One of a kind Dick Mann
DICK ‘BUGSY’ MANN, ONE OF THE TRULY ICONIC figures in post-WW2 American motorcycle sport, passed away on April 27, aged 86. During a 20-year riding career at AMA Expert level between 1955 and 1974, he came to personify the gritty struggle against all odds of a gallant but resourceful underdog who, in true fairytale fashion, repeatedly ended up coming out on top.
Dick Mann was twice US Grand National Champion eight years apart in 1963 and 1971 and won two epic Daytona 200-mile road races in successive years (1970/71). And as a mark of his versatility, he was the first of only four riders (Kenny Roberts, Bubba Shobert and Doug Chandler being the others since him) to achieve the Grand Slam of AMA racing, by winning races in all five GNC disciplines: the Mile, Half-Mile, TT and Short Track on the dirt, plus road racing. A year after retiring from GNC competition, Dick Mann also rode an Ossa to win a bronze medal in 1975’s 50th edition of the ISDT held in the Isle of Man, while previously in the 1960s he’d helped launch Motocross in the USA – in which he excelled, both as rider and frame-builder alongside his dirt-track creations like the Ossa-engined DMR (Dick Mann Replica) 250cc short track racer. In later life Dick was an active protagonist in vintage racing, helping expand the reach into off-road competition of AHRMA, the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association, the USA’s spin-off from Britain’s CRMC historic road racing club. He even won an AHRMA over-60s Motocross title in 2002, three years after successfully undergoing surgery for throat cancer!
Dick Mann wasn’t afraid to get involved in two-wheel politics
