[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ear Ma, I hope you’re doing well up there in Heaven. We are just working away down here in Dallas. Hey Ma, Muhammad Ali is up there with you somewhere now and I know how you respected that man. Maybe you can give him a hug and thank him for being the great man that he was! I wish you could have been here last weekend. We brought in Stoney Larue, who is a popular Red Dirt recording artist.
It was cool because we packed Strokers IceHouse but it was a slightly different crowd. It was the most pick-up trucks and cowboy hats we’ve ever had out here and I’m good with that, this is Texas ya know! We have been doing all kinds of different things out here to drive traffic, and different traffic than normal. Instead of being covered up with motorcycles, we were covered up with pick-up trucks. Don’t Mess With Texas!
I think that it’s important as a motorcycle dealer to bring traffic in from many different avenues. That’s why I opened the Bar & Grill in the first place. I also think that’s one of the reasons I’ve managed to scrape out a living for more than 20 years. People may only visit a bike shop if they are in the market for a new motorcycle, or if they need parts or service. But when you own a cool Bar & Grill, they come back much more frequently and they meet their friends here, too. When people come to visit, many times they spend money in the motorcycle shop as well as the bar. Maybe a t-shirt, or a hat, or sunglasses, or maybe even a new motorcycle! I’ll take the business however
I can get it!
Ma, right now in the shop we are doing a lot of custom work. That makes me happy because that’s the part of the business I dig the most. Ground-up custom builds are always good, but so are customization projects. Many times we will take a Vic or an H-D and customize them. That can be as little as changing the exhaust or it can be as extensive as a complete teardown and customization of the bike. It’s cool to sit down with a customer and get his thoughts and vision and combine that with ideas that we have. We have three Polaris Slingshots in my shop right now that we are doing extensive custom work to. All three will be different because the owner of each one has a different vision of the perfect Slingshot.
What is important to one cat means nothing to another. We are also customizing a Harley that came to us in boxes. It has been at two different shops and the customer was not happy with their quality of work, or their progress, so he called me to save his “baby.” Absolutely, we will help this gentleman turn his stock H-D into a truly nice, custom motorcycle. Ma, it kinda makes me feel bad that he didn’t bring it to me in the first place, but it really makes me feel great that he turned to me when he was at his wit’s end and absolutely needed a professional shop that could bring
his vision to the street. At the end of the day, that’s what we do best, we bring the customer’s dream of their perfect motorcycle and deliver them their dream bike that will perform as well as it looks!
So Ma dig this: Last night I brought in Midget Wrestling. I mean, who among us doesn’t like a good midget wrestle? I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know what to expect from the wrestlers and I didn’t know what kind of crowd they would draw. Ma, I’m here to tell you that it was a really good experience. I was hoping that they would bring in a crowd of young people that may not have ever been here before and that’s exactly what they did! I talked to a lot of people in attendance and many of them had never been to Strokers before.
They all loved the joint and plan to come back more often. Most said they thought we were just a “Biker Bar” and they were intimidated to stop in. That’s crazy that the Midget Wrestling drew in so many people. The wrestlers themselves were very professional and put on a great show.
I even dug it and I did not think I would. So that’s just another way to bring more people into the Strokers Dallas & Strokers IceHouse world!
Oh, by the way Ma, Monday morning I am leaving on a four day ride to Alabama and back. Joe T is going with me and we are going to ride our Vics to Alabama and play some golf on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail for a few days. I am looking forward to the golf, but I am dying to get out on my Vic and get some wind therapy! My mind is really stressed lately and I really need the wind time because it always invigorates me and makes my mind flow freely again! I’ll let you know next month how the ride went. I’ve got to go for now, the midgets are here to collect their money from last night. I do not want any problems from them!
Love ya 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.
