waters60

I buy GuGel in bulk packs and put it into one of their squeeze tubes. Easy to grab the tube, twist to open and squeeze. No need to tear off a foil package.

teejaywhy

Clif Blocs are the worst.

teejaywhy

Yes it is.

Bassmanbob

When riding with others, I'm not going to cause everyone to stop and wait for me to do this.

Bassmanbob

Yes. This is what I usually do, but it can get messy sometimes. Other times, I may be on a two or three hour ride without stopping, that's when it's really difficult. Pre-tearing it may be the best option.

tomato coupe

Stop for 10 seconds, open the wrapper, then sprint briefly to catch up. Or, sprint off the front, stop for 10 seconds to open the wrapper, then jump back in with the group as they catch you.

Bassmanbob

Agreed. This is what happens to me. I'm not a fast rider, so I don't want to get dropped and not be able to catch up.

Bassmanbob

And yes. This is a first world problem, but I want to keep going without causing a crash.

LesterOfPuppets

I just bite through the first segment, plastic and all, tear it off, separate the tasty little nugget from the plastic with my teeth and tongue, then grab the plastic and put it in jersey pocket. Usually I'll go ahead and squeeze the second segment into my maw, then stow the rest of the pack into my jersey pocket.

LesterOfPuppets

How not to:

rm -rf

I used to snip a notch into the Clif bar package. They are often hard to get started otherwise.
Now I do this:
Left hand on the bar tops, holding the top of the package with thumb and forefinger. Tear open with my right hand.

I wouldn't try this in a tight spaced group at speed. I drop back a few bike lengths to do the unwrap.
...
Years ago, I practiced pulling and replacing the bottle without looking. It's a useful skill. My stainless steel bottle cages make this easy -- they are grippy but easy to shove the bottle back in the cage.

phrantic09

Serious question- is no handed that difficult? I find it’s pretty easy to sit up at any speed and open a package.

If solo- just stop obviously, but in a race or group just get far enough from the pack to take your hands off the bars, open, and hammer to catch back up.

GhostRider62

Obviously, the packaging is part of OP's conundrum, Cliff bars are meant to survive a nuclear war.

On most rides that require snacks, I just put the carbs in my sippy cup or I do snack time by opening the package enclosure with two hands on my TT bars.

Or, I stop and sit on a bench eating my oreos or lit debbies donuts

Jack Tone 

(waiting for someone to insert video of Jonas Vingegaard on the Champs Elysee)

MinnMan

There's no reason to stop in order to have a cliff bar or a gel. You just have to figure out the strategy in advance, with a pre-tear in some cases.

on a longish ride, I consume something about every 10 miles after the first 60 miles. There's no way I'm going t stop each time. Particularly on a group ride.

My onboard fuel is a mixture of energy chews and gels. I can open the gels with my teeth, and the chews, depending on the brand, may need a pre-tear.

That's all.....

genejockey 

That's what I was thinking.

mschwett 

i cut the top off the wrapper of my fruit strips before the ride, all the way across. i put them in my shorts pockets open end up. easy to pull one out and squeeze it out with one hand. i prefer to stop as few times as possible on a long ride.

downtube42

Another vote for pre-opening.

I can and do ride no-hands but even so, it's quicker if the package is open on one end. One go-to item is rice crispy treats, which are super easy to eat especially if one end is open.

I rode a recumbent for many years due to a low back injury, and inability to ride no-hands was a major drawback imo.

GhostRider62

I like rice kispies too. They get pre opened or a put a handful in a ziplock bag.

Long distance racers often use a feed bag and put opened stuff to eat there. So, they would stop and buy crap to eat, open it, stuff it one of these bags and eat on the run. Often they run two of these bags. My rides generally are 4 hours max, and so, I don't need to eat usually.

https://bikepacking.com/gear/bikepacking-stem-bags/

toncoto

Wanna go serious on this one? Practice no-hands!

RJC1811

As a kid I could ride a wheelie around the block and no hands was second nature. When me and my buddies stopped for pizza we would take the last slice and eat it as we rode. Now it’s a couple things. First I think my old road bike is easier to ride no hands. My Giant Defy seems a little harder to balance. I never measured the rake of the front forks but that may have something to do with it. Then a year and a half ago I had a brain bleed. I have a condition called a cavernous malformation (diagnosed when it bled) basically a cluster of poorly formed blood vessels in my brain. Nothing to do about it, just live healthy and monitor it. Anyway when it happened I had severe vertigo. That is much better now. I’ve been cleared to ride and getting some good miles in. The downside is my balance isn’t what it used to be. I just try to be more cautious on fast descents and I’m working on riding no hands again. I can do it but wouldn’t trust myself when riding next to someone or near traffic. I stop and eat a bar and enjoy the scenery if I need to fuel.

Calsun

I avoid buying "food products" and beverages that are in single use plastic packaging. Only metal cans get efficiently recycled and the rest end up in a landfill dump or in the ocean. I helped briefly at a recycle center when in college and became quite aware of how expensive it was to ship glass to a plant to be made into new glass and know now that 95% of plastic ends up in incinerators or landfills either in the USA or overseas or is dumped into the ocean.

Iride01 

Metal cans still go to the land fill and sit there forever if just throw them in the trash.

sir_crash_alot

More broadly this reminds me how we can think about the environmental impact our sport has. Although we're not driving a car, we can still leave a bigger negative footprint than we think. Might this be a good argument to drink your calories from a re-usable water bottle instead? It's not perfect (you still get the mixes in plastic containers) but potentially the impact is less than the single use plastic wraps.

merlinextraligh

if you race endurance events then you’ll be on your bike for 3 consecutive hours or more. Even if you’re doing long events that have stops, you want to be eating consistently in hard multi hour rides. If you wait to eat only at rest stops, then you’re either going to be stopping a ton, or you’re going to fall behind on food intake.