Pedalling Across Malaysia - Preparations

Hello! My name is Benjamin Choo, I'm 24 years old this year. I'm a medical graduate currently awaiting placement in government service. In January of 2017, I plan to embark on a solo ride across the country, from the northern tip of Perlis in Padang Besar, right down to Johor Bahru in Johor. At the moment, I'm expecting to complete the journey within 10 to 14 days. I can't give out too many details yet for precautionary safety reasons but I will continue to update this blog with my progress up until the day of, what I think will likely be, the most epic ride I'll ever embark on in my life. Yay?

This ride has been a dream of mine for quite awhile now. Medical school took up the bulk of the past 6 years of my life, so many missed family trips, gatherings, adventures and experiences. I've always had an enthusiasm towards bikes, leading a healthy life as well as a bit of adventure. It's not so hard to imagine then that I would want to go on such a trip with what limited amount of free time I have on my hands at the moment. 

In the mean time, I will continue my preparations up until the day of my departure, which mainly consist of regular amounts of daily cycling (I'm doing about 10 - 15 hours a week now) with regular doses of jogging and swimming, route planning, lodging details, equipment gathering and other bits and pieces. However, all this planning isn't going to get me far if I don't have the necessary funds and equipment for it. Which is why I'm writing this post, rather shamelessly if I might add, to request for any form of sponsorship possible. Whether in the form of donations (not necessarily RM2.6b) or actual physical equipment down to biscuits I can munch on during the ride, anything and

everything will be greatly appreciated and will go far in helping me achieve this little dream of mine.

At the moment, this is what I have so far:

• 1 bicycle that's in pretty good shape
• 1 helmet
• 1 pair of cycling shorts
• 1 pair of cycling shoes
• 1 rucksack to carry everything in
• 1 saddle bag
• 1 multitool + chain breaker (to fix a potential broken chain) - Thank you Desmond, Edward and Carmen.
• 1 set of tyre levers (to change a flat tyre)
• 1 mini-pump
• 2 500ml water bottles
• 1 bicycle lock
• Front light (plus additional equipment) - Thank you Aunty Peng!
• Some chain links (to mend a broken chain)
• Financial aid - Thank you Mr Edmund Lim and other anonymous donors!

Equipment still needed:

• A few spare tyre tubes
• A spare chain
• 2 tyres

Additional useful but non-essential equipment:

• An extra pair of cycling shorts 
• A rain jacket 
• A back light
• Energy bars/gels/electrolyte drinks
• A pair of cycling gloves
• A bell
• Anything else which you may think is useful

And that's about it. Feel free to contact me via this email (benchoo92@gmail.com) or leave a comment down below and I'll get back to you. Again, any form of sponsorship would to mean a great deal to me and will definitely be helping me out next year. Thank you for reading!

Current Equipment Setup - Pedals

This is the second entry in my 'Equipment Setup' series and it is on my current set of cycling pedals, my Crankbrothers Eggbeater pedals.

The ones I use are the cheapest in their eggbeater line, with a website price of $59.99. However, at the time of purchasing these, I had the misfortune of dealing with a rather deceitful bicycle shop in Damansara Utama that sold them to me for northwards of RM300 (that's about $75 according to todays exchange rates) and claimed it was their best price. After doing a decent amount of research, I was able to find many other stores selling them for around the RM150-180 price range, almost half of what I paid. Ever since then, I have never set foot in that store again and have dissuaded and cautioned many from doing business with such a shady group. Nonetheless, the damage has been done and I've taken it as a rather costly lesson, one that I hope many will learn from me rather than first hand.

Now that that's over, on to the pedals. Those of you with a decent amount of cycling knowledge may be familiar with this brand but if you're not, fret not as Crankbrothers are more established in the mountain biking scene. The main reason why I'm currently using these pedals is because before I became a roadie, I was an avid mountain biker and was looking for a decent pair of pedals then. As time went by, I grew an interest in road cycling and got my first road bicycle a little over a 18 months ago, I was never a fan of the 'standard' flat pedals that came with the bike so I interchange my Crankbrothers pedals in between both bikes regularly.

A quick run through of the specs (information taken from the Crankbrothers website):

eggbeater 1

4-sided entry / superior mud shedding.
customizable float and release angle.

