One of our rockstar interns, Cameron, decided he wanted to contribute to the Billet Proof Designs blog so we jumped at the opportunity to get a perspective on what it's like to be an 18-year-old rider these days.

When the word “biker” is mentioned, most people’s minds jump to the stereotypical middle-aged Harley owner sporting a leather jacket, bandanna, and a foot-long beard. As an 18-year old high school kid who rides a Honda (still working on the beard), I might not be the average rider, but I still have the same love for the road that pumps through every motorcyclist’s veins.

My name is Cameron, and I’ve been riding for just over two years. My father was the one who introduced me to the world of motorcycles. He had been riding ever since he was a teenager, and owned maybe a half dozen bikes over the years. Before I was born, he sold his last bike, but had always been wanting to get back into the scene. When I was thirteen, he bought a Kawasaki Ninja, and took my sister and I on dozens of rides. A few years later, he brought up the idea of me getting my own bike, which as a knucklehead sixteen-year-old boy, I was immediately on board with. I was fortunate to have a parent that encouraged me to get into riding, and I really credit him with my passion for motorcycles..

By no means am I an experienced rider, but there are a few important things that I’ve come to understand about motorcycles. However, keep in mind that I have only two years under my belt, so I understand that I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. All of this is my own personal opinion and should be taken with a very large grain of salt. The sheer experience of riding a motorcycle is raw, thrilling, and unmatched by anything else. I implore anyone who asks about it to try it for themselves. However, riding a quarter-ton steel horse at a hundred-plus miles per hour is obviously by no means a walk in the park. I know that riding a motorcycle really requires you to be focused and safe, which naturally includes always wearing a helmet, gloves, and long pants.

I’ve always been a somewhat cautious person, so this doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it does some other riders. I even have to admit that I feel kinda badass with all my gear on cruising by schools and bus stops, no matter how much I’m sweating underneath. In the same vein, one of my favorite things about riding is how plain cool it is. There is something inherently exciting and captivating about motorcycles, and I feel that riders are accompanied with a kind of aura of mystery and danger which only fuels my love further. I definitely don’t mind the looks from fellow students, teenagers, and especially girls either.

Apart from jealous outsiders, I love the sense of community that accompanies riding a motorcycle. The rides with my dad and friends, the scrutiny of the road for other bikers, and the wave that we all know and love are something that I’ve come to look forward to every time I get on my bike. I like that if there is anything I want to know about my bike, there are dozens of communities that I can find with a quick search. I’ve been lucky to grow up riding in an age where information is instantly accessible and I can answer any question as soon as I ask it. This same technology makes it easy for me to connect and have conversations with other owners and riders of the same bike I have. It’s ridiculously easy to share mods and ideas and show off pictures, which only drags you deeper into the rabbit hole (although I don’t mind that either).

Speaking of mods and ideas, I’ve always been someone who likes to work with my hands. When I got my first bike, it excited me that one of the important parts of owning a motorcycle is maintenance, modification, and care. Some people view having to change their oil or replace a part on their vehicle as a chore, but I like to think of it as a chance to “peek under the hood” and get to know my bike even better. I used to love taking things apart and putting them back together, and it feels even more worthwhile when it contributes to my bike being a well-oiled machine and running perfectly.

Most people will agree that spending an hour or two washing their car on a Sunday morning is a nice change of pace and that it’s rewarding to see it shine in the sun when finished, but to me cleaning a motorcycle is like turning that feeling up to eleven. There is something inexplicably satisfying to me about meticulously cleaning and detailing every single part of my bike, and apart from actually riding, it’s one of my favorite ways to lose a few hours.

But, as Ja Rule said in the Oscar-worthy classic The Fast and the Furious, "It’s not how you stand by your ride, it’s how you drive it." The biggest part of riding a motorcycle is, well, riding a motorcycle. The experience of starting it up, revving the engine for the first time before a long ride, is absolutely unmatched. To feel the motor purring underneath you, to hear the exhaust growl, is a feeling you can’t find anywhere but a bike. I love how close I feel to the road, how open the entire ordeal is, how I can look 180 degrees around me. Leaning into a nice long curve, I love feeling like I can reach out with my foot and touch the asphalt.

When the seasons change, my favorite place to ride is on winding back roads, seeing the leaves turn and fall in a glorious blur of red, orange, and yellow. I love feeling the wind blast my face with my visor up, and feeling the slight briskness of the air. The best day of the year has to be the one when I pull my bike out of the garage for the first time, and spend a morning preparing her for the long riding season ahead of us.I know that I probably sound pretty pretentious about riding, but I’m sure that many riders share some of the same feelings. To me, owning a motorcycle is a very idealistic and, dare I say, romantic experience.

I know that there’s still a lot I have to learn about riding and owning a motorcycle, but even after experiencing the tiniest fraction of this world, I’m in love. As I get older, I can’t see myself ever wanting to leave. For the all-too-short amount of time that I get to spend riding, it becomes my entire world, and it’s no coincidence that the world is exactly what this community means to me.