Singapore – Ipoh Warm-up Stage Review
Before we get into this ride review. Let’s answer as many questions as possible. This way, when the cycling adventure resumes, we would have completely answered most if not all the questions sent so far. Please keep sending me questions related to Adventure Cycling for Humanity 2011 – Indonesia, either through my facebook page or via email to fluidrider@gmail.com
Today’s Question:
Question 1 (Face2Face Question):
Where was your toughest route so far?
Answer:
So far for me, the toughest was from Teluk Intan to Ipoh in the state of Perak. I can still remember how I struggled against the wind, up the hills and through the storm. I thought the distance of 95km was bearable if I wasn’t travelling with load. Yes, Teluk Intan to Ipoh was my toughest.
Second toughest I think would have to be from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur on Route No.1 (50km). I almost gave up on the climb out of Seremban, especially after my difficult 40km ride from Port Dickson to Seremban and with little sleep I managed the night before. Similar to the ride going into Ipoh, I rode in the scorching heat of Malaysia, against the wind on a flat open roads and through the storm into Kuala Lumpur’s busy traffic on a Friday. I think my real test will be in Bukit Berakit, Perak. I have not passed it yet and I am not sure if I would, considering my physical state I’m now. I would want to give it a try if I am 100% fit again. We shall see.
*As of right now, the plan is for me to do a customary ride into Pulau Pinang Island from Butterworth and wait for a day or two (depending on the availability of the vessel) before boarding the ship to Medan port.
Question 2 (Face2Face Question):
How do you plan your main route and the next day’s route?
Answer:
When I was younger, I like to stare at the world map on the wall of my school, imagining the adventures and landscapes that lie ahead. Now that I am at it, I realised planning and marking out a route can also be hard work. How do you decide where to go? The shorter and easier touristy route or the more adventurous Lonely Planet route? And what if the locals recommended the one old abandon roads which they think would be nicer and more scenic?
For the Malaysia warm-up stage, I generally plotted a general direction and destination to end each day’s ride. I prepare two routes – one northwest along the coastal road and the other northeast interior route. Base on my then physical state, I try to plot a route not longer than 100km with shorter recovery route of 40km or slightly more the following day. Of course the distance is flexible as I won’t know exactly how tough or easy the big route (100km) is until I am on it. If the big route is fairly easy, the following day’s distance might change slightly or I will go slightly deeper on the northeast route to see and search for local interesting places.
As for my main route, I would avoid riding on the main roads if possible. I would love to venture into the old villages or coastal dirt roads to see what is there. Of course, this needs a little bit more planning and research. I will usually ask the local for the history of the area I will be travelling through, the background of the place and google it to see the geography and elevation and re-plot my route accordingly. My distances and routes are flexible and can change from time to time depending what I hear from the local, the weather, my present physical and mental state of mind. I am not just cycling, I’m on a quest for some Adventure , People, Geography and History of the places I am on.
This were the routes I took from Singapore to Ipoh, Perak:
Day 02: Singapore – Pontian
Day 03: Pontian – Batu Pahat
Day 04: Batu Pahat – Muar
Day 05: Muar – Malacca
Day 06: Malacca – Port Dickson
Day 07: Port Dickson – Seremban – Kuala Lumpur
Day 08 and Day 09: Rest in Kuala Lumpur
Day 10: Kuala Lumpur – Kuala Selangor
Day 11: Kuala Selangor – Sabak Bernam, Selangor
Day 12: Sabak Bernam – Teluk Intan, Perak
Day 13: Teluk Intan – Ipoh, Perak
Day 14: Ipoh – Kuala Kangsar
Question 3 (FaceBook Question):
Along your warm-up stage route, where was the best place to ride and chill for a short cycling getaway in Malaysia?
