Just been out for a 45 mile hack on the road bike. I had a bag of nuts and raisins in my pocket but didn’t eat them as I didn’t want to stop – and hit the wall on the way home – in part because it was more than a little bit windy…
Any thoughts what to take to eat without having to stop? I try to stick to natural food rather than gels etc

Get a triathlon stype top tube picnic basket – easily accessible on the fly

Flapjack type things.

Why couldn’t you eat your raisins and nuts on the move? I sometimes just grab a handful from my jersey pocket.

It’s easy enough on road to grab a few bits out of your pockets & eat on the move is it not?

Try eating little and often rather than a stop for food. This will keep you topped up rather than dipping into hunger. Same with drinking, keep fluid levels up all by sipping often rather than drinking half your bottle when you stop.

Banana. Cereal bar type thing – usually fairly easy to open. Gels are easy, too.

You could always just stop for a couple of minutes halfway round, though. Which is probably what most of us do 🙂

Pedal faster, that way you get home sooner for something proper to eat, like sausages.
HTH 😀

or try GREGGS their pies will fit into your pocket easily.

Did you really expect a serious answer?

Ask a chav to teach you how to ride no hands?

Thou seriously, practice and you should be able to eat pretty much anything on your road bike from your back pockets. I can even put on/take off my rain jacket while riding now. How pro is that! 😉

Put you raisins and nuts in a small plastic cup like the disposable ones in your jersey pocket. It’ll give you easy access to your food so you can eat it on the move. Works for me during 24hr racing.

Stop at the top of a big hill, admire the view whilst opening bag of nuts. Eat a few and put the rest, loose, into a jersey pocket for easy access. Continue your journey, stopping at a bin to deposit nut bag (theirs not yours).

just throw your food into the jersey pocket… works for me

if you fold a pizza in half you can eat that on the move too – done by me on the way to the dirt jumps when younger 😉

I never had an issue eating on the move until I went out with the local road club – I was gasping so much that I couldn’t eat. Energy drink is easier if you are really going for it, solids at the cake stop.

something like this ?

Those lunchbox soreen’s are great. I have thouse (one open already) or fig rolls in one pocket and Jelly babies in another.

When I don’t have Gels available that is.

This is one of those STW stupid questions.

45 miles is not a long way, just eat something before you go.

There are a large number of expensive options including gels and bars, an even larger number of less expensive options like cakey bar type things and an unlimited number of options that you can make yourself like sandwiches.

Trying to eat nuts and raisins while riding along sounds a bit silly; like trying to eat Maltesers on a trampoline..

brooess – Member

Just been out for a 45 mile hack on the road bike. I had a bag of nuts and raisins in my pocket but didn’t eat them as I didn’t want to stop

How about a turbo trainer?

There’s sooo many reasons to stop:
Have you not seen all the ickle, boingy lambs?
Did you not pass a pub?
Did you forget your book?

Nuts and raisins are ingredients, not food.

It’s not a race, you know. 😀

Phone up the nearest Pizza place and get them to send a pizza scooter out along the road, then just grab it as you past.

Wait until it warms up a bit, every time you ride near a hedge ride with your mouth open – hey presto – loads of protein as you swallow flies and bugs.

In the winter get a really long strawberry shoe lace (available in all good old school sweet shops) roll it into your back pocket, uncurl up your back and over your shoulder and into your mouth (much like a camelbak tube). As you munch it’ll slowly unwind. Bingo, food on the go. Simple really.

Why not make a nice nut and raisin flapjack, wrap it in foil and either use one of those tri bags linked above or simply use electrical tape to temporarily secure it to the top tube within easy reach, then you can just rip it off and eat it whole or pull open a corner of the foil and eat a little bit at a time as you go, when your done ball of foil in a jersey pocket and on you go…

On a bike, on the move, small and fiddly stuff is obviously harder to eat, as you prefer whole/naturalfoods try making your own bars so you know what’s in it, flapjack is my prefered nutrient delivery matrix, but cupcakes/muffins/brownies are also good…

In the winter get a really long strawberry shoe lace (available in all good old school sweet shops) roll it into your back pocket, uncurl up your back and over your shoulder and into your mouth (much like a camelbak tube). As you munch it’ll slowly unwind. Bingo, food on the go. Simple really.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzM71scYw0M[/video]

nuts? I’d be worried about inhaling a few crunched up nuts and having a coughing fit for the rest of the ride.

As above, cereal bars, banana, flapjack, malt loaf, fig rolls, cakes etc… but anything that keeps as a whole rather than disintegrates into inhalable crumbs!

you need to eat on a 45 mile road ride!!? I am old, fat and have obvious impulse control issues when it comes to a cake but while it may be that I carry an emergency gel in my bag (yes, bag – deal with it roadies) it wouldn’t occur to me to eat on such a short distance. moreover, given my evening road rides cover just such a distance (prior to going for chips) the very suggestion we stop for food would see me roundly mocked.

Put a couple of bananas under your helmet.
When you get hungry simply slam your hand down on the top of your helmet, or better yet, headbutt some dickhead in a car who’s trying to kill you (there’s bound to be one close by) and then the bananas pieces will gradually fall out of your helmet. Catch them in your mouth chomp away.

