In the accident, on Sunday morning, on Nethercote Road, Eden, a man riding in a group left the road and hit a tree.

Police were on the scene within minutes, but were unable to revive the rider.

The crash prompted police to warn motorists that high winds, rain and sleet were creating dangerous conditions for road users, particularly as a southerly change swept up the coast.

It was the second motorcyclist death in the region during the weekend. A woman was killed in a crash on Curley's Corner, near Wyndham, on the far south coast on Friday.

Police said there appeared to be no link between the two deaths and the annual Snowy Ride, which attracted hundreds of motorcyclists to the Snowy Mountains during the weekend.

Meanwhile, strong, dry winds on Sunday had firefighters throughout NSW on edge.

A two-hectare grass fire at Currawilla, on Taralga Road north of Goulburn, was upgraded to ''watch and act'' status by the NSW Rural Fire Service on Sunday afternoon due to dry, westerly winds that were gusting up to 65km/h.

A fire service spokesman said there was no immediate threat to property, but in the dangerous conditions fire crews urged people in the area to be wary.

The dry, windy weather also fanned a fire that has been burning in the Southern Tablelands, east of Braidwood, for more than two weeks.

More than 70 firefighters were battling the 6300-hectare Wirritin fire, which was also upgraded to ''watch and act'' status on Sunday.

The fire service spokesman said the fire was being brought under control and was not posing an immediate threat to properties, but firefighters on the ground had warned that could change within hours if the poor fire weather persisted or worsened.

In another incident, motorists along the Hume Highway, at Goulburn, were able to see firefighters working on a very small grassfire that was brought under control on the side of the road near a highway exit south of the city.

The spokesman said that with humidity below 30 per cent and a southerly change on Sunday afternoon expected to bring relief only to coastal parts of NSW, firefighters were on high alert.

''We're keeping a very close watch on a few of the major fires to make sure the wind doesn't cause an extra problem,'' he said.

Wind gusts at Goulburn reached 78km/h during the day, while gusts in Canberra were as high as 70km/h at the airport in the afternoon before they were due to ease in the evening.

A southerly change was expected to reach the capital on Sunday afternoon, lowering overnight temperatures to 0 degrees before a relatively cooler top of 19 degrees on Monday.

The first half of the week in Canberra is expected to bring frosty mornings but mostly sunny days, warming to 30 degrees by Thursday.