Many well-known faces have come across our television screens on various motorcycle-related shows. From bike-building to documentaries, stars and hosts live the life every biker yearns for; to make a living in the world of motorcycles with a little bit of fame thrown in. Rick Fairless is one of those faces, seemingly carrying a permanent smile framed by his leisurely laid-back personality hiding the hard work and long days put in at his various businesses.

Between Rick’s diligent work ethic, determination and entrepreneurial attitude he has ridden an interesting road that led to bike-building contests and tours, dealerships, a television show and most recently, radio.

Rick Fairless was bitten by the motorcycle bug at an early age, sitting in his first saddle at the age of nine. He and his brother grew up in a neighborhood in Irving, Texas full of friends who loved to ride. But he wouldn’t make the jump from motorcycles being an overwhelming passion to becoming a money-making business for more than two decades of being in the workplace.

Starting at an uncle’s store as a stock boy, Rick’s first career was in the paint industry working his way up to store manager and eventually becoming the top salesman in the country for Glidden Paint. It was during this time his trademark of relentless hard work came to fruition.

“I worked for Glidden for twenty years and never missed a day of work,” Rick proudly states going onto point out his diligence carries on to this day. He and his wife plan their vacations around motorcycle rallies, bike-building contests and tours. All the schedules are built around the business, and that's the way Rick likes it.

Still living in Dallas in the mid 90’s his passion for customizing motorcycles left him restless in the corporate world when an opportunity to open an Easyriders franchise came along, and although it seemed like an outside chance, Rick felt it was worth chasing.

"I had a Harley, Triumph and a BSA and always messing with my bikes in the garage over the weekend, customizing them however I could," Rick says about his early days of working on motorcycles.

So it wasn't surprising that he and his friends became excited about the possibility of an Easyriders franchise coming to Dallas and with it bringing the chance to buy custom parts from Arlene Ness and Pat Kennedy. Then Rick wondered, why couldn't he open the franchise in Dallas.

"I thought there's no way I can," Rick recalls, "But I'll fill out the paperwork and apply for the franchise and have them tell me I can't do it or something will fall through."

But after barreling through any roadblocks, completing endless paperwork, emptying out his savings, borrowing from family as well as the Small Business Administration, Rick opened Easyriders of Dallas, with the dealership sitting on two acres of land just northwest of Downtown Dallas by 1996.

Following his well-worn saying of the three B’s- Bikes babes and Beers, the same determination used to win the Easyriders franchise was focused on opening a bar next to the dealership, naming it Strokers Ice House when it eventually opened. The bar was part of Rick’s vision of the destination he wanted to create for bikers and felt it would lead to success.

"You can buy a beer in the bar and walk into the motorcycle shop with the beer in your hand," Rick says, explaining his destination philosophy, "and I find those people will buy a t-shirt or even a Big-Dog [motorcycle]."

The Strokers Ice House name would come to play a larger role when fate would bring Rick an uncertain future through no fault of his own and irrespective of all the hard work.

By 2002, Rick had worked hard to build the business and reputation of his dealership as well as the Easyriders name when he was invited to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to meet with Joe Teresi, owner of Easyriders. The company was having trouble collecting franchise fees from dealerships around the country and a corporate decision was made to get out of selling motorcycles. Rick had always paid his royalties and become good friends with Joe Teresi.

“I told Joe, well dump those other guys and leave me!" he jokes now, but at the time Rick was frustrated and scared of losing the name he had worked so hard to promote. Unfortunately, all the franchises had the same contract and whatever decisions were made affected him as much as the next owner.

Rick decided to rename his dealership ‘Strokers Dallas’ after his bar next to the dealership

"Best thing I ever did!" Rick says.

A New Age

Rick eventually filled his showroom floors with Big Dog, Big Bear, American IronHorse and even Victory motorcycles.

He was excited about bringing on the Victory brand, not only because it brought some diversity to the different lines of chopper’s, but he also felt the Polaris subsidiary attracted the younger riders as well as the biker that may have just enough spare time to ride on weekends. The brand of bikes proved successful, so much so he was offered a sum of money to sell the franchise and it was an amount that couldn’t be refused. In an unusual moment of conformity, Rick accepted.

However, Rick was offered the Victory franchise in early 2008 and once again the range of models stood proudly on the showroom floor of Strokers Dallas, with the new Vision Tourer being the number one selling motorcycle in his dealership.

"Its a a phenomenal motorcycle. Its got one of those looks where people either love it or hate it, and I'm one of the people that likes the looks of it." Rick feels that for the biker who wants to get out and ride the country, they couldn't do better than the Vision.

