Riley Kamsler is a chef, cyclist, and founder of Pedal Bites – a new company offering handmade cycling nutrition products for before, during and after bike rides.
We spoke to him about the Pedal Bites journey so far.
Bags of muesli, energy bars and energy balls, all packed with fruits and seeds, are available individually or in various combo packages.
Ideas for new products usually begin with a single ingredient followed by research into flavour combinations, nutritional benefits and other factors. Keeping it simple and letting the ingredients speak for themselves, and focussing on flavour and texture are Riley’s biggest goals: his inner chef shining through!
The next step is tinkering with recipes to bring them to their full potential. The number of revisions depends on feedback: 7 is the highest (for Nuts About Grains), 1 is the lowest (Le Roulier Energy Balls).
Feedback so far is “overwhelmingly positive”, and with good reason! The products look great – below you can see bars and energy ball bites for during a ride, and on the bottom, the ‘Proper Breakfast’ mix.
Full nutritional information can be seen for each product, and as an added bonus the whole range is gluten free, vegan friendly and with no added sugars!
In January 2014 he and Jenn, his now fiancée, left Australia for an overseas adventure which eventually led to them renting a flat in the south of France. Here he began tinkering with recipes for effective cycling nutrition: his experience in a kitchen combining perfectly with high cycling mileage and low funds (“I’d cycled across Europe, bought a brand new bike, kitted myself out and basically spent all my savings!”).
He shared prototype rice bars and energy balls with fellow riders and received universally positive feedback – the catalyst he needed to begin developing the Pedal Bites concept. Fast forward 10 months and the brand officially launched!
There’s a divide among cyclists about whether you should you eat nuts, dates and bananas while riding, or opt instead for energy gels and bars. We asked how he would pitch Pedal Bites products to riders who are convinced that energy gels are the future:
I believe [cyclists] are some of the most stubborn people on the planet: once we have something that works for us we find it very hard to try something different.
For our hardcore MAMILs out there how many times have you consumed a gel and thought “yep, I feel brilliant” and then 30 minutes later you’re hunched over the bars with stomach cramps and not feeling well? I’d say most of you at some point!
This should be your catalyst to search for something new and try real food instead of highly processed things that aren’t friendly to the body! Eating real food might seem odd at the time – but your body will be ever so grateful and you’ll be rewarded feeling better and healthy on and off the bike!
Head over to the Pedal Bites website for more information (or if you’re especially keen, their store!)
To finish, we asked about Riley’s guilty pleasure cycling food. His answer was a good one: “the thought of a bacon and egg roll, with BBQ sauce would always appeal and hit the spot after those tough hours on the bike! It always hit the spot & you never felt guilty about having enjoyed it either!”
* If you want to know how to avoid ‘bonking’ (or haven’t ever heard the term), check out our guide which covers everything you need to know.
Leave a Reply