Answer:
It depends on how long you are looking at and what is your preference - seaside cycling holiday or a city centre cycling holiday. If I would to recommend one, it would be a weekend seaside cycling gateway (Friday – Sunday) in Tanjung Bidara, Malacca. A beautiful seaside village with ample chalets and bungalows. Homestays are also plenty and cheap – RM 50, will get you the whole well kept kampong house. Give it a thought and google it for more information.
Question 4 (FaceBook Question):
How long is your break going to be before you resume your journey and from where will you start? How are you coping?
Answer:
My break will be for 2 weeks from 22 October to 5 November. I will be heading to Butterworth and resume my journey from there into Pulau Pinang. I will be resting one or two days in Pulau Pinang (depending on the vessel’s departure date and time) and do my final check before boarding the ship to Medan Port. I am coping well. Not 100% but I am good and I do really hope I will be back to 90-100% when I leave Singapore on the 5th. I’m still trying my very best to keep the flow. I am making coffee in the morning using my camping stove, making breakfast from whatever I can find in my camping pannier, eating instant noodles for lunch, making tea at 3 and cooking dinner all from whatever I can find in the camping pannier. Technically, I am still in my Adventure Cycling mode.
I will go out with friends to drink teh tarik, eat mee goreng. I am also doing a slow and easy active recovery in the mornings and other than the pain from the right knee, I am doing well so far.
Question 5 (FaceBook Question):
Name one thing you were glad you brought along with you?
Answer:
I will name two! One will be Baby Johnson cream. Into the fourth day of my ride from Malacca to Port Dickson, my face was so burnt I couldn’t touch it! At night, I found the baby lotion in my ‘spare clothing’ pannier and until today, I will apply the lotion before I sleep. The other would have to be the electrolyte that I was asked by the world’s ironman participant, Terry to carry along. I feel without it, I would have had cramps every single day.
The baby lotion
My electrolytes
The Review:
29th October 2011:
My seventh day back in Singapore - resting and recovering (R&R). I found out that my right knee (inside knee cap) was actually much worse than my ankle. I’m glad that I returned home for this short R&R. I did go out this morning on the bike, trying an easy 40km eastern loop and I am feeling good. I am not pushing it yet but come next week, I will have my rear panniers on the bike and give an easy spin on the eastern loop again. After today, I am slightly hopeful to be able to leave on the 5th of November and re-start my journey on the 6th of November. I need to be 100% fit in order to complete this huge challenge ahead of me. I had a great time coming back for this short R&R. I was out with my fellow riders cycling to the city centre to eat, eat and eat.
That is my active recovery by the way. I am putting back what I’ve lost on the Malaysia leg as I will need more of it when I am on the Indonesian mountain roads.
Since there were request for me to write a post ride report from my warming up stage. I will share the concerns I had while I was on the Malaysia warm-up leg, on what worked and what did not, I will also share some of my little experiences in preparing for this trip as well as the training stages. I will write a little on everything and I hope from these insights, you can figure out how to improve on it. I will talk on my training, fuel, gears, equipments, decision making, health and issues, and cycling safely on the roads. And as I go along, I will also try to write the next volume… this will all depend on demand. If no one asks, I will chill and ride.
* Disclaimer: Different Adventure Cyclist has different gear, equipment, style and preference. What you are reading here is my preference and please feels free to adjust it to suit your Adventure riding style, distance and to make your life a bit easier.
Planning and Training:
Planning for this adventure took me over a year. I spoke to a few adventure long distant cyclist online , read their blogs and some books of personal long distance cyclist. I did research on many countries for this adventure cycling to help me in selecting Indonesia. The few reasons that swayed me to ride through Indonesia were, I spoke their language, was familiar with their foods and customs, and I did a small pilot project to ride around Bali to teach Frisbee in the village school with two of my other coaches. I knew that Indonesia would be very tough, especially the Sumatra leg and that is why I decided to train for this Adventure Cycling. I did all my planning and research at the National Library Board HQ spending time at night after work to slowly workout the general route, distances, stops and places to go.
