IT all began in April 2016, when a few friends and I decided to participate in a charity ride from Sydney to Byron Bay.
Despite being a cyclist for most of my life, this proved to be an epic journey with many firsts for me – cycling in a foreign land, covering more than a thousand kilometres on two wheels over seven days, with a bunch of strangers to raise money for underprivileged kids.
This proved to become, as they say, the start of something beautiful. The ride itself was memorable and inspirational but serendipity also brought me down a path where I found a way to bring my love for all things two-wheeled in concert with my fitness business.
A few days before the ride commenced, I chanced upon a cycling gym in the heart of Sydney. Unlike indoor cycling on stationary bikes (or spinning as most of us know it to be), this was a dedicated space filled with bicycles on trainers. This was an epiphany for me as there was no gym like this in Malaysia. What if we started one?
This idea took seed over the next couple of weeks, then germinated in my fertile mind, fed by the many miles of riding. Ask any cyclist – long and difficult cycle journeys are extremely cathartic and meditative – a brilliant setting for a good productive think!
Determination fertilised my seedling, and together with my equally cycling-mad partners, we made our idea a reality – a cycling gym, for cyclists, by cyclists.
Cycology first opened its doors in July of 2017 to a fairly rough start. The concept made perfect sense to us, but the reality turned out to be just a little different. Perhaps it was a case of being first isn’t always the easiest, as it took effort to convince outdoor cyclists that training indoors (and paying for the privilege) was the right, if not the best, thing to do. Still, anything worth doing is worth persevering, and now Cycology has a fairly good fan base.
A couple of years later, something else happened that changed my life dramatically. A routine blood test eventually revealed that I had fairly advanced liver cancer. It was aggressive and I dropped everything to focus on getting over this personal hurdle. Many decisions had to be made and quickly.
Most immediate was opting for surgery to remove the tumour which was the size of a grapefruit, within a month of my diagnosis. The operation went smoothly, but recovery was a steep uphill climb, as this was a major surgery. In the weeks, post-surgery, I remained objective and focused (even dreamt) of getting myself back in the bicycle saddle as soon as possible. This put me in good stead as six months after the operation, I found myself back in Australia and riding up mountains!
I’d like to think that this was made possible because I chose to thrive in the face of adversity rather than wallow in despair. In case you are wondering, my journey with cancer isn’t yet over and while I have come to terms with my mortality, I haven’t given up but instead have decided to live it up.
Over the past few years, I was able to and have had the privilege of cycling in Italy, Hong Kong and Australia, countries that boast a more mature cycling culture and better infrastructure than Malaysia does.
Yet, contrary to popular belief and in my experience, cycling in Malaysia is no more dangerous than it is cycling abroad – the same problems as well as clashes between cyclists, pedestrians and drivers exist there, too, as the attitudes are the same. As people who share the road, we all need to learn to coexist – cyclists need to be more sensible, while drivers need to be more civic-minded.
Locally, in the Klang Valley, our roads are becoming less conducive for cycling. Much money is thrown in by our local councils to paint dedicated blue lanes for bicycles, but the reality is, it is becoming increasingly harder for slow vehicles like bicycles to navigate the high-speed traffic flow found on most main roads.
While this has not stopped the sport from exploding in the past year, (mirroring the trend seen across the world), this “clash” fuelled negative public perception of cyclists in general.
To find the equilibrium for co-existence, we as cyclists need to give as much respect as we expect in return from other road users. Simply put, we need to obey the road laws, ride sensibly in groups, and be courteous – there is no harm in giving way to others and being nice about it.
As an example, in the weeks before our current full lockdown, we urged others in our community to obey the rules and be socially distanced, but to no avail. Damage was done and cycling is yet again disallowed.
Coming back again to Cycology. I am convinced that we have a role to play beyond just being a gym for cyclists. As a community of cyclists, we can spearhead a new movement to inculcate good habits within and beyond our group. We can do this by improving skills – like better bike handling – and being a part of better-quality events. But first, we need to survive this pesky pandemic.
Being unable to operate in any meaningful way for the past year and a half, has put our finances under a great strain. Sadly, gyms are lumped together with other much higher risk spaces and are not allowed to operate. This means no income while we continue to have to pay rent and salaries. So, if you are a gym-goer yourself, do make sure you support your local gym when you can.
The next few weeks under this complete lockdown will be very hard for me. Not being able to just get on my bike and ride, is, in a word, painful, as it is my sanity check.
However, the one thing life has taught me in the past two years is that bad stuff will happen, but it is how we deal with it that defines who we are.
It is ironic that to commemorate World Cycling Day, I am stuck indoors writing about my epic ride instead of conquering another mountain on my bicycle, but it is what it is.
I leave you with this quote that beautifully sums up why I ride and why I choose to live:
“One day, the mountain that is in front of you will be so far behind you, it will be barely visible in the distance. But the person you become in learning to get over it? That will stay with you forever. And that is the point of the mountain.” – Brianna Wiest
My Epic Ride is, as of now… unfinished. – The Vibes, June 3, 2021
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Daniel Yap is the founder of Cycology, Malaysia’s first gym for cyclists, but rather than being identified as a businessman, he would prefer to be remembered as an enabler