Seriously though, on such a short ride I’d not bother eating although if I was climbing up the side of a mountain or something I’d take a packet of Randoms with me, easy to open and eat while moving.

The daft answers should tell you it is a daft question as Crikey and swiss01 say 😀

Lingering illness, not enough conditioning, lack of sleep, poor choice of meal/ water consumption in the days leading up to the ride, lack of sleep and any other number of factors will have caused the struggle. Eating on a 2 hour ride is not really necessary…

swiss01 – Member
you need to eat on a 45 mile road ride!!? I am old, fat ….

Your probably carryng more of a supply than he is….

Eating on a 2 hour ride is not really necessary…

So he’s going slow as well? Jesus!

IanMunro – Member
Phone up the nearest Pizza place and get them to send a pizza scooter out along the road, then just grab it as you past.

Also good for a bit of a tow, just make sure the commissars aren’t watching

Who says fiddly foods hard to eat….. Haribo always goes in easy

Eating on a 2 hour ride is not really necessary…

So he’s going slow as well? Jesus!

22.5 mph is pretty fast solo. Should have said “2-3 hour ride” to be a little more realistic I guess.

Nevertheless my comment about the preparation before the ride (or lack of) being a bigger factor for struggling towards the end of the ride rather than an inability to eat a bag of nuts on the go still stands 😀

This is one of those STW stupid questions.
45 miles is not a long way, just eat something before you go.

Maybe he’s new to riding or not quite as awesome as some folk on here.

Road topic on STW turns into p*ssing contest shocker! Surprise surprise 😆

We don’t all ride on the flat you know. Some of us who live in the hills can only dream of a 45 mile ride taking “a couple of hours”. I know I wouldn’t like to go that far where I live without some grub in my back pocket. I’d be a wreck 😯

This is one of those STW stupid questions.
45 miles is not a long way, just eat something before you go.

Maybe he’s new to riding and not quite as awesome as some folk on here.

The stupid question bit referred to attempts to eat nuts and raisins while riding along…. Bit like trying to eat a bag of crisps on a motorbike; if it’s that tricky, try solid food.

…and 45 miles is not a long way; it’s 3-4 hours of relatively gentle exercise which a normal person should be able to manage without eating constantly.

I fully appreciate that this is STW where 3 litres of energy drink and two loaves of Soreen should be consumed, but in the real world…

You do know that people of my parents generation would go out all day on their bikes, have a drink of water and a sandwich when they stopped and not consider it an ‘epic’?

The OP told us he hit the wall on his ride, suggesting he needed something more than his super-human powers to get him round. Instead of some constructive help some of us are telling him he’s a bit crap. Not very nice really.

OP, I find that flapjack, bananas and the wife’s fab homemade Matlida cake work well for me and are easy enough to eat on the go. Granted I’ve not perfected the art of peeling bananas with my winter gloves on! If I’m having a long ride (subjective I know) I like to have Jelly Babies or similar sweets to dip into.

…and 45 miles is not a long way; it’s 3-4 hours of relatively gentle exercise which a normal person should be able to manage without eating constantly.

Sorry but you’re talking nonsense. To the average civilian riding 45 miles is a long way. 15mph is not gentle exercise for someone not used to riding.

Distance doesn’t matter, that’s all about fitness vs effort levels + duration and no more. If you get hungry, eat. Ideally, eat before then.

Old roadies do 100 miles on nowt but bottle o’ water int’Pennines etc but not everyone can ride for much more than 2hrs or so without food. If your body tends to hold enough glycogen for 2-3hrs max once you’re above Z2 and most riders are >Z3 on hilly or brisker rides there’s nothing wrong with a top up. It’s possible to ride steady for 2-3, 4hrs before breakfast but unlikely for a new road rider. I’ve read that sometimes it’s just putting food in that releases reserves, the energy is there you just need to know there’s more coming, so it seems to be a link that you can train / break by riding fasted.

It takes a while for a lot of natural foods to get into your energy system so better to eat early. Jam brown-bread butties work for me, or dried dates or apricots, bananas, soreen etc. Choccy raisins and jelly babies are good for a boost but too many isn’t good. Those little tri-bags for the top tube can work well.

I get hungry just sat at my desk! While I can and do manage 3+ hours riding often without food, I still usually have something in my back pocket just in case.

I usually have an emergency energy gel in a manky worn wrapper as it’s been on so many rides without being used and either a cereal bar or a banana (which don’t last quite so long).

I hate Gels, PowerBars etc.. Marks & Sparks do some really nice Belgian chocoltae flapjack bars, so do most sandwich chains like Pret a Manger, Eat and others, They’re easy to eat/nibble on whilst riding.

Other choices I’ve found work well and are easy to handle:

Fig rolls (I emptied an entire packet into my jersey pocket last weekend when riding Paris-Roubaix and that worked well)

Those round honey/waffle things (Meli) you get in France/Belgium

At the Tour of Flanders I also made my own easy-to-eat savoury cheese/parma ham wraps as you get a little sick of eating nothing but sweet stuff all day.. bought 6 slices of delicious cheese plus 6 slices of smoked/cured parma ham in a supermarket, rolled a slice of each into 6 ready-to-eat little rolls and scoffed those along the way.