Can We All Just Get Along?

"Tight Squeeze" © Mike Moore Studios 2026

 This is a fun hunk of trail about 3 miles from my front door. It's a semi fast downhill made more interesting by the narrow, nearly 100 yard, fence lined chute that starts it. If the fence doesn't maliciously reach out for your right grip in an attempt to pull you into its chainlink embrace, it's fairly smooth sailing after this. Usually.

Why "usually"? Because USUALLY that's all you have to worry about. There have been "incidents". See the big rock on the left in the grass? I've moved it out of the center of the trail twice. Rocks have been moved into, and out of, places in attempts to stop the wheels from rolling. Why? Is it just random mouth breathers with too much time on their hands kicking and throwing rocks simply for slack jawed giggles, or are there those that don't want to share? Probably a little from Column "A", and a little from Column "B".

These trails are designated multi-use and are multi-directional. Personally, as a mountain biker, I give hikers the right of way and I try to make sure they know I'm near. It doesn't always work. Earbuds, headphones, and ass-cheek ear muffs, have kept more than one hiker from knowing I'm there. I've scared a few. Multiply this a few times by riders who, maybe, aren't as courteous, and I can understand some bent feelings on the hiker's part. But sabotage? Why?!?! Luckily rocks have been it, no trail spikes, garroting wires, IEDs, or tiger traps. Does getting startled equate causing possibly severe bodily injury or worse?

"Can we all just get along?" was Rodney King's plea during the L.A. riots after he was beaten by 4 officers, who were later acquitted. While I'm not trying equate rocks on a trail to eons of racial inequality & violence, I am pointing out the divisiveness. The "Us vs Them" that has permeated our world. Does anyone even attempt to get along anymore? I'm asking myself that question too, as I'm as guilty as the next person. "That guy in the red cap is an @sshole." Is he really? Maybe, maybe not, doesn't matter, he's been tried and convicted and didn't even know he'd been charged. WTF? What happened to getting to know someone before you called 'em a d!ck?

I've never attempted to claim sainthood, not being Catholic helps, but I know I can do better. I definitely lean more "progressive" than "conservative", but that's no measure of diplomacy. We "progressives" can be just as closed, or narrow, minded as "them". We're just the other side of the same coin. Same? How can that be? Spoiler alert...'cause we're all human! Yep, it's true! Black, white, brown, red, yellow, liberal, conservative, gay, straight, cyclist, e-biker...all of us...HUMAN! It's hard wired into our DNA to want safety, comfort, & happiness, no problem there, the problem comes when we do it at the expense of others. Lame.

Can we all just get along? I'm just asking 'cause I've been over it all for a long time, even while participating. I'm tired of trying to figure out who "us & them" are at any given moment, on any given subject.

I've got the answer! We should all go ride our bikes! Don't worry about what anyone else is riding, or how they're riding it, just be happy that they're riding. If we all do that, it'll just be us, and we won't have to worry about them.

Good times! 

It Always Works Out...

"Sittin' Here Sittin'" © 2026 Mike Moore Studios

 "What're you doing Friday?" Not a dumb question, at all, in fact a welcome one.

"Hopefully riding my bike, what're you doing?" Might as well keep this little tennis match going.

"Taking the day off to go ride."

"Cool! Where do you wanna go?" It was Tuesday. There were big plans around the house that day, and my brain was a thousand different places, but I knew if I could allocate just a wee part of my gray matter to thinking about riding...I'd be in a happy place. 

"Don't care, just wanna go." Game on. Time to figure out some fun.

I turned my trail search engines up to high on Wednesday. There's basically 4, nearby, trail systems in good ol' Bell Co., TX., and we've ridden them all multiple times. Something new sounded good I thought. The top 2 contenders were either Ogletree Gap Preserve Park in Copperas Cove, TX or the 580 Trails in Lampasas, TX. The closest, Ogletree, was about 40 minutes away. That made the decision, less drive time, more ride time.

Friday morning rolls around 'bout the same time it always does, and Nick rolled into the driveway at his appointed time. We chatted as we loaded up, and were off. 40 minutes went by pretty quick, whether it was the conversation or ride anticipation, don't matter...trails were waiting.

Neither of us had ridden here before. There was a trail map sign at the trailhead, Trailforks on my phone in my pocket, and my Garmin had the trail on it as well. What could possibly go wrong?

It's easy to forget how comfortable a familiar trail is when you're faced with the lure of a new one. It's also easy to forget how frustrating an unfamiliar trail can be. "What's around that rock?" "Are we done climbing?" "Can I make it through there?" When to crank, and when to coast. New trails turn the chaos concert volume up to 11. Sometimes, that's a party on the pedals. Sometimes not so much.

Spoiler alert! This was a "not so much" version. Just couldn't get the rhythm right, neither of us, we'd turn a corner and not be ready for what ever was next. Even my  new titanium wonder machine wasn’t offering up any of it’s space metal magic. I dabbed and walked more times in the hour we were there than I had in probably the previous couple of months. Nick wasn't fairing much better.

