Sholto Douglas
Event Officer
What's your earliest cycling memory?
When my training wheels came off, my older sister Sarah said she’d run behind and steady me by hanging on to the rack as I rode up grand-dad’s long dirt driveway. When I got to the old garage I looked around and she wasn’t there! She’d let go way back near the start. I fell off – but I learnt it was better to fall on granddad’s dirt driveway than our own brushed concrete one.
My first bike was...
A blue Moulton F frame hand-me-down. The training wheels came off when I was about six I think. Single speed, coaster brake, the un-coolest bike in school! It gradually morphed into something just weird with a radical upgrade to a banana seat and chopper style handlebars – which actually worked surprisingly well in hindsight. It was replaced by a beautiful, but heavy, Peugeot 5 speed when I was thirteen.
What do you do to relax?
Drink tea, ride, read and plan my next mega-tour.
What's most memorable sight you've seen from a bike?
Europe.
If you could give one piece of advice to a new rider, what would it be?
Be visible.
Road bike, mountain bike or tourer?
I’ve got a couple of Avanti sportif style road bikes, very comfortable and good performers on long one day rides. Also a couple of Surly Long Haul Truckers built up to my own spec by Epic Cycles for commuting, my own tours and the Australian 9 day supported events – one bike is in France, the other here in Brisbane.
What's the best thing about your job?
The people I work with – well most of them.
If you had the power to change one thing in the world, what would it be?
Are we talking about a significant amount of power here - like making the sun come up an hour later in summer or even having it rise in the West and set in the East? If so, I would make it impossible for one person to ever have that much power again. Or would I? But if it’s just power on a more human scale, perhaps I’d put “Bicycles Excepted’ on all road signs.
