Molong Ride 5/11
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Molong Awareness Ride
Sunday 5 November 2006
Bring your mates and make a day of it at Molong, a leisurely cruise from where you live.
Coffee Carts, Live Music, Sausage Sizzle, Food Stalls, Bakery, Trade Stalls, Show'N Shine - a festival atmosphere in a small town.
Meet riders from across the State. Catch up with old friends.
The message for the readers at home?
Get out of the house! Get out of town for a change!
Show your skill in safe riding. You'll be made to feel welcome.
Be an ambassador for motorcycling, have a good time and ride safe. Come and enjoy the day!
Stay Overnight and hook up in the morning
Enjoy some hospitality from the Central West
See websites for
Many riders from NSW will be heading into the area and staying on Saturday night, joining the ride to Molong in the morning.
Most pubs in the area are fairly bike friendly but in Orange the Parkview and Canobolas hotels have areas that can be secured at closing time for a few bikes.
Mt Canobolas is the highest point between the Blue Mountains and Mt Kiliminjaro in South Africa. It's quite a view. Good wineries, good fruit, good roads.
There are no organised rides to Molong (it's about 30 minutes from Orange), but local riders have the following meeting points
Bathurst - 10.00 am McDonalds Restaurant Rear Car Park
Cullen Bullen - 9.30 am Cullen Bullen Hotel (Bikers Aust)
Dubbo - 10.00 am Shell Service Station, West Dubbo
Grenfell - 9.00 am Shell Service Station, Mid West Hwy
Lithgow - 8.15 am BP Service Station, Mitchell Highway
Mudgee - 10.00 am McDonalds Car Park, Horatio St
Mudgee - 10 .00am Mudgee Motorcycles, Sydney Road.
Orange - 11.00 am Sam Laws Motorcycles, Mitchell Highway
Parkes - 9.00 am BP Servo, Clarinda St East
Yetholme - 9.15 am Caltex Service Station, Mitchell Highway
Young - 9.00 to 9.30 Caltex Servo, Zouch St
Travel Times
- Molong is about 3 1/2 hours travelling time from Parramatta or Windsor via the major highways
- Lithgow-Bathurst about 45 mins
- Bathurst-Orange about 35 mins
- Orange-Molong about 25 mins
- Mudgee to Molong via Gulgong and Wellington - about 2 hours
- Mudgee-Gulgong, about 20 mins
- Gulgong-Mitchell Hwy at Wellington, about 45 mins
- Wellington-Molong, about 45 mins
- Young to Molong - about 1 3/4 hours
- Young-Cowra, about 45 mins
- Cowra to Molong via Canowindra and Cudal - about 1 hour
i.e to allow time for a break, fuel, etc
Sydney riders depart Penrith or Windsor about 8 am
Ride safe, give space, let the f*#kwits blow by
Safety Message
This year the "non-urban" Awareness focus for riders is about keeping your head on your side of curve centrelines. These head-on crashes are ugly and far too common.
Tiredness. Poor steering skills. Poor selection of line. Turning in too early. All these contribute. Essentially, ride the left hand wheel track on right handers, but modify according to the diagram below. Start wide, finish tight. Buffer away from on-comings, are strategies that need attention.
Get your pace and position right for entry. Think ahead and plan your line.
Racing lines are not road lines, they commit you and leave no margin for your mistake or that of an oncoming vehicle. Racing lines on the road are often an excuse for being lazy or a trap we fall into. Due to closing speeds, the time available to react is desperately short and too many have not made it.
At a good angle of lean, you can have your tyres just on your side of the road centre and your head more than 1 meter into the oncoming lane. The oncoming lane is only 3 meters wide.
When you see a car emerging from the vanishing point, crossing the centreline coming at you, there is very little time to react. Things don't look good at this point!
Create your own margin for error - in time and space.
The goal is to ride, have fun, come home safe.
Now get out there and practice, show off your skill with this and help show others who lack it.
This diagram comes from the RTA booklet "Braking Habits", available from your local RTA, as is the "Riders Brochure" in the download box, above right