Rick Fairless's 2008 S&S 50th Anniversary Bike
151 images Created 31 Aug 2020
Bettie was a bike that I built in my mind several years before she actually came to life in 2005. Ya see, in the late 1990’s, I was on a plane with my wife coming home from some far away bike show in “pick a city” USA! I was looking at my wife’s wedding ring & noticing how big the diamond was. It started me to thinking about how the motor is the diamond of a motorcycle. So then, if the motor is the diamond, why can’t the frame be the wedding band? So, I drew out, on my cocktail napkin, a V-twin motor with a curved frame arched over the top of it. At first it was just something to fill my time on the plane, but then I took a hard look at my doodling. Ok, I thought, how can I make this work? The gas can be in the top part of the frame & then the oil can be integrated in the bottom part of the frame. But I’d need a little space between the gas & oil because the oil gets hot. Yeah, why not, I could make this happen. When I got home, I just filed away my idea, and there it sat for a few years. Then in 2005, I started the process of creating a curved frame & we figured it out. I wanted the bike to be psychedelic & I wanted the wheels to look like sunrays radiating off the sun. The bike was extremely curvy, so I called it Bettie, named after the extremely curvy 1950’s pin-up queen, Bettie Page. The result, as they say, is history!
As for me, I’ve been in the Motorcycle business for over 25 years & built many motorcycles over that time period. We, in the American Motorcycle Industry, are facing some of the toughest times ever faced in this industry. The Baby Boomers that have made Harley-Davidson flourish for over 50 years are aging out now. In other words, some of us Old Timers have moved on to the other side of the clouds, while others have got too dang old to ride. The young people aren’t much interested in riding motorcycles & the few that are don’t want to ride a Harley because that’s what all the old men ride! I have built my business around Harley-Davidson Motorcycles & the people who ride them.
I’m a survivor. I will weather this storm like the many I have weathered before and will be even more prepared for the next one. In my 25 years of owning Strokers Dallas, I have never missed a day of work & I’m proud of that fact! I tell the young people, “You can achieve whatever it is you want to achieve, as long as you want it bad enough and are willing to work extremely hard to achieve it!” As for me, I’m a “Heavy Mettle” kinda cat, so I’m gonna keep on doing what I love & what I know best…Custom Motorcycles! PEACE & LOVE TO ALL!
Rick Fairless (2020)
As for me, I’ve been in the Motorcycle business for over 25 years & built many motorcycles over that time period. We, in the American Motorcycle Industry, are facing some of the toughest times ever faced in this industry. The Baby Boomers that have made Harley-Davidson flourish for over 50 years are aging out now. In other words, some of us Old Timers have moved on to the other side of the clouds, while others have got too dang old to ride. The young people aren’t much interested in riding motorcycles & the few that are don’t want to ride a Harley because that’s what all the old men ride! I have built my business around Harley-Davidson Motorcycles & the people who ride them.
I’m a survivor. I will weather this storm like the many I have weathered before and will be even more prepared for the next one. In my 25 years of owning Strokers Dallas, I have never missed a day of work & I’m proud of that fact! I tell the young people, “You can achieve whatever it is you want to achieve, as long as you want it bad enough and are willing to work extremely hard to achieve it!” As for me, I’m a “Heavy Mettle” kinda cat, so I’m gonna keep on doing what I love & what I know best…Custom Motorcycles! PEACE & LOVE TO ALL!
Rick Fairless (2020)
