Yesterday, being the first Sunday of May, heralded the unofficial beginning of the 2018 riding season here in the hinterlands of the midwest. It's called the Slimey Crud Cafe Racer Run and it's a unique gathering, in that it's not at all organized, sponsored or publicized anywhere, by anyone. Originally conceived as a club run on the alphabet back roads of southwest Wisconsin's (glacial) Driftless Area by the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang of Madison, WI. If you're a Peter Egan fan you'll recognize the Gang. But it's evolved, or devolved, into a multi-state, semi-annual standardized motorcycle gathering. And that's too bad.
At the risk of dating myself and sounding like a Grumpy Old Man, the Slimey Crud used to be, well, more interesting. You were expected to have a ride that was unique in some way, or at least old. These days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting yet another black Harley surrounded by black-clad "riders" swilling beer. I had to follow a gaggle of these weekend pirates into Leland, WI and none of 'em seemed to have the concept of cornering, braking or any other basic motorcycle skill. But they sure were loud.
Anyway, rant over. In line with the general decline in quality of bikes, I find fewer and fewer V4 Hondas in attendance each passing year. The pristine VFR800 pictured above was an exception, and I'll bet it sounds awesome with that Delkevic exhaust.
At the risk of dating myself and sounding like a Grumpy Old Man, the Slimey Crud used to be, well, more interesting. You were expected to have a ride that was unique in some way, or at least old. These days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting yet another black Harley surrounded by black-clad "riders" swilling beer. I had to follow a gaggle of these weekend pirates into Leland, WI and none of 'em seemed to have the concept of cornering, braking or any other basic motorcycle skill. But they sure were loud.
Anyway, rant over. In line with the general decline in quality of bikes, I find fewer and fewer V4 Hondas in attendance each passing year. The pristine VFR800 pictured above was an exception, and I'll bet it sounds awesome with that Delkevic exhaust.
Parked in formation were these two red Honda STs — first and second generation.
Some interesting bikes were scattered about the grounds. Below is a custom old-school version of a Boss Hog featuring a Ford flathead V8 (!) with some sort of fluid drive transmission...and about nine feet of lumbering length. I also spied a very clean John Player Norton (click on an image to enlarge). But, in general, mostly more of the same. The good news; I enjoyed nine hours of blissful backroad strafing in one of my favorite and most familiar riding areas.
A good day.
(video at bottom of post)
A good day.
(video at bottom of post)
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