- It's dawn on a Sunday morning.
[birds chirping, flag flapping]
All is peaceful in the small community of Pine Bluff.
It's the kind of quiet found in rural places like this.
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And that's all about to change.
[vrooom of motorcycle engine]
[more vrooms of other engines]
Every first Sunday in May and October,
motorcycle lovers descend on Pine Bluff.
It's called the Slimey Crud Cafe Racer Run or the Crud Run.
And it's an event that draws thousands.
- It's a gathering of people
that have very similar things that they like in life:
motorcycles and cool people.
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- It's really gotten to be kind of just a...
you know, a little motorcycle Woodstock.
[vroom of motorcycle engines]
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- You can see
just about anything ever made in the world here.
- We've had priceless bikes
that guys will bring up in trucks
from Chicago from museums.
They would just take them out and park'em
just so people can look at 'em.
So it's kind of almost like a roving museum.
- Beautiful.
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- It all began with a gang
formed by University of Wisconsin grad students
in the early '70s.
They called themselves the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang.
It was a mixture of youthful whimsy
and a true passion for bikes.
- I'm officially the gang enforcer.
I don't know what that means but...
- Randy Abendroth was a later gang member
and co-founded the Slimey Crud Run in the early '90s.
It grew from a couple of dozen aficionados
to a sprawling mass of people and bikes.
But even though this event is now enormous,
there's one thing you won't see here.
- There are no banners, you notice?
Nothing. We won't allow it.
We don't want corporate sponsors.
We want it to be a home-grown people event.
[laughing] - This is so much fun.
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[laughter]
[sizzling of burgers]
- This gallery of chrome and leather
resembles a tailgate party
but the Crud Run is, after all, a run.
It includes a trip northwest to the small community of Leland.
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Here you can have
a summer sausage and cheese sandwich at Sprecher's Bar.
Maybe wash it down with a root beer.
Many grown-ups opt for something stronger.
But this day isn't just about the destination.
It's also about getting there.
- You can take a very beautiful country ride on the back roads
from here to Leland
and never really get on any major highways.
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- Peter Egan has been coming to the Crud Run
since the beginning.
For decades,
he was an award-winning magazine journalist
for Cycle World and Road and Track.
He often wrote autobiographical stories
about rides like this one.
- Where we are now,
going west is the beginning of the Driftless Area.
From here north to La Crosse along the Mississippi River
I think is some of the best riding in the world.
It's beautiful countryside.
The red barns and the hills and winding roads and rivers.
It's just -- this is one of my favorite places to ride.
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- For Peter and so many others,
the Slimey Crud Cafe Racer Run
is a little slice of motorcycle heaven.
A community gathering.
A gearhead's dream.
A sublime ride through the hilly countryside.
It's a homegrown event
that seems perfectly made for Wisconsin.
- I've never seen anything on this scale.
I don't know why.
I can't picture it happening anywhere else.
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