Borrego Springs AMCA Road Run - Mar 2-5 2023

[sherman980]

Now that Vegas is in the rearview mirror, starting to think about the annual SoCal AMCA Borrego Springs Road Run. Borrego Springs is a small town northeast of San Diego and west of the Salton Sea. As I understand, it was where all the movie stars used to go before they all switched to Palm Springs. GREAT riding (as long as the weather is decent) and great folks. I spoke briefly with Tim Graber (Chapter President) at Las Vegas and he said this might be the last year as he and his wife Janet are headed into retirement mode and no one at the SoCal chapter has yet picked up the torch to put the event on next year. Guess time will tell. Weather is usually in the low 70's and SUNNY! We usually do a ride up Palomar Mountain (where the telescope is) - high enough that there's usually some snow on the sides of the road near the top! If you're looking for a fun ride early in the new year, this is it! My only dilemma is what to ride.... LOL!

Ride safe!

[sherman980]

So narrowing the Borrego ride selection a bit. Put a few hundred miles on the '55 R69 the past week. Running well! I decided it needed some storage if I was going to take it on a road run, so pulled down a nice set of original Craven Dolomite panniers along with an original "W" rack and hardware from the shelves. Earliest I can date the Dolomites is 1958 but I can't date the Avonaire fairing earlier than '56 so... They also go with the look of the fairing a bit better than the earlier boxier Silver Arrows. Thinking they balance out the fairing a bit as well from a visual perspective.

Took my first cross country ride a bit more than 50 years ago now on a '69 R69S. No fairing or bags, just a bunch of stuff bungeed to the back. I didn't know what I didn't know! LOL! Thinking this one is far better prepared for that next cross-country jaunt!

Anyone else out there headed to Borrego?

[sherman980]

Wow! 342 views of this thread and not one comment from anyone else? I Know there are others here thinking about going to Borrego...

[jimkav]

Can you post pics of how headlight bucket & lens are attached to avonair?
Thanks
Jim k

[sherman980]

Jim,
I don't have any pics of the Avonaire sans headlight, but, basically you just remove the stock headlight/reflector assembly from the stock headlight shell and mount it on the mounting ring built into the Avonaire fairing. I made a short extension harness for the headlight electrical wires that connects to the stock wires on the circuit board in the headlight shell. The stock headlight shell just stays in place on the forks. I used an old Vetter headlight shell "cap" I had on the shelves to seal up the headlight shell to keep dirt, water, etc. from getting in. Thinking Vetter copied this headlight mounting idea a decade or two later on his Windjammer fairings

Hope that helps.

[jimkav]

Perfect!
Thanks for your help
Jim k

[sherman980]

Well, with all of the amazingly BAD weather that has hit California, the Borrego Springs ride managed to find FOUR SUNNY DAYS in a row!! Quite few folks didn't show up simply because they couldn't get there - TOO MUCH SNOW!! For those that did (about 60 riders), a great time was had by all. The Friday ride was the "high elevation ride" up to Julian and a little beyond... to our lunch stop and back home to Borrego Springs. So glad I brought the fully faired '55 R69 (my "warm" ride)! It was COLD outside!! Two to four/five feet of snow on the sides of the road up high, but the roads were amazingly clear and dry for the most part (careful in those tree shaded corners though!!). Saturday was a low elevation ride through the desert (almost to the Mexican boarder). A BEAUTIFUL sunny day to take the R68 for a cruise...

Base Camp (Borrego Springs Resort Golf Club:

Friday up high at our lunch stop:

Saturday out in the dessert for the Club BBQ lunch