The Top 10 best snacks for your motorcycle backpack
When you are going out on your bike, either on the dirt or the black top, it’s good to have some snacks in your backpack. Whether it’s just to tide you over ’till a full meal at lunchtime or the end of the day, or to give you a boost of energy on the more strenuous sections, having a ready supply of calories is always a good move.
But before you reach for the burritos, back up a bit. Anything you take with you needs to be hardy, squash-proof, not too susceptible to temperature fluctuations and crucially be able to be stuffed in a backpack without taking too much space.
So with that in mind, we’ve put together a list of foods that fit those criteria – so here’s our Top Ten snacks to take riding.
JELLY BELLY
Jelly Babies are a favourite in the cycling and running communities and as such you can be pretty sure they offer a good energy hit for very little bulk – those people are not into carrying additional weight! The little jelly people are ideal to cram into you mouth at a quick stop, taste just great and will offer you a great carb surge in a matter of minutes. On the down side, they are far from vegetarian friendly as they are made from gelatine, which comes from animal collagen …
Don’t overthink this – they taste wonderful!
BANANRAMA
OK so for a pre-ride hit, a nice juicy banana hits the spot, delivering slow release energy and high levels of potassium – all good stuff. But as for taking them in your backpack – forget it. Bananas squash real easy and will make a terrible mess over everything else. And even if you pick a fairly yellow and hard one, it’s a scientific fact that bananas ripen quicker in confined spaces with raised humidity – just like a rucksack. So after a few hours it’s going to ready to smear all your belongings in bananary mush.
So be smart and chose the dried version – a bag of banana chips will keep until the end of time but offer a crunchy and tasty snack on the side of the road or trail. Oh and you can share this one with the tree-huggers too!
GET JERKY
So if the bananas keep the veggies happy, how about something for the carnivores? People have been drying meat to preserve it since the Stone Age, so who are we to argue with logic. Dried meat will travel well, offer a great snack when you are out on the bike and is widely available across the world in convenient packages that are ideal for slinging in your riding pack. Whether you prefer the slivers of beef jerky or the slightly more primitive experience if ripping of a chunk of biltong, meaty goodness has never been so bike-friendly.
NUTTY SLACK
So as we are dipping between veggie and meaty, nuts seem to fit in well. Nuts are natures energy storage system, and across the world millions of animals rely on nuts as a reliable and convenient source of calories – ever seen an unhappy squirrel?
With a vast range from pre-packed salted peanuts and cashews to shelled Brazils and mixes with dried fruits, these all make perfect riding foods. The salted ones will help you to avoid cramp but clearly will make you thirsty, so avoid them if you’ve not got plenty of water or it’s very hot.
Oh and nothing with chocolate – they’ll all melt against you back and become a sticky brown lump, and ain’t nobody got time for that!
SMUGGLING SAUSAGE
Similar to the beef jerky or biltong, dry cured sausages can be a great addition to your backpack for a day on the trails or roads. They’ll offer a more substantial snack too, so are perfect if you are not going to be anywhere suitable for lunch but still need a reasonable calorie intake halfway through the day – though maybe not in very hot countries!
The dryer the better, so try to head for the dry cured versions that are pre-packaged and avoid really strong and smelly versions that will flavour everything in your backpack, not to mention making you as attractive and fragrant as a Turkish wrestler.
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ORANGE AND CRUNCHY
Unlike bananas, carrots are far more hardy and suitable for bouncing around in a backpack – think of them as the SAS of the vegetable world. As a tasty snack for the vegans and vegetarians out there they are hard to beat, and even for the confirmed carnivores, a crunchy carrot is hard to beat for a pre-prandial snack out on the road, even if it could be seen as a left field option. Energy wise carrots don’t deliver quite as well compared to bananas, having about half the calorie count, so you’ll need twice as many!
A note of caution here – do not leave a carrot unattended in a bag for a long time. They turn into a foul grey watery soup that smells worse than anything you have ever smelt, except maybe teenage lad’s bedroom …
CEREAL KILLER
Back to more mainstream territory here as cereal bars are a natural go-to option for rider replenishment. From the humble own-brand store versions to high-energy technical versions, the basic principle is a combination of fast and slow release carbohydrate energy that will keep you on the pipe until mealtime. It’s easy to spend quite a bit on these but in reality a good slice of homemade flapjack will do much the same – the golden syrup gives instant calories and the oats deliver the slow burn you need.
Just a word of caution, avoid any ‘Festival Flapjacks’. Those bad boys may be OK of you just want to play bongos and talk rubbish to complete strangers, but are less useful when on a mo’cycle.
SUCKY SWEETS
We’re getting steadily more medical now, and you can’t get more medical than taking tablets, even if all they contain is glucose. But as a way of rapidly absorbing carbohydrates you can’t get better than sucking on a glucose sweet. Glucose is a monosaccharide so is absorbed really quickly whereas disaccharides such as sugar or polysaccharides such as starchy foods need to be broken down into monosaccharides before absorption.
If it’s an instant hit you are after, glucose sweets are your man, and as a small compact packet that fits in your riding jacket, it’s bike friendly.
MINTY GOODNESS
If you’ve never been to the Lake District in the UK, you’ve missed a gem of a place with stunning landscapes in every direction. And it’s not just lakes up there, it’s mountains too and this is where our next snack is commonly found. Invented way back in 1869 when confectioner Joseph Wiper made an error when boiling sugar, Kendal Mint cake has been used as an energy source for climbers and walkers since that point.
But the product really got it’s big break when in 1953 it was ordered by the British Mount Everest Expedition, the team taking nearly 40 lbs of it as part of their high altitude rations that would help them to conquer the highest peak on the planet for the very first time.
Not a bad recommendation really.
For bikers, it’s an ideal snack that delivers a quick hit thanks to the super sweet minty taste. A pack is about the same size as a box of cigarettes, but vastly better for your lungs. Thoroughly recommended.
WELL GEL
OK we’ve left these till last as compared to the rest of the list, this is our least favourite option for a riding food source. Gels are widely used by professional cyclists as a really compact and convenient way of delivering instant hit carbs. But there’s a problem – they don’t taste great! Imagine putting a spoonful of honey into some shampoo and then squeezing it through a tube into your mouth – that’s exactly what gels are like.
If you are riding an extreme enduro, then gels might be an great option for their efficiency and small size but for every other occasion, we’d prefer to rely on everything else on this list before reaching for the gels!
So that’s it for our short and sharp foray into the world of biking snacks. If you use any of these or have any alternative suggestions then let us know.
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