• spindle material - forged scm435 chromoly steel 
• body material - stamped steel 
• wing material - stamped steel 
• spring material - 300 series stainless steel
• release angle - 15° / 20° 
• q-factor - 52mm 
• cleat - premium brass cleats with shims included 
• weight - 290g per pair 
• warranty - 2 years

Immediately out of the box, the pedals have a very minimalistic look to them and are significantly lighter compared to most flat pedals out there. In hand, the weight difference between one compared to a full carbon Dura Ace pedal is barely noticeable. The words 'crankbrothers' are laser etched on on inner surface of what is essentially the stepping platform, ie the part that makes contact with you shoe, while the Crankbrothers logo is on the outer surface.

The way these pedals work is essentially similar to most clipless pedals with the main difference being, as a result of the 4-sided entry mechanism, one would not have to spend too much time trying to orientate the pedal with the cleat of one's cycling shoe prior to clipping in as one would have to do with a conventional one-sided road pedal. This reduces clip-in time as well as reduces the risk of possibly embarrassing 'clip-in' problems. They're incredibly easy to use on the roads and become almost intuitive after 1 or 2 weeks of use but the trails are where these pedals truly shine as a mountain biker will require to clip in and out more frequently than a roadie and doing this smoothly and quickly could mean the difference between a sick run or toppling-over like an utter newbie because you couldn't unclip in time (lets face it, we've all done it before).

I've had my pedals for a little over 2 years now and the pictures below are about a day old at the time of writing this post.

As you can see, they're still in great shape with the exception of a few dings and scratches here and there, nothing out of the ordinary for a mountain bike pedal. The tension mechanism is just right in my opinion. With a decent pair of shoes, they offer a slight bit of float while still keeping you shoes stuck into them following drop-offs and jumps on mountain trails,

Despite they're relative lack of a large stepping area, I experienced no hotspots on the soles of my feet even after hours of riding, both on road and mountain. And taking into account the fact the soles of my shoe aren't even carbon, I'm confident these pedals will be reasonably comfortable for even the most pampered cyclist. 

Apart from that, these pedal are incredibly easy to clean due to their skeleton-like design. If you're on the trail and you get a little mud in them, a couple of taps with your shoes should get the job done. Plus, I've had my fair share of spills on my bike and a couple of those wipeout had these pedals striking hard rock and gravel. Despite all this, I've yet to heard a single creek or squeak coming from them.

Moving on to the cleats, as with most mountain biking pedals, the cleats these pedals come with are minimalistic in design so as to not obstruct the riders foot work and mobility when he or she has to dismount and push or carry his bike, while being sturdy enough to withstand gravel, rocks, mud and everything else nature throws at you, From the picture below, you will notice that the cleat on the right has 2 dots or indentations that are lacking in it's counterpart. The dots function as a marker because the cleat on the right is designed to disengage from the pedal sooner due to it's narrower release angle in comparison to the left cleat. So, in the event one is more right foot dominant, it would be wiser to attach the 2-dot cleat on the right shoe so as to allow the right foot to disengage faster and make contact with the ground sooner.

Picture taken from E-bay

Here are some recent pictures of the cleats on my relatively banged-up pair or Sidis. There is definitely a break-in period with the pedals, with the clip-in tension gradually reducing, making it easier to clip in and out, but after 1 or 2 weeks, the tension more or less remains the same.

A downside to these pedals to the best of my knowledge is that, in comparison to pedals from say Shimano, you can't adjust their clip-in tension. It's not really an issue to me but then again I've never experimented with adjustable pedals before and I'm sure a lack of tension adjustment would be an issue for some.

The aforementioned 2 dots

In short, these are a great pair of pedals and I would strongly recommend them to anyone looking to get their first clipless pedals, even roadies. I've yet to mention this and I'm sure this is almost blasphemous to some roadies but I'm not the type who buys too much into marketing, Even though I don't doubt a proper road specific pedal and shoe would allow me to transfer my precious Watts into the crank more efficiently, at the end of the day, I can't tour like Froome, sprint like Sagan or climb like Contador. I'm only mortal and I feel that the few seconds I would save per hour of cycling are not worth the convenience mountain bike shoes and pedals have to offer. Touring, getting groceries, stopping by a cafe, are all so much easier in mountain biking shoes. As a result of this, I don't know if I'll ever pick up a pair of road specific pedals and shoes once these guys die on me. Only time will tell.

Once again, thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts, or questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section down below and I'll try my best to answer.

