base2 

I find Clif bars do good for about the first 2 bars or so. After that they just sit like a big undigestable brick.

I find (for a 20 oz bottle) a mixture of 2/3 scoop powdered Gatorade, 1.5 NUUN tab, & 4 oz of pure honey is about as optimal as it gets. Alternate with water. A clif bar or 2 in the first 50 to have something sit in my stomach. Then cashews or almonds, Landjager beefsticks & cheese & peanut butter sandwiches whenever I feel the need. A burrito or double cheese burger at about mile 150 doesn't hurt either. That many miles in, you can't really process carbs much anymore with out added protein. It's fills your belly & is calorie dense with what you need for an endurance activity: salt/fat/sugar.

I only ride 200+ miles once a year though, so weight what I do accordingly.

Prepackaged protein bars are trendy overpriced garbage that appeals to people with too much money that shop at the Whole Foods in yoga pants but don't do yoga. IMO. Real food is better. 400 calorie muffins & calcium rich soy lattés never hurt anybody. Neither has pickle juice or V8 for the potassium.

jeffwhitfield 

Personally, I stick with things that are all natural.

If you can make your own energy bars and snacks for the road then you can save some money but end up with a nice variety of super healthy foods to pack up. I purchased the Skratch Labs cookbooks which are excellent resources for that very thing...especially the Portables cookbook.

If you don't have the time, there a bunch of really good all natural energy bars and such out there. Like a few have mentioned, the Larabar products are pretty good and don't have any crap in them.

For energy gels, I tend to stay away from the sport-oriented stuff these days. Too many of them have extra crap in them or are overpriced to begin with. I found that simple fruit strips are a good, cheap thing to carry with you. There are a ton of different options available and they way cheaper than the sports equivalent.

gif4445

And I thought I was the only one who hated Cliff bars. I only eat what I can find along the way. Since my Rando is just training for multi-week rides, realistically, I can't take along enough of anything. So I'm partially to what is usually consistently available. Chocolate milk, sandwiches, bananas, beef jerky. Sugared snacks like jelly beans, fruit slices, Mike n Ike, for the low blood sugar times. Or whatever candy bar sounds good at the time. A subway or equivalent is good. Buy a footlong, eat half and take the rest along. Ideally I don't eat more than 7-800 calories at a sitting. Larger meal amounts work well if I can eat part and take the rest along for several miles down the road. I rarely drink Gatorade or the equivalent. They don't taste that great and don't do anything that chocolate milk can't do. Soda pop as needed or tolerated, is my main source of caffeine. A meal of bacon and eggs, if served in an efficient amount of time, is great at any time of the day. The same thing can be said of ice cream.

MetinUz

I usually have 5 or 6 boxes of energy bars or equivalent (waffles, chews, etc) at hand. On any given day, I will carry several, but never 2 of the same kind. I find that eating 3 bars of the same kind will make it unpalatable, but having a choice among different types (e.g. a nutty Kind bar, a sesame candy, chocolate covered Stinger bar, Stinger waffle) works well. I also carry dried fruits and nuts, but these are harder to eat on the go, especially on faster rides, or with long fingered gloves in colder months.

Tourist in MSN

I was wondering when someone would mention caffeine. I drink a lot of coffee on most days, but it is 40 percent decaf. But for biking I use 100 percent caffeine version, zero decaf. I prefer it iced if it is warm out. I might have two half liter (total one liter) insulated bottles of coffee for a long day.

I can't pedal very fast for a couple hours after eating a meal with too many fats. I consider the max amount of fats that I can handle on a long bike ride is where half of the calories are from fats. McDonalds french fry calories are about half from fats and half carbs, that is about the most fats I want in any food during a long bike ride. That said, I do like french fries for a bike ride. They seem to give me a good energy source.

u235

On one of my off road mixed trail rides is about 50 miles, I stop at a Popeyes at the half way turn around and get a 2-3 piece fried chicken meal. It takes me a few miles to get back up to speed but worth it.
I don't need anything more than a mouthful of something for a 50 mile ride but that chicken is hard to pass up. I wouldn't try that on a longer ride in the summer.

CAT7RDR

After a 20 mile climb yesterday, one of these Muscle Tech Whey Protein Cookies with a Dr Pepper helped get me back over the hill.

350 calories and no trouble digesting to finish the ride. I think the protein helps with not overeating after a ride.

Baboo

i made the mistake of buying a box of assorted Cliff bars a couple of years ago, i don't remember how many was in it (way to many) but I finally gave away the last 2 or 3, to this day I can't eat Cliff bars at all. What I did discover about Cliff Bars is that beyond the initial thin coating the inside is the same in all of them. In addition to Power Bars having the texture of road tar, as another poster noted, the tase is pretty close also. I just eat what ever I can find along the way and not worry to much about if I will die from eating it, I figure I will at least get home before it kills me, thus saving someone the problem of transporting my body and bicycle.
As another poster said bananas and fig newtons are my favorites.
..

GadgetGirlIL

I completely forgot that one of my favorite bike snacks is the homemade peanut brittle my friend sends me at Christmas! It is not affected by cold weather. Sweet, crunchy, and a smidge of protein and salt from the Virginia peanuts. Nom, nom, nom. There is never any left by the time warm weather arrives.

A fresh batch just arrived today!

BengalCat

With few exceptions, I don't use a bar. Instead, I take GU Energy Gel that in regular "strength" comes individual 1.1-ounce, (32g), gel packs. Generally, I take one an hour. They taste fine to me in the variety of flavors they come in. They contain two sugars that use different pathways into your system so they work fast. They also contain sodium, amino acids, and in some flavors caffein. Convenient to carry in the jersey and to dispose of plus I hydrate at the same time and they work flawlessly for me. Under no circumstances do they upset my stomach or have any negative effects on me. YMMV.

I do think they are more expensive than I like at around $30 for a box of 24.

Tourist in MSN

The discussion here reminded me of something. A few years ago I could not stop laughing as I was reading this:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...d-energy-paste

Have not tried one and have no plans to do so.

gif4445

I can't pedal very fast for a couple hours after eating a meal with too many fats. I consider the max amount of fats that I can handle on a long bike ride is where half of the calories are from fats. McDonalds french fry calories are about half from fats and half carbs, that is about the most fats I want in any food during a long bike ride. That said, I do like french fries for a bike ride. They seem to give me a good energy source.[/QUOTE]

I have tried french fries, eating them out of my mountain feed bag as I ride . Good salt and carb source. But most times my stomach doesn't like them for some reason. Gardetos (sp?) is better tolerated. The pure sugar stuff, like I mentioned in above posts, works well 2/3 into the day. But even then, it has to have the right characteristics. Very chewy stuff, like some gummy snacks, must have a hard-to-digest ingredient that my stomach doesn't handle well. The longer the ride, the more particular my tastes are. The list of palatable food gets shorter and shorter.