drink powder. wouldn't do that myself but it would be very simple & light & probably healthier than going across US eating only donuts like I think one tourist did.

andrewclaus

I'm with the others above who never nosh on bars. For snacks, I carry a bag of nuts (fat and protein) and a bag of raisins (carbs for quick energy). I'm a stoveless camper, so my meals are breads and grains (muesli), more nuts and dried fruit, crackers with cheese, Fig Newtons. I enjoy getting a cooked meal in a cafe every day or two.

Aushiker

My touring is probably a little more remote that some here so I can often go three to seven days without access to food sources besides what I carry hence my food carried is pretty basic and along these lines:

Breakfast: Porridge (rolled oats)
Lunch: Crackers, cheese, jam, maybe salami if I have any left
Dinner: Pasta and tuna/salami

Snacks: Dried fruit, nuts, sweets (Natural Confectionery Company products) and my luxury item, fruit cake. No energy bars or the like.

Randingo

Thanks for all the tips and ideas. Was looking for what you eat while riding. Energy gels, Gatorade, Cliff Bars and Pro Bars are my current diet while on the bike. Every 10 miles I try to eat a third of a bar. Every 20 I add a gel. Use Gatorade for electrolytes and plenty of water. If I consume more, then it feels like a brick in my gut.

veganbikes

Clif bars are good but I really like Pro-bars. For energy chews I like the convenience of the Clif shot blocks but the flavor of the Pro Bar Bolts. If you haven't tried the Untapped Maple Waffles, I highly recommend those. For hydration I like the Camelbak Elixer because it tends to be low sugar and have the highest electrolyte content from a study one of my old coworkers did. However I also love CocoHydro and especially love it when it gets moisture and turns into chunks and you can eat it like candy (it tastes like malted coconut)

For real food, Sahale Snacks Thai Cashews (aka Sing Buri) are great because they have sweet and salty built right in and a really unique flavor which helps on long rides. I also love the Indian MREs (Tasty Bite is easy to find) if you want quick and easy. You can also bring along TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) with some good spices and make something pretty tasty that is lightweight and quick to make. I made a delicious stew with it the year before last and cook with it frequently at home because it is cheap and filling and has no flavor so you can go wild and do with it as you please.

Machka 

I haven't consumed that sort of stuff while riding the bicycle in about a decade.

I go with things like ...

-- granola bars - good quality ones with lots of almonds or cashews and dried fruit
-- cookies - oatmeal-raisin or oatmeal-chocolate-chip
-- salted almonds
-- dried apricots
-- bananas

As for beverages, I go with water.

And as for electrolytes, I go with salted almonds, small bag of potato chips, beef jerky ... or maybe electrolyte tablets.



I will eat a granola bar or cookie every 25-30 km if I'm doing a training ride.

But if I'm doing something more like a touring ride ...

I will have a decent breakfast ... then maybe a granola bar or cookie after 25 or 30 km ... then lunch in the middle of the day ... then maybe a granola bar or cookie after 25 or 30 km ... then crackers and cheese when we arrive at camp ... then dinner ... then an evening snack.


Funny thing ... I bought a bunch of gels recently thinking we'd try them on some 100 km rides we've done lately. Haven't touched a single one. With an eating pattern similar to what we do on touring rides mentioned above, they haven't been necessary.

FXjohn

that's nutritious?

Cyclist0094

25% protein. Gotta have PopTarts to balance it for carbs.

Machka