Beans, Beans the magical fruit the more you eat the more you …..Go faster? , what? You mean those things I used to Eat in my Easter basket as a kid (accept for the black ones) can make me ride my bike faster and longer. What a brilliant stroke of marketing that is, a kid’s candy that actually gives you a competitive edge, and with all those ho-hum gels out there it’s interesting to see someone try a different approach to the market.

But, candy as a energy source is not something new, look I am from the days when we used to use flasks of corn syrup we bought at the grocery store as a power gel, yes this would entice a unpleasant bowel movement after every race but the stuff worked, and hell it made you tuff; or we used to pop basic sweet tarts, that’s right freaking sweet tarts during races for energy because they are packed with fructose and maltodextrin. You guessed it that wonderful stuff you all pop that’s inside all those “new” gels. So, it doesn’t surprise me that a Jelly Bean manufacturer would come out with a fuel source for athletes. Well, that’s what Jelly Belly Sport Beans are all about, these guys have made those boring to athlete Jelly Beans actually exciting and a household name, it’s a cool concept and an amazingly cool company, seriously check out their website sometime
But, does this stuff actually work? Well, MissingSaddles once again gave me some bags of beans and said give them a go.

Let’s start with the flavors: They are all pretty damn good and the flavors offered are almost exactly like each and every flavor offered by one of your favorite sports drink companies. So, every athlete in the back of your mind is thinking they are somehow eating a candy version of their favorite sports drink, freaking brilliant.

So, for those of you who don’t like that “sugary syrupy taste” or the “I just crammed a jar of fruit jam in my mouth feeling” that you can sometimes get with gels, then Jelly Belly offers an alternative.
Ease of eating: Jelly Belly recommends consuming these beans 30 minutes prior to each event and then additional beans as needed during the event to sustain energy and of course with lots of water. Well, I tried the basic beans 30 minutes prior to my events an actually have to say I didn’t feel much different or feel my performance was really effected by its use, compared to similar products I have used, except, when I was warming up with the “caffeine” infused “Extreme Sports Bean”. Wholly freaking shi* these little guys work like freaking magic. It is a good substitute to popping the gel 10 minutes prior to short hard event if you are used to that sort of thing, but with a kick of caffeine and your tummy feeling a bit fuller in the process, I officially have adjusted my routine with these little guys.

The next step was to try them during an event, for road racing they are a synch to pop in your mouth and reach for your bottle to consume due to lack of time restraints for a possible meal on the bike. But, for crits. and even long TT’s I found it difficult due to the awkwardness of the bean size and the larger amounts of water needed to prevent thick sugary saliva and dropping a bean or two while attempting to get the bean from the packet to my mouth at a fast rate.

I noticed this effect during another moment when my girlfriend, who loves to do 40K TT’s, and LUVVS the taste of the fruit punch Jelly Belly Sport Beans was coming across the finish line after an event totally exhausted. I looked at her pale face and saw ruby red on her lips, I said “are you wearing freaking lipstick and dolling up at a 40K TT what the frick?, she bent over the bike winded and almost to the point of drool and said “it’s my,,, inhale, it’s my,,,,,, inhale,,,,,,,it’s my,,,,,,,Jelly Bellies. Even she found out it can sometimes be a bit difficult to coordinate the water intake with carefully popping a bag full of nuggets into your mouth when time is an issue. So I would have to say hit or miss on the “ease of eating department”.

Finally, Does this stuff work or is it just really candy coated?

Believe it or not, Jelly Belly actually took a long look on how their beans compare to other products. They took case studies on equal amounts of men and women to determine the results of Carbohydrate-Supplement Form and Exercise Performance. Without getting into the fine details of the actual figures and to completely bore you with the multi-page report, what Jelly Belly did was basically take their participants and subject them to equal eating routines, rigorous exercise programs and collected a world full of data while subjecting them to several types of carbohydrate sources and yes, even plain water to find their results. Well, we all know that carbs compared to water will give you a performance boost, hell you don’t need a freaking scientist to figure that data, just give some sugar to your kid in a room full of Lego’s and then compare it to water, and give me a call on those results O.K…you get my point.

But, what Jelly Belly’s final results did determine is they are on the same tier as other competitive product with jells and sports drinks. These little guys might be from a candy company, but it’s not quite candy, it does work, besides, my sweet tarts could have used some electrolytes. In case of the caffeine version they are a fantastic and they do work to keep up with the caffeine infused joneses of other company products, so pick your potion but don’t count out the bean.

Well, that’s about it for my review, now if they can just make a Sport Bean that makes my tongue black like they did when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have to throw away half my Easter basket. Buy your Sports Beans Right Here!

I give Sport Beans 4 1/2 saddles out of five

TCM

The CaliRado Cyclist

In an attempt to avoid offending any readers, I would like to begin this post by stating my long-standing support of commuting to work by bicycle and sincere wish that more people would ride every day.

With that said, I would also like to state that I pretty much hate National Bike To Work Day. In fact, I will go so far as to say that the entire thing actually makes me kind of angry on a number of levels.

Primarily, I get frustrated that this is the only day of the year during which I will see 99% of these people. But after some thought (as well as nearly getting taken out by a gaggle of ignorant and dangerous “commuters” on both morning and lunch rides), I have realized that this may not be a bad thing.

Note to all of those unfamiliar with cycling lingo: “On Your Left” means that I am going to pass you “on your left.” This dictates that you should move to your right – where you should have been to begin with. Apparently there are a lot of people who do not know their right from left out there.

Unfortunately, I have unwittingly stumbled upon Bike To Work Day over the last few years while on my near-daily ride to the Lab and may actually plan on driving to work next year instead. It will probably be safer than attempting to navigate the bike routes and numerous helmet-less donkeys populating them on this one day of the year. Seriously, I saw more people almost crash or get hit by cars this morning than I have in the other 364 days of the year combined. This can’t be a good thing can it?

Here is my Hypothesis:

Bike To Work Day may actually harm the overall image of bicycle commuters.

Argument:

On a normal day, there are a handful of bicycle commuters who are accustomed to riding safely in traffic and generally respect the rules of the road or bike path. For the most part, these cyclists portray a positive, healthy and environmentally conscious image. I, for one, am proud to consider myself a member of this group.

The reason I mention this is because it is critical to differentiate the people that actually commute on a regular basis from those individuals who take this one day of the year to dust off their potentially un-roadworthy bikes and cause mayhem on the roads and paths of our country.

Does anyone else think that it may be slightly problematic to have a single day in which the number of bicycle commuters increases by a factor of 10? And the overwhelming majority of the increase consists of dangerously unsafe people who rarely, if ever, ride their bikes? Call me crazy but this just seems like a recipe for disaster and frustration – for both drivers and other cyclists alike.

If my feelings and those which I inferred from the faces of the many annoyed drivers I encountered this morning are any indication, National Bike To Work Day may as well be called “A Year of Responsible Commuting and Road Sharing Efforts Diminished by a Bunch of People Who Don’t Represent the Cause or Have to Deal with the Consequences Day.”

I truly hope that some people actually convert into “real” commuters because of Bike To Work Day. And I really hope that the image of bicycle commuters as a whole is not degraded by the actions of the many people who treat this as a holiday and not a way of life.

I would like to conclude by extending my apologies to anyone who may feel insulted by some of these comments. I’m sorry that you don’t have a helmet, a safe bike or a basic understanding of traffic and bike path safety. Trust me, I do feel bad about that. But in the words of Snoop Dogg, “Don’t get mad. I’m only being real.”