Slimey Crud Run

 I got a late start on Sunday morning. I've been busy and really needed a day where I could sleep in past 530am. I woke up at 6. Oh well, I tried. The plan was to ride down to Pine Bluff with Dan and check out the bikes at the Slimey Crud Run. I make this ride twice a year and can't believe I made these plans forgetting how long it actually takes to get there. It's a two hour ride. If we followed the plan we would get to an empty parking lot in Pine Bluff. Most everyone would have left for Leland. We changed our destination but kept the start time and headed for Leland.
 The night before I was on the Ultra Limited in the same kind of temps. I had the seat heater and hand grips burning along with my heated jacket. None of those luxuries on the Rat Turd so I bundled up to face the 45 degree chill. At one stop I was asked if I was dressed for snowmobiling. Hey, ya do what ya gotta do to keep warm.
 We had a nice ride down. Dan led on his suzuki 400 enduro and I followed enjoying the start of the fall colors. The trees were at that just right stage where they provided a nice background but weren't littering up the turns with leaves. All the corners were easy to read and the sun was never in my eyes. Actually the sun never made an appearance. This allowed me to find the lean limit on the right side of the bike.

 You can see I ground a hole in the copper tubing wrapped around the exhaust pipe. This is part of an unfinished project that I will now have to rethink.

 I guess people are making the trek to Leland earlier every year. When we arrived there must have been at least five hundred bikes already there. I made a victory lap through the center of it all and snaked my way up to the highest ground to get a good view of the bikes rolling in. Actually I picked that spot cuz it's close to the hot dog stand. I skipped breakfast this morning.
 The Rat Turd has become quite the spectator magnet. There was a constant barrage of questions and picture taking. While I do enjoy seeing the reactions to this abortion on wheels, I had to walk away and check out some bikes. I was hoping to find more rat bikes and did see three others. Too bad that two of them have already been featured on this blog. The third was pretty cool.

Initially this bike doesn't seem all that special. I mean we are all numb from seeing this style seat, tank or bars but it all blends very nicely on this bike.

 A closer look reveals some very nice attention to details. I didn't talk to the owner and don't know if it's gonna stay in this rat state or if this is just mocked up and gonna get paint and such. I like it.
 A couple other bikes caught my eye.

Clean, basic and simple. That's what I want to do with my BSA. It should have just whats needed to make it move down the road. No extras. I got some inspiration today checking out the bikes at the slimey crud run and I got a chance to have some nice conversations with other motorcycle gear heads. A good day I'd say.