Central West Dirtbike Rally 2014

[Eric SmithMember]

Well, it was an amazing weekend at Catombal dirt bike park, just west of Wellington NSW. The tracks were perfectly moist, and 250 riders pre-paid entry fees to the rally. I was a sweep rider, and generally had no problem with the riders. Saturday saw an afternoon loop (red arrows) with minimal hard sections. Most beginning riders were ok to poke around this loop at a steady pace, while experienced riders were able to carve it up and enjoy the awesome flowing single trails. Kids had access to a peewee track and a nice easy enduro loop.

There was an awesome fireworks display in the evening, and most campers were in bed pretty early.

Sunday saw the hard (blue arrow) loop open, with tricky sections such as The Drop, Fern Gully and heaps of others with no names. White Rocket and I headed out at 9:30 and had a good run to the back of the loop. Then it got interesting on the climb out from the back valley. Although traction was excellent, we caught a stack of riders stuck on a hill. Rocket got tagged by another rider and had a spill, but I got past and flogged my way up. Rocket followed and we hung around helping other riders for about half an hour. If you are one of the guys we pushed, pulled and yelled at, you owe us several beers!

No sooner were we moving again than we were blocked again, so off I went to dispense wisdom, my quota of physical assistance running short, as well as my temper!

Got everyone going again and we headed down Fern Gully and up The Climb, past Rubble Hill and eventually back to camp. Elapsed time nearly 3 hours!

After the raffle for a $500 voucher to a bike shop of your choice, the Red loop opened again, and Rocket took my bike for a lap, with his young bloke on Rockets bike, and Wolfy tagging along. They were back too late for me to sweep the afternoon loop, which, by the feel of my quads tonight, was a good thing for me!

Great weekend, next year, book in early and make a weekend of it, satisfaction guaranteed!

Vids to come!

[Eric SmithMember]

Ok here’s a video from today as a taste of the trails we rode!

http://youtu.be/ff7U3L3R68M

Gotta say I really enjoyed punting the DR-Z 250 around out there! It was great to catch up to guys and have them look behind and then do a double-take and look again as they realised they had been bagged up by a DR-Z 250! One of the other sweeps said he felt like throwing rocks at me because he couldn’t keep up on his TE310 – all on good fun of course!

[alanMember]

yep what a great weekend thanks to the ECKS man for lending me his bike it was good to go for a proper ride with my eldest boy who is not into bikes (likes computers) it was good to get him out and he handled the trail(rather slowly)well except one hill.that was funny afterwoods but seeing other people strugle on the same hill one bloke had 4 goes at it than got his mate to ride it up .sorry ecks for not getting back in time :blush: and riding like a girl when we went for a loop (have got to remember not to drink the misses rum was struggling). enjoyed the ride on the drz 250 and think i may have suprised a few other riders out there on it .you can punt it along fairly fast in the single track and its easy on the body great bike .my other kids had a great time to riding with wolfies kids and the camp oven wolfie cooked at our camp was great 😆 mmmm
what i found realy funny was on the hill ecks was helping all the bikes up on a young bloke on a ttr 125 just poked up it no dramas at all.the conditions where great was a top weekend i recommend it for any dirtbike rider or family yep get in early next year

[alanMember]

i forgot to mention they had test bikes huskys :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: me and luke (my eldest)had a crack on a 350 nice sweet handling bike was great to ride a (ktm)with a linkage and nice forks handled better than a ktm was great in the corners and over logs after my two stroke .just need to win the lottery first 😆

[craig evansMember]

well it started with meeting rocket at macca’s on sat morning. with a feed we were off.
We arrived and set up camp, unloaded the bikes, rocket was rareing to go , so a quick change I was on the bike and off and chasing rocket but I started to enjoy the seenary and got left behind ,watching from the top watching some of the hill climbs was a good learning curve on the proper ways and some of the non proper ways :pinch: :pinch: ouch
After 1 crash and then the long down hill I came across 2 guys piled up in a bottle neck and I couldn’t stop as I kept sliding till I slid into them I then made 3 in the bottle neck :silly: ,we picked the bikes up and we were on our way through some awesome loamy slippery tracks and a few more rocks.
At about half walf way I came across the young bloke who left me standing stil [ not hard :laugh: :laugh: ]about 500mtrs up ahead parked under his bike and the tree sporting some major damage, after getn the bike off him and moving him to the side out off the way I gave him a check over as he wasn’t in good shape :blink: , he had major bruises all on his right side down his ribs, after about 20 min we headed of very slowly with him riding the flatter sections and when we came to the hill climbs I would ride up, walk back down ride his bike up and then would help him up, this went on for a few kms till another guy asked whats going on and after I told him he oftered a hand , THANK YOU
finally arriving back at camp , we went straight to his and he got his bike loaded on the trailer and his mate and girlfriend took him off to hospital.
I then went to our camp and then told what had happened as I started to prepare the camp oven roast pork for dinner, with roast on roast veges on I kicked back for the arvo and watched the kids ride as the good wife organized the kids while I was out,
Finally the kids had called it anite for riding, roast pork and veges done we had dinner , ecks-man joined us aswell which was great along with 2 other friends of rocket which then came to a total of 14, with most going back for seconds, and then it was then topped with a awesome fireworks displays

[Eric SmithMember]

Just lifted (stole) some photos from the Central West Dirt Bike Rally’s Facebook page (here) for your viewing pleasure:

How’s this for an awesome looking track?

There’s also the motocross track:

Seriously guys, you won’t find a better event to ride next year, this is the pick of the paid rides! Best part is that the proceeds go to a very good cause! (And I get to sweep ride, that’s good too! )

[Eric SmithMember]

Another video from Saturday…

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