09/25/2025
Hundreds of custom motorcycles and choppers lined the streets of the West Bottoms on Saturday, Sep. 20th, 2025, in honor of a man once called “the biker’s Norman Rockwell.”
David Mann, born and raised in Kansas City during the 1940s and 50s, was an artist since the age of seven. With an affinity toward drawing cars, Mann traveled from Kansas City to the West Coast in 1959, where he saw his first “chopped” motorcycle. He was hooked. He returned to Kansas City and his studies at the Kansas City Art Institute, a changed man.
A massive influence on the styles of custom motorcycles, you could say David Mann “created” choppers himself. Builders across the country were inspired by David Mann’s paintings, often taking the artwork he created and physically creating the parts that Mann created in his head and building the parts from scratch to modify their own motorcycles. As time would pass, Mann would see his artwork reflected back at him through the work done by custom motorcycle builders across the world.
“He came up with his own form of art. He would draw an extended front end on a motorcycle, and as soon as someone saw the artwork, they would build it,” said Jacquie Mann, the wife of the late David Mann. “He was amazed to see that people would build what he drew,” Mann said.
