The Day My Handlebar Came Off at 100mph

I grew up riding motorcycles. When I was a kid, instead of sending me to summer camp, my parents and a friend's parents hired someone to take us and our dirtbikes out to IMI every day for an impromptu motorcycle summer camp. When I got my license I started riding on the roads, exploring the mountain roads Colorado has to offer. Riding up 85 and down past Terryall reservoir. Up Pikes Peak, and the backroads through Salida and Westcliff to Trinidad. And then finding the track, and pushing myself to my limits racing.

I am also a Colorado motorcycle accident attorney. I have handled thousands of cases. I have seen the injuries and even death that can happen to riders on the road, and I have helped them and their families through it. I know exactly what a crash does to a person's body, their finances, and their life. I have sat across from clients in hospital rooms and explained what comes next.

On June 30, 2024, I got to see those effects firsthand.

I was racing my 2017 Yamaha R6 at High Plains Raceway during MRA Round 3. Going into Turn 7 at around 100mph, I felt something wrong in my right hand. I looked down. My clip-on handlebar had come off in my grip — the bolts had worked loose during the race. I was holding a handlebar that was no longer connected to my motorcycle.

I thought I could steer to the edge of the track and stop. I don't remember what happened next, but I went over the front of the bike.

My GoPro facing forward shows the moment the front end digs into the pavement. The one facing back shows nothing but sky. A racer behind me caught it on his camera: a bike flipping into the air, then a cloud of dirt.

What I Remember

A blip of the back of an ambulance. Then a blip of a view of the ground far below a window. Then an ER, my wife next to me, and no real memory of the time in between.

I had a concussion and a broken left wrist. I have always been insistent on wearing the best gear. It is the only thing we can do to protect ourselves against other drivers or unforeseen mechanicals. My Alpinestars airbag suit had deployed on impact. I am sure it is the reason I am able to write this. At 100mph over the front of a bike, the airbag is the difference between walking and not walking.

I can tell you exactly what it feels like to be wheeled through an ER not entirely sure what year it is. I can tell you what it feels like to look at your wife's face and understand from her expression that it was bad. I can tell you what it feels like to have a surgeon explain he is going to put a plate in your wrist, and to understand what that means as someone who has read thousands of pages of medical records.

The Bills

I am going to show you the actual numbers, because I think attorneys who handle injury cases have an obligation to be honest about what medical care actually costs in Colorado.

The helicopter: $91,610.

The ER: $122,578.

Surgery to place the plate in my wrist: $27,855.

Then physical therapy. Twelve sessions. An elbow that wouldn't stop hurting — a steroid injection for that. Follow-up appointments. Imaging.

Total billed: $259,171. For a crash that lasted less than three seconds.

Because I had health insurance, my out-of-pocket maximum capped my exposure. And using my experience as a motorcycle accident attorney in Colorado, I was able to further negotiate the remaining balances down. I ended up paying roughly $3,000 out of pocket for my medical care.

I was one of the lucky ones, and I knew it in real time, as an attorney, while it was happening. Most people who receive that helicopter bill have no idea what to do with it. They don't know that bills can be negotiated. They don't know what their insurance actually covers. They don't know that if someone else's negligence caused the crash, those costs may be someone else's responsibility entirely.

Even the People on Your Side Think You're an Idiot

Here is something nobody in the legal industry talks about honestly.

Some of the biggest personal injury firms in Colorado will happily take your motorcycle accident case. They will advertise to you. They will sign you as a client. And behind closed doors, they will think you are an idiot for riding in the first place.

I know this because I worked inside that world. I heard it directly. I was told directly that I was an idiot for riding motorcycles. The attitude is pervasive — riders are reckless, riders take unnecessary risks, riders have it coming. This is the belief system of people who are supposed to be fighting for you.

Now imagine what the defense attorney thinks. Imagine what the insurance adjuster thinks. How hard is your attorney going to fight for you when somewhere, unconsciously, they think you brought this on yourself.

Bias against riders does not disappear because someone agreed to represent you. It shapes how hard they fight, how early they settle, and how much they think your case is worth. This is one of the reasons I built VENYX Injury Law the way I did — a firm where the attorney handling your Colorado motorcycle accident case is also the one who cannot stop riding.

I do not think riders are idiots. I am one. I got back on bikes after a year away, rebuilt the same bike, and ran Turn 7 again. And I'll be racing again this year. I understand why we ride, because I cannot stop either. That is a different foundation to build a case on.

The Advantage I Had That My Clients Don't

I knew exactly which surgeon I wanted before I left the hospital. I know the best orthopedic surgeons in Denver. I know which ones produce clean outcomes and which ones don't. I hand-picked mine.

When my elbow continued to hurt after surgery, I knew exactly who to call for the injection. I knew what the procedure would involve, how long recovery would take, and what a successful outcome looked like. The injection worked. I recovered fully, no complications.

My clients do not have that knowledge. They get whoever is available, whoever their insurance directs them to, whoever answers the phone. The quality of their care, and the documentation of their injuries, depends heavily on navigating a system they have never had to navigate before — while concussed, while in pain, while terrified about their finances.

One of the most concrete things I do for Colorado motorcycle accident clients is help them get to the right doctors. Not because I am their physician. Because I have spent years in this system and I know how it works, and I just learned firsthand what it feels like to need it.

A Year Off the Bike. Then Back.

I didn't ride for a year. Not because a doctor told me not to. Because I wasn't ready.

Anyone who has been in a serious crash knows there is a version of you that exists before it and a version that exists after. The after version has to decide, consciously, to get back on. That decision doesn't happen on a schedule.

I'm racing again this season. Same bike, rebuilt. Same track. I went back to High Plains and I rode Turn 7 again.

I don't tell clients they have to be brave. I tell them they get to take their time. But I also tell them, from experience now, not just training, that you can come back from this.

What This Changed About How I Practice

I already believed in the cases I handled. After June 30, 2024, I understand them differently.

I know what it feels like to not remember how you got to the hospital. I know what it feels like to sign a surgical consent form. I know what it feels like to open a $91,000 bill for a helicopter ride you have no memory of taking. I know what it feels like to recover quietly, to keep working, to tell almost no one, because that is what injured people do when they don't feel like they have options.

My clients are not exaggerating. They are not being dramatic. They are telling me exactly what happened to them, and I believe them completely, because something close to it happened to me.

That is why I keep the fee lower than every other Colorado motorcycle accident firm. That is why you work directly with me, not a paralegal. That is why I file lawsuits when insurance companies lowball injured riders, because I have been an injured rider, and I know what that number means to a real person's life.

If you were hurt in a motorcycle crash in Colorado, I would like to talk to you.