Touring on my Fixie with Runkeeper keeps me abreast on the speed that I am on and the distance that I have travelled.  On top of that, I get to map where I’ve been and shares it on Facebook.  Best of all, Runkeeper is free.  I check out some of the other Cycling Apps on IOS and found the best one is free.  Runkeeper provide my basic need, showing the elevation, speed and also my calories burnt.  Its just a fun way to map where I’ve been. 

I check out a new route today and found an alternative road to take when the Bayan Lepas town traffic light is Jam.  This route cut from Caltex all the way to the Airport, right at Brothers Barber intersection.  Its not a good bike route because of the many bumps that mark the road along the way.  I did not even bother to count, just too many. 

I did 7.3km today with a 19m climb, not much of a climb, but since I just started, it was quite taxing for my legs. I was quite beat after the climb.  Tomorrow’s route will be without elevation, so it is going to be about speed, what would be my top speed and what’s the average…

After I bought my Fixie a couple of days back, I could not get off my mind cycling to work. I’ve got the urge to hop on the bike and ride all the time. When I got the chance yesterday evening, I went exploring the neighbouring kampung. Today, I went looking for an alternative route to work. Halfway on the route I was quite tired. The fear of not having enough energy to get back kicks in and I made a u turn. At this point the muscle pain on the leg sets in and I am not sure if I will be able to walk tomorrow.

On the bike yesterday and today brings out the joy of cycling. Fixie or fixed bike is very different from my previous bikes. It keep reminding me that I am not on a normal bike, especially coming to corners where I have to slow down. I have to use my led muscle to slow down and it’s something I have got used to. I still haven’t learnt to skid, maybe because of my front brake which I keep putting skiding off.

Riding on my Fixie to work is like living a lifestyle dream. I have yet to make it as a sustainable lifestyle, but I am getting there. I’ve got the hardware and the will, what’s left is just living through it…

I was smitten by Fixies of late and finally bought one today.  It was slightly over the budget but it was a great deal and I would be a dupe not to get it.  Cycling on a fixed gear bike certainly needs some getting used to.  The bike is a Chromoly Frame with Lasco Crank, Aero Sport Front Rim and XDS triple Wall Rim on the Rear, with Kenda Tyre and Tektro brakes and weight somewhere between 11-13kg.  This will be my transport to work with the goal of reducing at least 20kg in the course of 3 months.  In September, there will be a round island cycling event organized by the G Club of Penang, the 3rd year Campaign for a Lane event in Penang. The route will cover 81km in distance with a window time of 5hrs to complete.  I was particularly interested on the completion medal, which is a Pewter in a shape of a bicycle crank.

Fixies are now an in trend in Malaysia, with groups from North to South of Malaysia.  The southern parts like Melaka and Johor, there are a few online shops that sell Fixies over the web, either through mudah.my or bicyclebuysell.com or Facebook.  They charge ~RM40 for courier and the bikes can go as low as RM380 for GoMax Fixie, and best of all, they look great.  On the northern part, cycling shops do not carry many models, and mostly carry XDS models, which are much more expensive.  To learn more about Fixies Malaysia, simply goggle it.

Its been long overdue for a blog makeover. The last time I install a new theme was back in Autumn 2008 and between then an now, there was just some face-lift. When I came across this free theme, it just screams out to me. In the last two years, there were only a handful of post, it became so little that one should be thinking of wrapping things up with blogging. The thought of shutting this site down have not cross my mind. When I started with this, it was for fun, as a hobby, self loathing and most of all, with the intention to keep this going till the day I kick the bucket. This still hasn’t change and hopefully with this theme change, it would trigger the little spark inside me to pen down some thoughts that have been urging to get out.

It has been 6 months since we came back from this amazing trip, and I finally had the drive to write about it. The trip itself was a year in the making. I had over 80k of miles from United Mileage Plus and wanted to go for a vacation somewhere far. For the both of us to travel, we can only go somewhere in Asia. Japan was the first choice. The first thing we did was to book the Hotel in Hakone (through RCI). We used our Swiss Garden Vacation last year’s allowance for the booking. Booking a hotel on RCI in Japan is horrifically difficult. This is because Japan is such a popular vacation location that RCI members all over the world books the hotels years in advance. I book mine about a year in advance. The flight was booking on the other hand was easy. I just need to call the US helpline and within minutes, I got my booking done. Since it was E-ticket, I did not need to collect any physical tickets from the United offices. I only had to pay the airport tax, and a service charge of $25. Having these two done, we did nothing till 6 months before the trip.

That is when I purchased a Japan travel Guide book, by Rough Guide. The Rough Guide to Japan was a very useful book. It has the much needed information on places of interest, local culture, and everything one need to know about Japan, especially before going there. Most of the guidebooks are almost the same, with different books having their own different strengths. Some books have plenty of pictures, and some books have great maps. I picked this book because it has some detail about climbing mount fuji, which the other books didn’t. For those who wants to save some cost, Google or yahoo is a great source. You can get everything you need from these search engines. However, the guidebooks do give some extra advices, such as promotions, or cost saving tips, like special subway passes, that you don’t see in google if you don’t ask for it specifically.

We sat on the book and it became a coaster for our coffee mug for quite a few months, and about two months just before the trip, I booked the Ryokan in Tokyo. Ryokan is the traditional Japanese hotel and are also the cheapest accommodation you can find in Japan. After we have identified a few from the book and tripadvisor.com, I mail them and the keepers replied the very next day. Extremely fast in response and friendly. Without hassle, we have all the basic things set for the trip. Now, the gritty details on where to go and transport. That took us another few weeks and in under a month before the trip, we were all set. Everything have been planned out, and I enter them into the Yahoo Trip Planner. In short, the guidebook compiles all you need to know in one paperback, while with Google, you have to do the work of compilation your self. If you love to do research, you can skip buying a guidebook.

From Penang to Tokyo, we first have to transit in Singapore and change planes. As the journey takes 6-7 hours from Singapore, we wanted to get a nice seat. We tried checking in a couple of days earlier online and could not (maybe because the tickets were mileage claimed). So, we went over to the airport and to the airline office to get some help. The lady over the counter was very helpful. She got us an excellent seat, the best seat of the house with plenty of leg room.