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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.

The Copper Boyz frequently ride in parts of the city that are considered hot spots for violence, most often on the East Side and in South Kansas City.

They frequently participate in community events, especially during the summer months when the crime rate jumps, and help the Kansas City Police Department’s Community Engagement Division with canvassing neighborhoods.

Earlier this year, we joined the Copper Boyz for a walk with KCPD officers in Holmes Garden in South KC the morning after a homicide. Police needed to gather information from neighbors who knew the victim and take statements from any witnesses.

As the men and their horses rode through the neighborhood, residents stepped outside to see them gallop down their city street.

“The people know us from just seeing us out, so when they see us with the police, they be like, ‘OK, the police have to be OK,’” said Copper Boyz member Simeon Brooks, also known as CB Otto.

El Bey elaborated: “The police even say, ‘We never had the people come outside, sit and engage with us, until y’all brought the horses out with y’all.”

Part of my long form story on the . For