Transcript: Scott O’Sullivan from Rider Justice in Denver, Colorado
I first started to get involved with motorcycles or anything with wheels on it when I was a little kid. I grew up actually on a farm in New Jersey. I know that’s a weird thing to say, “farm in New Jersey.” But yeah, I grew up on a farm in New Jersey and we had mopeds and motorcycles and friends with dirt bikes and 4x4s, 6-wheelers and anything we could ride, I rode all around our neighborhood, on the farm with buddies and I’ve been hooked ever since.
My story with law school and motorcycles actually kind of starts with tragedy and every time I tell the story, I get a little thing in my stomach. I had a buddy Mark that we grew up with and he essentially died on our street while I was in law school in 1991. September 11th, 1991. I was in law school and he passed away riding his bike. They think it was either a deer or a rock or something. That’s when I really started to feel the need to try to help riders, it’s something I could do after I got out of law school.
Around 1998 I had my first case helping injured riders, it was a husband and wife who got hit by somebody. And then I never stopped, I never looked back. And been trying to change laws to make roads safer for riders. I’ve been out trying to help charities like BikerDown and other organizations across the country to help riders, regardless of fault and it’s just truly my passion.
What is Chasing the Ride?
We started Chasing the Ride a couple years ago because part of everything that really matters to me about Rider Justice is the concept of community. And for me it’s all about community. Whether it’s non-profits, whether it’s riding groups, whether it’s friends who get out and ride and aren’t part of clubs, it can be part of club life. And what we wanted to do was tell people’s story, kind of everyday people’s story. Not necessarily what you see on Instagram or what you see in magazines, but like real people’s story and that are part of our community. So they could tell their story, share it with everybody, so that I can help them grow, help them find whatever dreams they have and that’s why we started Chasing the Ride.
Memorable Motorcycle Ride
A memorable ride that brings me a smile? All right, this is going to sound a little foo foo, so I apologize. But a friend of mine had his 50th birthday a few years ago and he took us all out to Greece and we went to Greek islands and we rode motorcycles for a day on this amazing Greek island, and we rode all over the island. No one was on the roads, it was just four friends riding. I’m getting goosebumps again thinking about it. It was just amazing.
So this year, 2023 for Rider Justice is going to be a ton of fun. We’re still doing our big events like this one now, the Colorado Motorcycle Expo. We’ll end the year with the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally. Throughout the year you’re going to find us at the Overland Expo, we’ll be at Flagstaff, here in Denver, out in Oregon, and in Virginia, where we’re working with our motorcycle community in that event. Plus our overlanding brothers and sisters too, who love to get out camping and explore the wild.
And throughout the year also, we’ll be helping with putting together accident scene management classes, getting different groups together to push safety and to grow, actually, the riding community. Help with the women’s ride, there’s a big women’s ride we’re going to sponsor this year too. So we are just going to be all over the place in Colorado and actually across America too, and it’s going to be a great year I think for motorcycle riders and a great year for Rider Justice.
What Rider Justice Means to Me on a Personal Level
To me, it means home in a lot of ways. To me it means community, bringing friends together, bringing groups together, enjoying the community in a way that a lot of people just don’t get to do. And I’m privileged enough through all the work and all the people I’ve helped over the years to really build this community and that’s truly what it means to me, is a combination of home and friends.
Final thought is I just want to thank everybody. We can’t help as many people as we help without word of mouth, without us being in the community and people reaching out to us and our friends within the motorcycle world. I love you guys all.