Ultimate Hybrid

You know those fancy "hybrid" cars? Like the Prius? They actually only use one type of fuel - gas. They have two motors - a gas one and an electric one, but the electric one is dependent on the gas one, and/or the principle of inertia, to charge up the batteries.

They are complex compared with a regular internal-combustion-only drivetrain... but they are primitive compared with the engine of a bicycle.

Today my hybrid engine was running on Mexican food. (Yum!) Tomorrow it will be running on Swiss steak and mashed potatoes, and a nice salad. (It is both a blessing and a curse to have two awesome cooks under the same roof! I'm what they call a "Clydesdale cyclist" on account of the good food that's put before me.)

This was a rather interesting entry in my Bike Cult book...

Favorite Bike-Touring Foods

In a survey of cross-country touring cyclists, Kevin Kelly asked "What do you eat the most of?"

Here are the replies. (I'm clever! I detected a "common thread"! See if you can...)

- Peanut butter and jelly sammiches
- Peanut butter and bananas
- Mountain Dew, bananas, and peanut butter
- Bread, peanut butter, yogurt
- Peanut butter and honey sammiches on whole wheat bread
- Massive quantities of fruit, and peanut butter and jelly sammiches
- Pancakes, also peanut butter and jelly sammiches
- Granola and peanut butter and jelly
- Bread, cookies, pasta, fruit, and peanut butter
- Peanut butter, ice cream, oranges
- Peanut butter and noodles
- Peanut butter

(Makes you wonder if the survey was sponsored by Jif, or Peter Pan!)

More about "bicycle fuel" in the next few days... come back.