The fifth annual Black Dog Ride 1 Dayer in the city continued its mission to prevent the tragedy of suicide.

There were Harleys, Indians, trikes and sidecars, but the many makes had one purpose - to give hope that mental illness can be managed successfully.

Black Dog Ride Dubbo/NSW coordinator Wayne Amor said there had been probably more than 1200 people take part since Dubbo’s first 1-Dayer was held in 2014.

“Hopefully we’ve started at least 1200 conversations about depression and suicide awareness in the communities relating to that,” he said.

“That’s the main aim of our rides, is the raising of the awareness for the community that there’s always someone like Lifeline on the other end of the phone, or your mates, or your family members or someone at work who’s generally always going to be available to listen.”

People from as far away as Sydney, the Central Coast, Moree, Walgett and Nyngan as well as local riders took part on Sunday.

“It’s very satisfying to see that we’ve got so much support among our fellow riders,” Mr Amor said.

“It’s also great therapy too for a lot of people, just clear your head when you’re riding.

“You can think of everything, or you can think of nothing, and most people choose to think of nothing when they’re riding.”

Lifeline Central West chief Alex Ferguson was at the Macquarie Inn to see them on their way.

He noted the statistics showed that at “rural anywhere”, there was a significantly higher suicide rate than “urban anywhere”, about 2.5 times greater.

“What we try to do through events like today, here, and the Boys Day Out on 6th May at the showground. . . is to say to the males particularly, that instead of the old Victorian adage of ‘take more concrete and toughen up’ and whatever else, recognise males have the same feeling cycles and structures as women,” he said.

The focus needed to be on getting out into the community and telling people “a, none of us are bulletproof, b, you need to have a dialogue about mental health and physical health”, Mr Ferguson said.

“...it really is okay to talk about it,” he said.

“I think we’re starting to slowly but surely win that campaign.

“We’re now seeing more men starting to listen, we just saw 300 people, pretty much listening, and if you can do that often enough, I think you can cut through and I think we are cutting through.”