You, of course, don't need to eat power bar (type bars) or gels, but they are easy to eat and travel well. I still eat them for my riding cause they are easy and I am lazy.

If you are riding a road bike, here are some tips for you to eat on the bike. What I am hearing here is probably not what to eat so much as how to get to it while you are riding. These are skills you can use to get your water bottles out of your cages to drink, to grab the hose on your camelback or to get something out of your back pocket to eat.

These are tips for road bikes with road bike drop style handle bars. When you have your hands on top of your bars, your bike will be more stable when you grab for something if the hand you have on your bars is in the middle of your bars, i.e. put your hand closer to the stem (not on the stem but closer to the stem) This will keep your weight from bearing down on the outside of the bars and causing your bike to go sideways. So, 1st step place your one hand near the stem on your bars, take your other hand off the bars, and reach for whatever you want, i.e. water bottle or bar in your back pocket. Practice this when you are by yourself so that you are comfortable doing this.

Also, it is a good idea to open the bar first, but I've learned how to use my teeth to open bars and gel packs so that you don't need both hands to do it. If you're hungry enough, you'll figure it out!

It is possible to do all of this when your hands are on the hoods or even in the drops, but the trick to that is that you do not put your weight on the handlebars (you hold yourself up with you core/abs) so that the weight on the outside of the handlebar does nothing to make the bike move sideways.

Hope this helps.

spoke