Current Equipment Setup - Running Shoes

I thought it'd be nice to make posts of the gears, equipments and parts that I'm currently using for running and cycling so as to keep a record of the stuff I've used and see how I progress as far a equipment usage goes. Plus, I could do a little review of each item in case there's someone out there who's interested in knowing how these things perform. Now, before I continue, I would just like to say that the following are my own personal views and opinions on things, I gladly welcome differing opinions but these are purely my own thoughts and I am in no way affiliated with any brand or company (I wouldn't mind being sponsored though if anyone out there is looking for a new brand ambassador or promoter *wink*)

Someone once told me that in life, one should invest cleverly in things that separate you from the ground; a good pair of tyres for your car or bicycle, a good chair to sit on at work, a good mattress to sleep on at night, and of course, a good pair of shoes for running. Hence the first item I will be touching on will be my current pair of running shoes. As my 'shoe resume', I've been fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of using various brands and models since I first started jogging regularly more than a decade ago. Adidas, Nike, Brooks, New Balance, Ascis and Brooks are some of the more well known brands I've used, with shoe prices ranging from RM180 to RM350 (about $40 to $90 according to current exchange rates).

Nowadays with the ridiculous amounts of money that certain companies spend on marketing, doing your homework before buying a new pair of shoes will increase the chance of you getting your monies worth rather than 'paying for the brand' or buying gimmicks. I typically do a decent amount of research before buying a new pair of shoes and I never pay full price. What I mean by that is I usually buy either when there's a sale, or more commonly with a shoe voucher thats typically included in goody bags from race sponsors; Adidas and Brooks are the brands that come to mind the quickest in this regard. So a shoe on display for RM480 can easily be chopped down by a RM160 voucher to RM320, which was the price of my latest pair of shoes.

My Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14 running shoes. I bought these shoes around August of 2014 and I've used them for just over 2 years now and they've been great. Now, I'm sure this is very subjective as no two pairs of feet are the same and other factors such as body weight, running experience, current heath statuses and so on may influence a person's running experience. However, I personally favour shoes with broad bases and a good amount of cushioning and support so as to allow what I call 'lazy running', which essentially is being able to run without putting too much stress on the intrinsic muscles within your feet and the stabilisers of your ankle and subtalar joints to maintain stability when running.

They're light as far as shoes go with a claimed weight of approximately 314g (11.1oz) although I don't know of anyone who's ever complained of having heavy running shoes before. The uppers are made from a mesh-like fabric, allowing for good air entry as well as reduces odour build up. It also facilitates quick drying in the event the shoes get wet from rain. However, from personal experience, the old newspaper-stuffing-in-your-shoe trick will get the job done with just about any shoe regardless of how severely damp they are. The laces seem pretty conventional although, despite only tying a single generic butterfly knot, I've never experienced them ever coming loose before.

The midsole contains 2 pieces of rubber shock absorbers per shoe, one underneath the ball area of one's foot while the other beneath the heel area. Both my feet have moderate arches, neither high nor flat and while I can't objectively say they work as claimed as I am not an scientist nor do I have a sports laboratory which can test out the shoes to crunch out actual numbers, but based on feel an experience, I'd say they're legitimate as far as dampening shock is concerned to produce a more comfortable running experience than compared to most shoes I've used with a plain foam-like midsole. In addition, the white foam material used is not conventional EVA but rather Brook's very own BioMoGo which is claimed to be 50 times more biodegradeable than normal foam EVA, plus point for those of us who are concerned about our carbon footprints. 

The outsole rubber has held up well, it's still has a screechable amount of traction and has not worn into the midsole yet. Just to paint a picture of their use, I run about 3-4 times a week when my schedule is relatively free and 2-3 when it's not, usually about 5km per run with the occasional 10km. If I'm training for a particular event, say a half marathon or duathlon, I'll adjust the training accordingly. Apart from running, in the event I'm making short trips out of town, say for the weekend, my running shoes will usually be my shoe of choice of casual footwear. So I'd say I use my shoes a decent amount.

To sum it all up, they're a good pair of shoes if you can get them at a price closer to RM300 ($75) than RM400 ($100). Anymore than that, you'd be better off looking for something else. I'd highly recommend the latest iteration of them, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 16. Here's a link to the model on the Brooks website.

Picture taken from Brooks website

Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate any and all feedback. Please feel free to leave any question or query you may have in the comment section down below and I'll try my best to answer them.