November 2005

Enter the World of Choppers

by PATRICK JOHNSON / The Rambler

Wesleyan professor teaches as a hobby, builds bikes by trade

Love grants success to the oddest of mergers. Few combinations are as incongruent as motorcycles, scuba diving and teaching. Yet even these meet in the heart and mind of Bill Rucker.

Rucker is the founder of two motorcycle companies, a diving instructor at Wesleyan and an avid scuba diver.

Rucker, a product of Ft. Worth’s Polytechnic community, said his love for motorcycles started when he owned a Yamaha 150.

Later he won a scooter in a contest at church and rebuilt it, turning it into a dirt scooter.

“That was my first experience doing any kind of custom work,” Rucker said.

In the years to come, Rucker’s love for building motorcycles would give conception to American IronHorse, his first of two motorcycle companies.

American IronHorse is a thriving manufacturer of custom-built cruisers and choppers. It grossed more than $20 million in sales before Rucker left in 2003. Rucker’s newest motorcycle company, Rucker Performance, specializes in more expensive high-end bikes with price tags showing $30,000 and up. Rucker Performance is in its first full year of business and currently sells one bike a week. He’s attracted such customers as Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Eddie Kennison who purchased a bike named the Gauntlet.

Scuba diving, another of Rucker’s passions, also has its roots in Rucker’s youth.

“I was 12 years old and some in my sixth grade class were taking the [diving] class. Rucker didn’t join his classmates because he could not afford the equipment.

He took his first diving class in 1984 and, since then, travels for 20 to 30 dives a year. Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, Honduras, Mexico and Puerto Rico are just a few of the places he’s visited to dive.

The only place I haven’t dove was like the Red Sea or some place in the Mediterranean. But I’ve dived almost in every place all over the world,” Rucker said.

Rucker also teaches dive management courses at Wesleyan, a program he helped to launch. After earning his instructor certificate in 1992, Rucker approached administration about the program.

I came to Wesleyan and talked to Ed Olsen [formerly of the kinesiology program], and I proposed a dive program for him, and he liked it and added it to the curriculum,” said Rucker.

Rucker credits the multiracial environment of his youth for his ability to interact with students and motorcycle enthusiasts, which he said are not that different.

“I have a lot of young people [at Rucker Performance]. They’re being trained on how to manage their department,” Rucker said. “At Wesleyan I’m training students on how to dive and how to take leadership roles. I really am a teacher at both places.”

When asked if there is a connection between riding motorcycles and diving, Rucker said, “Absolutely.”

“Diving and riding give you the ultimate sense of freedom. With the water in your face and the air in your face—it’s being free,” he said. “Diving is the essence of freedom, as is riding. It’s very much the same freedom.”

The dissimilar spheres of muscle bikes, scuba diving and teaching make for a harmonious blend for Rucker. But of the three he said teaching would be the hardest for him to part with.

“It’s the thing I love doing, that’s why it would be the hardest for me to give up. And I wouldn’t put myself in the environment where I had to give it up,” Rucker said.

To teach for 14 years, to launch a second flourishing motorcycle company and to share his experiences of world travel is Rucker’s success. To earn a living doing what he is passionate about is Rucker’s triumph.

December 12, 2006 11:15 AM | send page | Press Releases