The early morning air in southern Wisconsin on the first Sunday in May was cool; some would say “chilly.” No matter. The sky was mostly blue, so the temperature didn’t stop the largest-ever turnout for the annual spring Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang Café Racer Run.
With roots dating back to the 1970s, the event’s founding fathers were educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They formed the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang and established the tradition of motorcyclists meeting informally, without any corporate sponsors, in the tiny Dane County hamlet of Pine Bluff, home to 175 people. Following no particular schedule and calling for no specified route, riders disperse to cruise the area’s many well-paved town, county, and state routes north across the broad Wisconsin River to the village of Leland in Sauk County.
In its early days, the Café Racer Run was a sparsely attended, little-noticed event. These days, at least when the weather holds promise of decent riding conditions, the event may well be one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the state, short of the Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival in Milwaukee.
As a bonus, the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang’s ride unfolds not once, but twice a year. The spring ride is the first Sunday in May and serves as an unofficial launch of the Wisconsin riding season. The reprise is on the first Sunday in October, marking the ending of the riding season.
Usually, the warmest weather of the two events occurs during that fall event, before the cold rains and sleet of November appear. The sunny, dry weather of Indian Summer is common.
On this spring day, the air gradually warmed, the skies cleared, and the winds kicked up. My longtime riding buddies, Dean Massoglia from way up north in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula and Tony Fransen from only a little way north in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, both were on hand for riding through the weekend.
The three of us did backroad meandering on Saturday prior to the run, finding ourselves at the beautiful White Mound County Park in Sauk County. From there, it was up to Reedsburg to visit Triumph of Sauk County, one of Wisconsin’s flagship Triumph dealers.
In talking with one of the management team members, Scott Phetteplace, I learned that the dealership had one of the largest Triumph motorcycle inventories in the state. The business also goes by its parent company’s name, Jay’s Power Center. In addition to Triumph, Jay’s carries motorcycles, scooters, ATVs, UTVs, PWCs, and snowmobiles from Benelli, Beta, CFMoto, Can-Am, Kayo, Lynx, Polaris, Ski-Doo, and Sea-Doo.
Sunday morning was cool enough to don warmer, wind-resistant outer riding gear, maybe with a pair of base layers — a thin layer and a thicker one to allow adjustment for the weather as the day went on. The weather forecast called for only occasional clouds and a slight chance of a.m. showers. Dean and I took the 40-mile ride from my place at Lone Rock, with Tony meeting us at Pine Bluff.
Even though we all arrived there a little before 10 a.m., it was already challenging to find a place to park, even with motorcycles. Parking lot spaces and long stretches of curbside parking were already spoken for, and long strings of motorcycles were coming into town from the Madison area on Mineral Point Road. Further, clots of bikes were arriving from both the north and the south on County Trunk P.
While mixing in and ogling bikes, I bumped into fellow members of the British Bike Cooperative, which will be hosting its 45th Annual Great Midwest British Motorcycle Rally and Show July 17-19, marking the Year of the Tourer.
BBC members Dan Kasper, Bill Pluess, and Jim Cutting were meandering through the Pine Bluff mass of bikes. Jim is the writer, director, and producer of two great motorcycle documentary DVDs: Hogslayer, which tells the story of four-time NHRA/AMA Top Fuel Motorcycle drag racing World Champion T.C. Christianson and his legendary dragster, and Walter, The Missing Link, which covers the only reverse trike model Harley-Davidson ever built.
Arriving at Leland, we found the massive turnout for the Crud Run was not limited to Pine Bluff. The village of about 50 people was overflowing with motorcycles parked in nearly every available spot in Leland proper, stretching well out of town on Country Trunk Highway C.
At both ends of the Spring 2026 Slimey Crud Café Racer Run, nearly every configuration and brand of motorcycle imaginable was on hand. There were café racers, naturally, along with restomods, classics, vintage bikes, sport bikes, choppers, bobbers, adventure bikes, tourers, standards, sidecar rigs, EVs, rat bikes, and probably something I missed. The best way to take it all in is to be there; the next Crud Run is on October 4.