My training for this started in July last year (taking a year) doing it easy and riding around for fun. Getting use to handling the bicycle again wasn’t difficult after a long break of not riding it seriously. My cycling background goes all the way back to when I was 7 years young. So getting back the basics was quite straight forward. From there, I developed a training program to bring me the distance, stamina, speed and strength that I would require. I combined this with alternate working out at the park workout corner and trekking Bukit Timah hill once or twice a week.
Decision Making:
To be on a bicycle and traveling on a bicycle solo is not as easy as I thought. Well, that is exactly what I thought initially, going solo would be easier and faster. I am alone, I stop whenever I want, eat whenever and whatever I want. But in difficult situations, making decisions solo may not be always the best thing. How do I do it all by myself, making the important decisions?
It all depends on the overall perspective of your cycling adventure. When to eat? Whenever I am in need of fuel or when I am hungry. Where to stay for the night? Ideally somewhere safe and reasonably comfortable for me to have good rest (my plan was to camp along the west coast of Malaysia but this was not ideal nor safe). These were all common sense, really. If it rained heavily and the camp site was swamped with mosquitoes and there is a RM30 motel room nearby, why would you want to be camping outside and suffer the next day? Big decision making such as back tracking, changing the route at the last minute and passing lunch stops are all calculated and valid. Usually it will happen when I need to avoid trouble. Of course the biggest decision so far I had made for the warming up stage was to come back home for a short R&R. To be able to make this sort of decision, I needed to make few phone calls for a quick consultation. Usually those that I call will be someone who were experienced long distance riders and can know or feel how I am feeling. At the end of the day, I will make the final decision as I am the one that’s going to be doing this adventure and I am the one who knows best how my present body condition is.
Health Issues while on the Road:
One of the trickiest part for every Adventure Cyclist. Maintaining one’s health and staying healthy is every Adventure Cyclist and also my number one concern, and the main factor for me being able to finish this challenge. I can only do so much by sleeping enough, sleeping right, eating enough and eating right. So far I have been fortunate with the food in Malaysia, I had not had any problems. That was very important. Next, I managed to get proper rest most of the time except in Port Dickson.
The weather, the geography and the load I am carrying and the distance in Indonesia will demand a lot from my body, so taking care of myself will be my top priority. Anything small, even a small flu would affect this adventure. I trained for this accordingly and what I need now was to stay focus on the tasks. I will need to make sure I have enough rest each night, eat right, eat enough and eat good food on top of the supplements that I would be taking. The good thing is I’m familiar with Indonesian food and I love eating at the warungs. So, I am actually looking forward to this – being in Indonesia enjoying the sights and food, on top of what I will be going to be doing, promoting Ultimate Frisbee to the village schools.
*I’m also on medication – Hypertension. Not that I needed it but ever since I was prescribed that 2 years ago, I wasn’t allowed to stop taking it until today. I am ok with that since I got enough supplies to last me for 3 months.
Fuel:
When to eat? What to eat? How much to eat? I asked myself these questions a year before I started this journey. My typical morning riding 'fuel' for my 'engine' would be 4 rice balls with a little black sauce and salts to be consumed each hour and a cut fresh fruit (mostly bananas) at the check points. I've learnt to pay more attention to correct 'fuelling' for my 'engine' rather than worrying about the merits of the latest frameset, tyres or seat post. To me this is very important as I will always be on the bicycle, 8hrs a day continuously pedaling. I know this is not only a week bicycling adventure, but it would be 12 – 16 weeks of continuously cycling for 80-100 days over the mountain ranges of Sumatra, Java and some parts of Bali. To date, over 12 days of cycling out of 14 days, I have lost 12kg. I need to re-think on the way I load my fuel and load more and stop longer for proper and good meals. I would also need to sleep enough. Eat enough and eat good food.
