User:Texasbest/Rick Fairless
Rick Fairless (born September 28, 1956) is a custom motorcycle builder, TV celebrity, and entrepreneur. Rick is the sole owner of Rick Fairless’ Strokers Dallas motorcycle shop, Strokers Ice House bar & grill, and Strokers Ink tattoo and piercing parlor.
Profile
[edit]Rick Fairless designs and builds motorcycles for high-end customers all over the world including popular musicians, athletes, and notable Dallas business men. Clients include: Mike Madano, Derian Hatcher, Jason Arnott, Herb Kelleher, Randy White, Richard Matvichuk, Herschel Walker, Ross Perot, Norman Brinker, Billy Guerin, Brendon Morrow.
Rick was the first Texan to be inducted into the exclusive Hamsters club, a “Who’s Who” of custom motorcycle riders.
Rick has been featured on Discovery Channel's Biker Build Off and was the star of his own TV sitcom, Texas Hardtails on the SPEED Channel in 2005. He had a talk radio show on DFW's Live 105.3 FM before it changed formats in 2008. He now produces his radio show from his shop. Video podcasts of the show are available at his website: www.strokersdallas.com.
Rick is also involved with the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and several other charities. In 2008 Rick designed a Dallas Cowboys themed custom Harley Davidson. He raffled it off and raised $32,000 for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. Combining that with an art auction he hosted in February of 2008, Rick raised over $50,000 for the children in one year alone.
Rick and his wife, Susan, have five children and still live in Irving, Texas. Rick is at Strokers "8 days a week" and is proud that he has never missed a day of work in his 30+ years of employment.
Starting Strokers Dallas
[edit]Rick and his brother Randy (11 months younger) were raised on motorcycles in Irving, Texas. They grew up in a neighborhood with lots of other kids and started riding bikes at 9 years old.
At the age of 19, Rick went to work for his uncle who owned a chain of paint stores called Roach Paint. He worked his way up the company ladder from stock boy to order puller to truck driver to manager of the Irving store. After he made his store the #1 store in the company, he transferred to outside sales. He started with a new territory and within two years he became the #1 salesman in the company. In 1988, Glidden Paint bought out Roach Paint Co. Rick continued to work for Glidden and soon became the #1 sales rep in the country.
Throughout his time in the paint business, Rick remained big into customizing Harley Davidson motorcycles. About the same time he became tired of corporate life, he noticed that Easyriders custom bike shops were starting to pop up around the country. He was hoping for a shop to open in Dallas, Texas and soon decided he should be the one to open it.
After much debate and discussion, Rick applied for the Easyriders franchise in Dallas. He faced many roadblocks and hardships along the way, but in 1996 he opened what was then called “Easyriders Dallas.”
Rick's goal was to have a place that was very different from the Harely-Davidson shops around town. He wanted his shop to reflect his personality. He has decorated the place with goofy stuff including life size dinosaurs and dancing Blues Brothers on the roof. Two years after opening the motorcycle shop he opened a Bar & Grill next door called Strokers Ice House.
In 2002 Easyriders decided to drop the franchise plan and all the stores had to come up with a new name. Since the bar was called Strokers Ice House, the shop became named Strokers Dallas. In 2007 Rick expanded his Strokers Compound to include Strokers Ink Tattoo & Piercing Parlor.
References
[edit]Discovery Channel Biker Build Off
Strokers Dallas Press Kit