So with the summer coming and lighter evenings I will be on longer rides of a couple of hours plus and I do find myself needing a bit of a boost during these rides (old, overweight and working on fitness!).

Big fan of fruit flavored things or flapjack type foods.

What does everyone use/recommend? Obviously it can’t be chocolate or anything that melts as will be in my pack!

Ideally looking for something that doesn’t have a short shelf life so can buy in quantity.

flapjack type food

I tend to just use Soreen or Nakd bars, or flapjack bars if I want longer shelf life than my home made ones.

Make some flapjack. Put some fruit in it. Sorted.

Flapjack definitely cheaper choice than the energy gels!

Did see these on offer…

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/science-in-sport-go-isotonic-energy-gel-selection-box/rp-prod146881

But you guys are the real people to ask so will get baking!

Real food – flapjack
Energy food – Torq gels (yummy flavours such as raspberry ripple!) and Clif bars

Veloforte bars are very tasty, nice guys as well.

Energy food – Torq gels (yummy flavours such as raspberry ripple!)

And cherry bakewell! (my new fav)

torq gels for me….

Couple of hours? Get your nutrition and hydration sorted, absolutely no need for gels for what you’re planning.

Another vote for Torq gels!

I use a combination of flapjack type food and Torq gels .The gurana(sic?) ones are the “bomb”! For a couple of hours I wouldn’t bother with a gel either but I might take some Nairns oat cakes & eat a banana on the way out of the door if I hadn’t had much lunch/tea/dinner.

Dried apricots, mini Soreen malt loaves.

Couple of hours? Get your nutrition and hydration sorted, absolutely no need for gels for what you’re planning.

This indeed true. However, I, and I suspect the OP, often end up dashing out for a ride after work, when I haven’t had the time to get it sorted. On those occasions, I’ll often sling a gel in the back pocket as a just in case measure.

29p flapjacks from Home Bargains – a great big slab with about 500 calories in it – yeah i know it’ll have some nasty fat in it as well, but they’re pretty tasty and don’t give me indigestion – unlike the Aldi flapjacks.

Clif Bars

Veloforte are truly good but pricey.

For rides up to 5 hours, museli bars, snakes and water. only use gels if racing as they are a very expensive way to get a quick dose of sugar.

Whatever gels I filled my pockets with on my yearly sportive!

Clif Shot Bloks for a quick boost, flapjacks for a longer slower release. Nuun Sport tabs in water on longer rides over 3 hours.

Hot X buns.

Big fan of SIS gels. For bars, I rather like Meridian peanut bars. The SIS sports bars just sit in my mouth and I can’t swallow them. Bloks are nice for a steady glucose infusion, but a packet is really just one decent gel. Malt loaf is also a staple for longer rides.

SIS Double espresso gels are great when flagging. Use with care 😉 I take one every three hours.

Cheapest source of easily consumed fruity raw energy? Lidl Jelly Babies at 59p a packet are almost certainly unbeatable in value terms and if you’re not racing I reckon you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference in impact from overpriced gels.

Real food – flapjack, fruitcake or Soreen

Energy bars and Gels.
Torq’s gels are genuinely nice (whereas without exception every other gel i’ve ever had has been foul)
Torq bars are very effective but Clif (which have a bit too much fat if you’re fussing about these things) are a lot tastier. MyProtein used to do some good, tasty carb energy bars at a good price but they don’t seem to have them anymore and I can’t believe anyone would pay £2 for the 80g flapjack that seems to be the only thing on their site now when you can buy from Sainsbury’s for a third of the price

I always keep a couple of caffeine energy gels in my camelbak for the ‘get me back to the car, I’ve bonked’ days but it’s real food and jelly babies the rest of the time now

Fig rolls

I’ll often sling a gel in the back pocket as a just in case measure.

Yep, emergency gel in back pocket but rarely needed under a couple of hours.

Hike protein bars from Aldi are excellent…..also their all fruit bars are good too…..I carry both on long rides

Jelly Babies… never thought of that before!

Jelly Babies… never thought of that before!

I really struggle to believe there’s much difference between jelly babies and Clif Shot Bloks…

Lidl are cheapest. 99p store are really good and fruity. The real thing are probably nicest (and often still available for 99p in supermarket multibuys). Mix and match for variety.

Waitrose Fruit Pastilles/Sour Pastilles are great too at about £1 a pack. M&S ranges also worth a look

Big fan of SIS gels.

+1.

I like Jelly babies too – 0% fat and mostly carbs, racing or not.  They sit on my 12h track side table.

Torq gels are nice. Use to like the Clif bars but went off them a few years ago imo they started to taste chemically but that just be me. Still trying to find a bar that I like.

Use Jelly Babies occasionally, that is if I haven’t eaten them all before the ride.

https://realfood.tesco.com/curatedlist/star-bars-four-seriously-good-snack-ideas.html
The cashew ones are particularly good. Skip the Chia seeds unless you want overpriced fad food and just replace them with flaxseed. Really nice, and full of good stuff. Leave the chocolate off the top if it’s an issue.
You don’t have to use cashew, can use any combo of nuts.

Torq gels and Veloforte bars for me if I’m going longer than 2 hours without a cafe or pub stop. Which is very rare…..

This indeed true. However, I, and I suspect the OP, often end up dashing out for a ride after work, when I haven’t had the time to get it sorted.

It’s not something you do just before you go out, is it?. Drink water during the day, means you’re hydrated, and if you know you’re going out after work, have a later lunch.

It takes no more time.

I absolutely would use gels etc for endurance events, but 2 hour rides? Come on! 🤣

You missed a bit, nobeer.

I’ll often sling a gel in the back pocket as a just in case measure.

Also,

if you know you’re going out after work, have a later lunch.

Sometimes I don’t know in advance, and go on a whim. Sometimes, work commitments mean my window for eating isn’t flexible. Either way, having a gel in the back pocket as a just in case measure makes good sense.

Lidl’s Nakd bar copies are quite tasty. I like the cocoa and orange flavour.

Real Food?

Can someone let me know why flapjacks are considered real food and sports bars are not?

Also which flapjacks are people recommending please?

For shorter rides I use whatever bars I have in the house from Veloforte (bit expensive so don’t think I’ll buy again), SIS, Torq, Nakd etc and a back up gel just in case.

Longer rides I have bars as above, plus brioche rolls with PB&J, flat coke and a good feed at a cafe.

Been using a mixture of these over the winter. Taste better than most of the other stuff I’ve tried

Everything

OP might not be helping the overweight bit by taking a load of flapjack and a bag of jelly babies on a 2 hour ride LOL.

Real Food?

Can someone let me know why flapjacks are considered real food and sports bars are not?

Call it “normal” food then. A Torq bar is about £1.25 bought in bulk online and weighs 45g, 143calories

The 3 pack of Sainsbury’s flapjacks that comes up in a search costs £1, they weigh 50g /247 calories each. If you’re not a pro athlete and probably even if you are but are just on a fun ride all you need is something with a load of energy that tastes good.

Homemade flapjack for solid food and Torq gels for mush.

I tend to pack a Torq caffeine and guarana gel for ‘emergencies’ but otherwise I only really consume any other than water on longer or harder rides. (If you head up the steeper sides of the Downs rather than up the shallower spines you can pack a heck of a lot of climbing into a short ride round my way)

A chunk of flapjack is quite nice mid way through a couple of hour ride as an excuse for a rest too…