Victory Vision

Another strength of Victory's motorcycles, according to Rick is not only the lower starting prices but also the quality of the bike. Besides, he says, its good competition for Harley-Davidson.

Through the years, Rick also gained a reputation for original customized motorcycles, eventually being invited to appear on Discovery’s ‘Biker Build-off’ going head to head with California Master Builder Matt Hotch.

His colorful, original designs took him around the country with Easyriders centerfold bike-builders tour.

But the road for Rick Fairless’ journey from there to here was never straight and marked, and had a few sharp bends thrown in taking him to places he didn’t even was on the map.

In 2005, a press release described a television show on the new season of Speed TV as ‘The mostly true, totally unreal life and twisted times of Rick Fairless. ‘Texas Hardtails’. It takes one to ride one.’ Going against the trend of filming the trials and tribulations of building a custom motorcycle, the show was a loosely scripted comedy using the employees as wacky characters who happened to work at Strokers Dallas. It debuted on Speed TV on June 28th, 2005 and ran for ten episodes with titles such as, ‘Big Fred’s Cat’, ‘Mom’s Birthday’ and ‘The urn’. Although the show used real employees, the storylines were scripted and fictitious, a fact lost on some viewers.

"I had people come in and ask if I ever found the cat and how could I forget my own mothers birthday!" Rick says with a smile, adding "It was just TV!!!!"

Although only ten episodes were filmed but soon became a staple of Speed TV as they were endlessly repeated. The show hasn't been picked up  for further episodes but Rick is always hopeful.

Not every business venture Rick tried was as successful as he would like, such as the chrome shop unfortunately located thirteen miles away from his dealership and difficult to actively manage the company or find anyone qualified enough to run it.

But his vision of creating a destination for bikers has been a huge success. The initial six employees at Strokers Dallas has grown to forty-six today. His shop has ten service techs, a couple of bike builders and three fabricators. There are over eighty motorcycles in the shop at any given time for service and the dealership is a regular stop for many bikers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Industry Perspectives

A name currently in the news is American IronHorse, and Stokers Dallas is still officially a designated dealer. Currently the Fort Worth motorcycle manufacturer is in bankruptcy, forced there by investors. The management of American IronHorse claim the economy and tight credit markets hurt their performance.

But Rick looks beyond the economy and dismisses any doubts about the quality of the motorcycle itself. He feels the problem lies strictly with the management and points to Big Dog as a great example of how a small motorcycle manufacturer should be run.

"Sheldon Coleman, who's grandfather started the Coleman Camping company is one of the smartest guys I've met and he runs Big Dog to produce a consistent product," he says comparing the company to American IronHorse.

Between his time in the industry and success as a dealership owner as well as a custom builder, Rick knows a variety of industry professionals which can lead to interesting conversations. Just recently, he had the opportunity to speak with one of the engineers from Indian Motorcycles who laid out the corporate strategy of exclusive branded showrooms owned by both new and experienced dealership owners.

Between the corporate strategy, the release of a single model and the expected high price tag, Rick's Texas honesty comes out, "I think they're an accident waiting to happen."

Asking existing dealers to not only remove successful product lines from their showroom floors, but also renaming the dealership could cause serious difficulties for those that try to sell the Indian brand, Rick feels.

The road ahead

Last year Rick opened Strokers Ink, a tattoo shop that has three ink artists and like his other businesses, its located on the two acre property. The location not only is a continuing of his destination philosophy, but 'a natural progression to the clientele that Stokers caters to.'

Not being one to sit still, Rick has ventured into the studio to host a Sunday morning radio show, 'The Texas Hardtail Scooter Show' talking about motorcycles about as much as they talk about Pamela Anderson. The hosts have spent the radio show convincing some young ladies who work for Strokers Dallas to successfully Hula Hoop, bringing the inside to joke to all the listeners.

The radio show has found success with not only local riders but listeners nationwide who tune into the podcast, which is featured on the front page of Strokers Dallas website. The guests are a who's who of motorcycles with Vinnie of V-Force Customs, Jesse James, Donnie Smith and Matt Hotch appearing so far.

Other plans include taking some of the dealership online, marketing Strokers Dallas on the internet. Also Rick is flying to LaCrosse Wisconsin and participating in S&S' 50th anniversary celebration build-off, which has 50 builders from fourteen countries. There's no theme to the build-off, so the expectations are high for the custom motorcycles.

But everyone must know there'll be at least two themes to the custom contribution from Mr. Fairless, bright colors and good old fashion hard work.

Listen to the podcast of the interview with Rick Fairless.