Early October weather in Wisconsin can be many things, even on the same day. It can be cold and damp, and even snowy, but not this time; not on the weekend of the fall running of the Fall 2025 Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang Café Racer Run.
It was almost otherworldly beautiful. Clear skies, warm temperatures, even early in the morning, and light, gusty winds were almost enough to make you imagine you were someplace else, known for such weather. Some of the sights on this year’s run suggested another place and time—Tuscany, for example. Why Italy? More on that later.
The Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang Café Racer Run—Crud Run for short—had its beginnings forever ago with hard-riding University of Wisconsin alums who thought an organic, self-sustaining event with no corporate sponsors would be a great thing. They were right, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Since its inception, the Crud Run has grown with each gathering, which happens twice a year—on the first Sunday in May and October. The summery weather for this year’s fall event drew a monster crowd.
One of the key attractions of the Crud Run is getting together with friends, new and old. In my case, both Saturday and Sunday were spent riding with old—and I do mean old—riding buddies. Dean Massoglia arrived from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Tony Fransen traveled from Prairie du Sac, 30 miles away. I literally grew up next door to Dean, and the three of us became friends while working in the Engineering Department of Wick Homes in nearby Mazomanie, Wisconsin, back in the seventies.
On Saturday, we mounted up and headed south of the Wisconsin River, meandering through the rolling Uplands of southwestern Wisconsin and making a stop near Belmont, at Wisconsin’s first Territorial Capitol. The buildings still stand where the first legislative session was held in October 1836, and the first term of its Supreme Court began in December. Wisconsin wasn’t granted statehood until 1848.
The Crud Run on Sunday started at the jumping-off point in Pine Bluff in Dane County. As has become the event’s custom, nearly every type of motorcycle—and some rigs that may not even be considered your conventional motorcycle—showed up.
Peter Egan, one of the founding members of the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang and Senior Statesman of moto journalism in Cycle World and Road & Track magazines, summed it up like this, describing the Fall 2000 event:
As I’ve noted in previous years, this and the spring run are essentially semi-disorganized affairs in which interesting bikes in the café racer tradition are encouraged to show up at a country bar in Pine Bluff, Wisconsin, and then randomly ride about 60 miles to another country bar called Sprecher Tap in the village of Leland, for an afternoon of bike appreciation. Not a real long ride, but then the Slimey Crud motto is ‘Ride Hard, Ride Short.’
Those words about the fall Crud Run of 25 years ago still hold true. There is no set start time, no specified route to follow, no corporate sponsorship, no restriction on bike brand or type, no entry fee, no membership requirement, no road captains, and no tail gunners. It is, as Egan described it, “semi-disorganized” in a very good way.
Now, what suggested Tuscany? First, the warm, sunny weather, then the presence of the first classic Benelli Sei 750 I’ve ever seen at the Crud Run!
It’s a long way to Pesaro, Italy, where the Benelli Sei was born. So, seeing one now in southern Wisconsin, where Benelli dealers were few and far between in the 1970s when the Sei hit the market, was as unexpected as seeing a 1954 Triumph T15 Terrier. There was one of those at this Crud Run, as well! For those Benelli dealerships that did exist, the factory exports to North America ran in the hundreds of bikes, not thousands.
The Benelli’s owner, Gary Tallard, gave me some insight into the Sei and, when I heard him start it up and head out, the Cycle World commentary on Sei 750’s sound rang true, “In the automotive world, a V-12 Ferrari sounds quite similar. Were a dealer trying to make a sale to an undecided customer, merely starting the engine would have the guy running for his Parker T-Ball jotter. It’s that convincing.”
For many reasons, including exceptional October weather, time with old riding pals, and seeing rare classic motorcycles, the Fall 2025 running of the Slimey Crud Run was part of a weekend that felt like it was spent under the Tuscan sun.
