Custom Chopper By Rick Fairless, Strokers Dallas

Strokers Dallas Motorcycle Shop, Strokers Ice House Bar & Grill, and Strokers Ink Tattoo & Piercing Parlor are owned and operated by Rick Fairless. His 5 children, Steve, Louis, Chelsey, Lena and Liz are involved in the company operations as are his wife Susan (runs the office), his mom Sharon (everybody just calls her Mom), his dad Ocie, his brother Randy (big shot lawyer), sister Denise & brother-in-law Steve Bessler. Strokers Dallas opened in 1996, Strokers Ice House opened in 1998 & Strokers Ink opened in 2007. Little did Rick know that his Strokers “Empire” would soon become a World Famous motorcycle destination. Rick built his “Empire” with the belief that if you “Get up early, work hard all day, good things will happen.” So far so good! Rick works 13 hours a day, 8 days a week! Rick does not take days off. We are only closed 2 days a year – Thanksgiving & Christmas Day, & Rick actually works both those days. Figuring those hours, he makes minimum wage. Oh well, he’s happy & living his dream.
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.