[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ear Ma, I hope you’re doing well up there in Heaven, we are going nuts down here in Dallas. We have so much cool stuff happening and my head is spinning just trying to keep up with it all! We recently finished my RF Custom Victory Octane just in time for Sturgis. We actually had an unveiling at the Victory booth in Sturgis.
It’s a really mean bike and everyone seems to dig it! It’s different for me because we built it as the “Evil” side of Rick Fairless. I call this bike “Ethel” after my Old English Sheepdog puppy (Daddy’s baby) that is very aggressive and mean… just like my Victory Octane! No tie-dye or psychedelic colors. This is not a “happy” looking bike.
We painted it black, then painted silver over the black, then we took a wire brush and went to town on the paint!
We custom built the wheels, painted them black and then wire brushed the black back off. The result is a really evil, mean looking Victory Octane! I normally have a very recognizable style, but not on this bike and that’s why I did it this way. The analogy I use on this bike is this: Ethel is like a pretty gal with a great figure, but she isn’t wearing any make-up, her hair is messed up, her clothes are all grungy and one of her front teeth has been knocked out! Ethel is a tough broad for sure! I want people to know that not everything I do is tie-dye and happy. Sometimes even I have a bad day, although I still retain all my own teeth.
Ma, I’m sure you already know up there in Heaven, but we had a very tragic thing happen right here in Downtown Dallas. Some whack job with a rifle killed five Dallas Police Officers. This was a black man who killed white police officers. He said it was payback for a killing where white cops killed a black man in Baton Rouge, La. Ma, I don’t understand or like where this world is headed. I don’t know why the color of someone’s skin divides some people.
You always taught us that God created all people equal, regardless of their skin color or their religious beliefs or their financial standing. There is so much hate in this world and its senseless hate. What really matters in a person is the size of their heart and the strength of their character. Ma, we could really use God right about now to fix this problem. I’m afraid that he may be our last hope.
So, Joe T and I rode our Victory Cross Country’s to Alabama and back. It was a swell time. We took the farm roads through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. We rode 2,000 miles and it was a beautiful ride. I had a chance to do a lot of thinking, which is not necessarily a good thing for me to do (overthinker). For some reason unknown to me, I always think that I have not done enough with my life and that I need to do more. I feel like there is something out there that I’m supposed to be doing but that I am missing. It’s not a good feeling and I can’t explain it. It’s a helpless feeling of failure. I know you and I have talked about it 1,000 times, and I know you’re proud of me, but I don’t know that I am proud of myself. I hate this feeling and I don’t know how to get past it… but I will Ma, I promise you I will figure it out!
[pullquote]“I call this bike “Ethel” after my Old English Sheepdog puppy (Daddy’s baby) that is very aggressive and mean… just like my Victory Octane! No tie-dye or psychedelic colors. This is not a “happy” looking bike.”[/pullquote]
OK Ma, I gotta go for now, we are custom building a bike for a guy overseas and I have a 4 a.m. phone call set up with him. He said he could only call me at a certain time and it would be the middle of the night in Dallas. I told him that would not be a problem because I do my best work in the middle of the night, 16 hours a day,
8 days a week!
I love you Ma!
Your boy Rickey!
Rick Fairless owns Strokers Dallas Motorcycle Shop and RF Custom Parts among other business interests, including his Strokers IceHouse Bar & Grill.
