was wondering what keeps you going on a ride?myself i usually buy some value chocolate (fruit and nut) from morrisons.jelly babies (the cheap supermarket brand),sometimes fig rolls.are there any cheap alternatives you could recommend?thanks 🙂

Riding for 4 hours or less I wouldn’t bother with food but much longer and I’d take a banana or 2 and perhaps either a mars bar or snickers.

Nutrigrain bars and some Power Shots, just cos they taste like sweeties and I’m always hungry.

Bananas and cereal bars normally do me. I find sweets, gels etc don’t give me sustained energy. But then I’m not riding that hard that I need masses of energy asap.
Mind you, cereal bars can be rubbish when it’s cold as they get really hard and difficult for my delicate jaw to chew 😮

For all day rides home made flapjack & peanut butter n jam sarnies. Otherwise it might be a little bit of flapjack and some jelly babies or haribo.

<1hour drink some ‘sports drink’ 40min beforehand

1-2 hours, the above plus 3 value cereal bars

2-4 hours, the above + bannana and dried fruits, if its faster longer maybe soem sports drink in my water.

4+ hours sadwiches with something easily digested like white bread + turkey + chutney, and definately sports drink.

Riding for 4 hours or less I wouldn’t bother with food

Really? you wouldn’t eat in 4 hours of riding? how do you feel at the end of it?

I used to go in gfor all the gel / energy bar stuff. Now I just do bananas, eccles cakes and a packet of fruit and nuts…

Wine gums

I usually eat one of them clif shot bloks – because I have bought a few boxes cheap and find they work really well for me.

And sometimes a mini mule bar as well, or a torq bar if longer ride. Always have a gel or two as well in case of bonking.

I usually buy boxes of them when on offer online.

Big bag of haribo sometimes if group ride.

why apologies? Did you do something wrong?

I use ” seedstacked ” chewybars , used to get them online but they’re selling them off cheap [ 50p ] in asda ,small bars but lots of seedy goodness.

We were discussing this yesterday, you probably need very little food even on a fairly big ride, you just feel like it. It is rather satisfying sitting on the top of a mahoosive hill halfway through a big ride and having a big slice of westmorland pie (other food stuffs are available) Proper endurance stuff you have to take fuelling a bit more seriously but for most of us here I doubt it makes any difference.
So seeing as how you don’t need it just have what makes you smile
🙂

Sandwiches +

turkish delight short rides

jamaican ginger cake on longer ones

😀

Frusili bars are cheap,tasty, seem as good as most energy bars too.

Buzz bars are really really tasty and supposedly ‘proper’ energy food, but I’d be lying if I said I bought them for that reason, they just taste lovely.
TINAS has it more or less as I see it, though I’ll usually only eat something after 2 hours on a normal ride. If I’m putting a bit more effort in like 100Km enduro (it’s not a race, honest!) I’ll usually aim for a gel an hour and a bar roughly every 2 on top of energy drink. It’s keeping it dripping in regularly that’s the key – did 4 and a bit hour on the mtb just fine (little bites, sipping the camelbak) the other weekend then the next went into serious head spinning dizziness and having to sit down on the road bike after two – didn’t get enough of the bottle down me in that time.

for a long ride (4-5 hours) then peanut butter and jam sandwich/roll, couple of bananas, clif/mule bars, and gels for an emergency. Longer than 5 hours and then i usually stop at a shop or cafe.

for a medium ride (about 3 hours) then a banana and a clif or mule bar.

for anything under 2 hours then dont usually bother, although always carry a bar and a gel incase i need them

One Word:

SOREEN

As in, Malt Loaf 8)

I’ve got a couple of gels in my hydration pack “just in case”, however my mountain bike rides are generally 2 hours or less and I don’t tend to eat anything on them.

2 hours+ rides are on the road bikes and rather than carry food I’ll find a cafe!

Buzz bars for 2-4 hours
Sandwiches & cake 🙂 for all all dayers

2/3 hour rides: handful of fig rolls or tangfastics.

Road all day rides: fig rolls, bananas, flapjack (plus a coffee/cake stop).

MTB all day rides: sandwiches, crisps, pizza slices, pepperamis, cake, fig rolls, bananas, flapjack, malt loaf, eccles cakes… 🙂

Gels for emergencies. But once I’ve started on them I need another every half hour or I’m finished.

cornish pasties

I don’t tend to eat until around 3 hours in usually some kind of pork bi-product and tea. If I’m eating on the trail a Snickers and a flapjack usually works.

bananas and pieces.

cheers everyone for all your tips.am going out this evening (want to do a dusk/night ride.first this year) have bought some chocolate bars (morrisons fruit/nut 38p,and a bag bassetts jelly babies)will be riding on the ridgeway/marlbrough downs (roughly 32 miles).will be having some porridge beforehand. i do have malt loaf sometimes,as well as cornish pasties. 🙂

bananas, jordans oat bars, haribos, chocolate, pork pies

😀

2 bottles on the frame with lager in them and (wrapped up in a towel to keep it warm) a curry and large chips

I usually pop a 16oz ribeye steak into a plastic bag with a few herbs, crushed garlic and olive oil, letting it marinade a room temperature in my backpack while I ride. Then when I need a quick snack, I fire up my portable camping gaz stove and flash fry both sides before a quick flambe using a brandy miniature. OK, so it raises a few eyebrows when I’m racing against the clock, but everyone needs to eat and I’m not into prepared foods like nutrigrain bars etc. I would opt for a curry like Mr Formaggio but my local curry house gets all churlish when I phone for delivery to an OS grid reference.

home made banana muffin, high5 orange isotonic/carb mix and good old
sugar in the form of kendal mint cake,

I believe elliptic’s other name if figgy – but then I also believe that eating ona ride is cheating.