Energy Bars & Gels

There are several energy bars & gels are available these days. These include Power Bars, Protein-Plus Power Bars, Clif Bars, Luna Bars, Pria Bars, Power Gel & Hammer Gel. We're not going to try & decipher the nutritional aspects of these products. Their web sites are listed at the bottom of this page, so you can check with them for the nitty-gritty details. Our goal here is to give you a little practical advice, based on our personal experience & what our customers tell us.

If you do any distance riding at all, it's always a good idea to take along something to eat. Energy bars fit this niche pretty well. They are compact, pack plenty of nutrition, & can be eaten on the run. Eating them will not make you as fast as Lance Armstrong, or even close. They will prevent you from "bonking". If you've never bonked, trust me, you don't want to. It occurs when your body runs out of energy, and it can give you the shakes or make you light-headed. Energy bars & gels conteract this, & allow you to keep riding. Ed reports that he gets about 10 miles per PowerBar, but your mileage may vary.

PowerBars® are the best known energy bars & kind of the standard for the industry, since they have been around since 1986. They come in a variety of flavors but banana is by far the most popular (60% of our Power Bar sales). Ed also recommends Vanilla Crisp & Oatmeal Raisin. Other flavors include Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Lemon Crisp, Malt Nut, Mocha, Peanut Butter & Wild Berry. We sell PowerBars in boxes of 12 and individually. If you by them by the dozen, we allow you to mix flavors at no extra cost. If you are trying them for the first time, why not get at least one of each flavor to find out which one you prefer? We try to keep all flavors in stock, but it is pretty difficult with the less popular ones. If you want a particular flavor that we don't have in stock, please let us know. PowerBars have a chewy, taffy-like consistency at room temperature. When they get cold, they have a rock-like consistency. If you want to eat one while you are cross-country skiing, or participating in some other winter sport, put the PowerBar in your pocket or some other place where your body heat will keep is soft. PowerBars have a 12-month shelf life, so you don't have to worry about them going bad.

Clif Bars came on the market in 1992, offering what they believed was a better tasting energy bar. Clif Bars have become popular because many people agreed with them, & prefer their taste over PowerBars. They use all natural ingredients and come in a variety of flavors. We generally stock Chocolate Brownie, Cranberry Apple Cherry, Crunchy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch, Carrot Cake & Chocolate Almond Fudge. They also have an Ice™ series which features chocolate icing. Flavors in this series include Cool Mint Chocolate™, Chocolate Java Avalanche™ & Orange Chocolate Chill™

There are several other energy bars available from PowerBar & Clif Bar. Clif Bar has a Luna Bar which is tailored to the nutritional needs of women. PowerBar has a ProteinPlus bar and a Pria bar. The Pria bar is intended to be an afternoon snack bar (kind of a healthy candy bar).

If you have never used energy bars, we recommend that you try a PowerBar. They are the least expensive & have a long shelf life. If it seems to work for you, but you would like something a little more tasty, try a Clif Bar.

Web Sites

• PowerBar
• Clif Bar
• Hammer Gel

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