So what is good? For fuel, I always carry with me 4-6 rice balls prepared in the morning at the first warung I see. With a little bit of salt and black soy sauce. I will have one ball per hour or whenever I feel I am in need of something down in my ‘fuel tank’. I have been practicing to load while cycling when I was training in Singapore so stopping wasn’t necessary at all if I didn’t need too but I do it with care and make sure I am in a safe zone.
My fuel
Gear and Equipments - What I brought along and why?:
My camping gear. Though I haven’t had the chance to use during the warming up stage has been tested many times here in Singapore, and for the cooking equipment, it has been with me for years (as long as I can remember, since my army days from 1988). I think in Indonesia if I was given no choice like in Malaysia, I will need to camp out. So, if push came to shove, I would find a nice cosy place where I could to set up my tent and cook up something nice. (please do send me your camping recipes).
My bicycle spares:
I will be alone 80%of the time travelling on the road. So I figured for me to be able to make it at least to another smaller town, I would need a basic bicycle repair kit. 2 spare tyres, 2 spare tubes, chain links, and all the necessary tools. All tested before, checked and approved by Uncle Teck – Song Seng Chan). So I am covered for this one.
Safety on the Road:
Its has always been my daily issue. Each day on the road is a high risk for me. Every morning before I leave to hit the road, I have a list to go through. The route, road condition, traffic, elevation and difficulty level. The more information I could get hold of and absorb the better for me to minimize the risk on the road. If possible I would try to pick a route with less traffic every time I plan my route. Main Supply Route (MSR) or roads that are heavy with traffic would be avoided. If possible, I would travel on the old Kampung roads, although it would be longer and more tiring cycling on graveled and muddy tracks. Unless there is no other choice, then only would I travel on the MSRs, and this would be where my two hand signals would comes into use. (See picture below)
Pic 01: Raise Right hand to indicate, “Watch out, I am here”
Pic 02: Slowly lower your right hand
Pic 03: Stretch out your right hand to indicate, “I need this much space”.
If possible, raise your right hand again to say, “thank you”
*Note: I was sitting in a warung (roadside stall) in Perak when a lorry driver who passed me earlier on whom I spoke too told me the hand signals above actually work. They see me on the bicycle of course but with the hand signals, they see me as an alert rider and is very serious on safety giving them with no choice but to obliged and give as much space practical.
Staying Focus:
How does one rider stay focus on the road for so long while being on the road? I asked myself this question before I started my journey. I read other long distance / adventure cyclist blogs and also did some research in the library. For me, it was to plot my route, set up check points / rest points and also to have a timeline to stop the bike, rest, load fuel and move again. Things like going into different routes for different scenery will keep you alert, stopping for a quick break will perk your body a little and from my little experience, taking pictures helps you to freshen up too. But for me, staying focus on the road is vital because any thing less would be very dangerous for my safety. Anyone who has suggestions on how I can stay focus while on a bicycle, please feel free to share with me.
What worked? (from the Warming up leg in Malaysia):
The Raleigh bike is performing the way it should be so far in Malaysia. I hope it does the same in Indonesia.
The Panniers front and rear rack are holding up well. (Thanks Seh Suan and William Toh)
The front Toppeak panniers are doing well and the design suits my packing style (Thank you Soon Bee Huat).
2XU cycling gear, perfect and I am going to get another pair as I now know 2 pairs are not enough for me to go through the Indonesia Archipelago. (Thanks Keypower International).
The cooking equipment. My trusted equipment since 1988
What Needs Improvement?:
The Shimano riding shoe needed stitching to give extra protection.
The rear panniers (I can’t remember the brand) need to be patched for extra precaution. It burst in Malaysia on the 4th day into the warming up stage.
The rainjacket needs to be replaced as the one I had got ripped riding in the Pontian storm.
My load needs to be lighten by another 4kg for me to be able to climb more comfortably (The only way I see right now is shedding my weight)
Suggestions:
If you have any suggestions for me to improve my adventure in Indonesia, or if you have information to share, please feels free to drop me an email at fluidrider@gmail.com
