One of the All-Time Greats

mfowler
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2/20/2013 7:34pm Edited Date/Time 2/23/2013 12:00pm


They just don't make them like this anymore.

Thanks to Pete Wells and Reece for the photo.
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zehn
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2/20/2013 7:42pm
Vintage English bikes ftw

I have a garage full of them, including a Metisse
jeffro503
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2/20/2013 8:33pm Edited Date/Time 2/20/2013 8:34pm
Yes.....but could he break dance or do the "worm"? Or an even better question....could he preform the "sprinkler" correctly?
robkinuk
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2/21/2013 2:17am
Dick Mann???
mx317
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2/21/2013 3:59am
robkinuk wrote:
Dick Mann???
It either Mann or Jeff Smith. It does look like Mann though.

The Shop

mfowler
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2/21/2013 7:25pm
robkinuk wrote:
Dick Mann???
"If you say you want to race, and you're not racing. then you don't really want to race." Dick Mann

It's nice to see that same attitude in some of today's current riders, like Andrew Short and Weston Peick.
TG130
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2/21/2013 9:03pm
The legend of all legends.
BobbyM
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2/21/2013 10:46pm
mfowler wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2013/02/20/pw41_449596.jpg[/img] They just don't make them like this anymore. Thanks to Pete Wells and Reece for the photo.


They just don't make them like this anymore.

Thanks to Pete Wells and Reece for the photo.
super cool pic and really cool man.

when i was racing in norcal i put the hurt on richter at argyle park. i really thought i was cool beating richter straight up and clean and i was acting like a big shot. my dad told me to stfu..."when you beat dick mann straight then you can brag". two weeks later back at dixon again i beat bugsy straight up...my dad looked at me and said "stfu son" and smiled. sure i was 16 and mann was 66...big deal. Smile

one of the greatest motorcycle racers (ALL KINDS OF MOTORCYCLES) the world has ever seen or will ever see imho.
jeffro503
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2/21/2013 10:57pm
I never had the privilege of ever seeing Dick Mann race.......but that name is legendary. I remember my dad talking about him , way before I even knew what a dirt bike was. Legend.
stillwelding
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2/22/2013 9:26am
robkinuk wrote:
Dick Mann???
mx317 wrote:
It either Mann or Jeff Smith. It does look like Mann though.
Jeff Smith! Really?
WhKnuckle
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2/22/2013 9:36am
My favorite Dick Mann quote: motocross is not a sport for the American spectator. An American spectator wants to sit in a comfortable seat with a cold beer and a hot hot dog and just move his eyes to watch the game. He doesn't want to trudge up and down hills all day. He might do it once a year, but he won't do it every week.

We should remember that prophetic statement every time we start asking why motocross isn't like NASCAR.
Tumblin
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2/22/2013 11:40am
One of my greatest moments was staying in front of my childhood idol and an aged Dick Mann, on that Mann framed TT500 to win that Open Ex class at Garberville MX..., another hot summer race in 77. It was an honor to visit with him after and he certainly was all about the fun while I was trying to be someone.
The most fun I ever had on two wheels came years later when I discovered what The Mann had known back on that day.Your victories come only in participation..
2/22/2013 11:51am
mfowler wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2013/02/20/pw41_449596.jpg[/img] They just don't make them like this anymore. Thanks to Pete Wells and Reece for the photo.


They just don't make them like this anymore.

Thanks to Pete Wells and Reece for the photo.
You can say that again...Maybe in the top 5 of all time. Dick ( Bugsy ) Mann , Grand National Champion, Gold Medalist ISDT, Short Track, 1/2 Mile, Mile , Road Racing, Great MX Rider, Rode against the Kids well into his 50s. And all around good guy.
mfowler
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2/22/2013 9:02pm
The first time I ever saw Dick Mann was in about 1975 at the 10th Street track in Marysville, NorCal. This was the track that is now called Riverfront, back before the floods had washed all the sand away. It was a rough, whooped-out, nasty beast of a track. Nothing at all like what is there today. I was just fifteen and trying to race my SL100 against RM100s and Yamaha MXs and LTs. Not very successfully, but I gave 'er Hell.

Anyway, this day Dick Mann put on a riding clinic. Riding one of his Mann framed TT500s, he just schooled the open expert class. Taking lines nobody else even saw, feet on the pegs, carving smooth arcs through the turns. IIRC, I was pitted just along the straightaway after the first turn, the one that led you into the sand pit (where Lance Burgess (RIP) broke his foot a month or so before.) There was a little hook to the right, just at the end, before you dropped into the pit. Well, this straight was nice and smooth throughout practice, but it didn't last long. By the second set of motos it was huck-a-buck city. Mann came through there smooth as silk, never got out of shape, didn't look that fast but he was running away with it. Outside to inside, inside to outside, never really shutting off, looked like a ballroom dancer chased by a bunch of pogo-heads.

After he took the checkered flag, he rode his bike back to the line, where they'd held the gate, er, rubber band, for him, and did the same thing again! I can't remember what class this would have been, over 30 maybe? I don't remember him changing bikes, but it was a long time ago now.

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