The Coonabarabran Motorcycle Club is now a fully fledged independent trials club, registered with Fair Trading NSW. We have members, a committee, a provisional calendar and plenty of excellent venues for trials.
We have been waiting for a month for an answer on our public liability request, but so far have heard nothing. Unfortunately, without this we are like a well-oiled machine with no power to make it work.
Hopefully we can have something in place by the time of our first proper event on March 6th 2011.
It was pretty much decided early on that the club would be a trials club, those trail riders amongst us will, hopefully, realise what they are missing and join in, or failing that learn the multitude of skills necessary to become a competent observer.
Our biggest decision has been the one to go it alone, with our own setup and insurance.
Ian Rogers and the Southern Queensland Trials Association have been invaluable, with offers of help and support, and without them we would probably not be as far advanced as we are.
It is not an easy task starting a club from scratch, despite some of us having a long association with off-road motorcycling through various clubs, here in Australia and myself in the Isle of Man.
When starting out in any sport, its easy to forget the club holding the event has gone to a lot of trouble and effort over time to get things right for you on the day.
Hopefully by the time March comes around we will be organised enough to offer entry to all classes of bike and riders.
There will always be an open invitation to anyone wishing to visit the area, well worth it by the way, and have a ride on the local terrain. At the moment we are aiming for a trial on the first Sunday of each month, perhaps eight in total, and we would love to have a two day event, at a convenient time for our Qld friends to show our appreciation.
Accomodation and camping is not a problem around here, most landowners will let us set up camp for the event, mainly because most of the landowners are members.
At this point, I will throw it open for your comments, good or bad, all are welcome, but please don't start knocking us just yet.
At the moment, insurance permitting, we are holding a 'fun day' on the 27th February, just to see how many people from around here are really interested. The March 6 event will be the 'big' one for us and anyone interested in getting here can email me for directions nearer the time on pbrockl@activ8.net.au, when hopefully our insurance issues will be settled.