Custom Chopper By Rick Fairless, Strokers Dallas

Rick & Susan were both born and raised in Irving, Texas. They both graduated from Mac Arthur high school. In 1976 Rick went to work for Roach Paint Company that later became Glidden Paint Company. Rick has been riding motorcycles since he was nine years old. He always dreamed of owning a motorcycle shop. By 1987 he was the #1 paint salesman in the country for Glidden. Rick raised his kids around motorcycles. He had three acres in Irving and lots of room for the kids to learn to ride. Rick bought his son Steve his first bike on his 2nd birthday.
In 1995, Rick had his 20th anniversary with Glidden coming up and was growing restless working for somebody else. Rick spent many hours cussing and discussing his future. He was thinking of opening a paint store of his own, after all, he made a good living in the paint business for 20 years. But he was tired of the paint business and decided that he did not want to be in it any more. If Rick was going to roll the dice, he wanted to own a motorcycle shop.
So, in 1996, after a lot of hard work, he went out on his own and opened Strokers Dallas. People continuously told Rick he was crazy to leave a career that was paying him so much money, and not to take a gamble on a new motorcycle shop. Thank God he did not listen to those people. As soon as he opened his store, he started the process to open a bar and grill next door. What better than a place to drink beer, look at cool custom bikes, get your bike serviced and buy parts, all at the same time? It took 2 years of red tape before he finally got Strokers Ice House open. Rick had a hard time with a name for the bar. Rick had been to visit his big shot lawyer brother Randy in Houston who took him to some places called ice houses. They were pretty much metal buildings that served beer. Nothing fancy, just a cool place to drink beer. These places got their name from the old, true ice houses from the early 1900’s. When men got off work they stopped off at an ice house to get ice for their ice box at home. The ice houses became a place where men would hang out, drink beer, chew tobacco, play cards and generally just hangout & have a good time before they went home to mama. Rick liked the idea of calling the place an ice house.
The Strokers part of the name came from brainstorming with his pals. One of Rick’s buddies, Glen, was always called Stroker because he liked Stroker motors. Rick’s best friend, Joe T. suggested calling the place Strokers. Of course Glen liked the idea and Rick did as well. Strokers Ice House was born & the rest is history.