"How close are we to the truck?" Nick asked first, but I had already been thinking it. I checked my phone for a detailed look. "Looks like a couple of different options, but here to here looks the fastest." "F@ck this place." "Yeah...kinda what I was thinking too." We both slammed a little water back, and took off down the trail. The last section was at least fast and fun, but the exit sign was calling.

"This sucks. I really wanted a good ride today. Let's go to Dana, or BLORA, or someplace." "Dana's closest to here." I offer "Sounds like a plan to me."

We loaded up, and headed out, by the time we were at the park's edge we both agreed that the trail "really wasn't that bad, and probably if you rode it more you'd like it a lot more, but f@ck driving all the way out here"

In the 20 minutes, or so, it took us to get to Dana Peak Park the less than stoked feelings about the first attempt to ride had clearly faded. We were laughing a ready to ride again, and for the next 2 hours that's what we did. It took at least that long afterwards to get the village idiot grin off my face.

It always works out.

ALL NEW!!!

"Jewel On The Run" © Mike Moore Studios 2026

I recently turned 60 years old. I'm not real sure how it happened, didn't try to avoid it per se, just assumed I wouldn't get that far. My father had a heart attack, that triggered a stroke, that killed him when he was 60. So between genetics and more than a few less than optimal "life choices" I figured the credits would've rolled by now. I guess I shouldn't get cocky, still not safe til 61 rolls 'round I reckon, but for the most part I'm feeling pretty solid, and stoked.

The bike you see above was my 60th birthday & Christmas present. It's a titanium framed work of art that I "built" from the frame up. I have "built" in quotations, because the only thing I actually physically did was put the water bottle cage on. The good folks at Blur Cycleworks, in Round Rock, TX. did the actual wrenching and fitting. It is BY FAR the nicest bike I've ever owned. It's a Revel Tirade titanium hardtail. I have craved and coveted titanium as long as I've been ogling bikes, to me it is has always been the ULTIMATE bike building material. It's SPACE METAL!

Because I'm me, I've never allowed myself to spoil myself. I've had tons of nice things in life that I'm forever grateful for, but I've never allowed myself to jump in the deep end dollar wise. Whether that comes from a modest upbringing, or what, I don't know. This time though, with the blessings of my beautiful better half, I decided to say "F@ck it". The funny thing is, even with carte blanche to go bat shit crazy, I still bought everything at the best possible deal I could find. Why wouldn't you? I also didn't just get the most blingy, expensive bits you could, favoring reliability and long term track records over the latest flavor.  I piled everything up over the holidays, snatching every Black Friday sale goody I could. I read reviews, counted grams, re-reread reviews, made choices, changed my mind, made other choices, and spent the necessary coin to obtain this dream.

It ain't all about the dolla dolla bills though. The price means nothing if the sum of the parts equals poop, even if you got it on sale. I'm more than happy to report that my sum came to a LOT more than poop. Every part has lived up to its marketing hype, and they all play more than nice together. Can I, as a mid level, upper middle aged, man hope to get EVERYTHING this bike has to offer out of it? Not likely, but I'm more than confident it'll have everything ready for me when I need it. There will not be an issue with the bike holding me back. It is honestly more bike than I need, and do you know what? I don't care! I'm 60, I've put in the miles. Do I deserve it? Does anyone?

Go ride, or doodle, or do something goofy.

Have Fun!

Hills to climb...

Hills to Climb © Mike Moore Studios 2025

 We've all got hills to climb. Sometimes they're quick and punchy, sometimes they seem to go on forever. Even with 12 speeds, the rough and rocky nature of this climb had me tapping out before I made it to the top. What to do? What else? Just keep going! Maybe you don't get to the top of the hill the way you intended, but find a way. Take a deep breath, or 50, have some of that water, then just start putting one foot in front of the other...you'll make it. When you get to the top, take a minute to look back and see what you've accomplished, feel good about it, then get back on and go. There will be more hills.

When I was younger, my only interest in hills was making it down them as quick as possible using whatever tricks I could find. Now, as I'm square dab in the silver years, I'm beginning to see the beauty, and necessity, of all sorts of hills. Not gonna lie, sometimes they straight up SUCK in a make you wanna puke sorta way. The relief you feel when you make it verges on transformative, if you let it. If you don't? Quite likely not the end of the world, it may feel that way at the time, but use your experience to make it up the next hill. Maybe it's a line choice, maybe someone else can help with some guidance, let you know how they made it. Listen and learn, take it to heart, but at the end of the day...the hills are up to you to climb.

Avoiding the hills won't make them go away, trust me I've tried, there will always be another one lurking. Face the hill, have a plan, and start climbing. Being at the top looking down, is infinitely better than being at the bottom looking up. The view from a tough hill you've made it up can't be beat.

Good Times!

Stop 'n smell em...

"Stop 'N Smell Em" © Mike Moore Studios 2025

 Been a minute. Probably shouldn't have been. Probably should've been writing something down, letting things out.

Stop 'n smell em, even if they ain't roses, see something more than yourself. There's beauty everywhere if you get out of your own way to see it. Take the time to escape to sunny places, avoid the dark crevices between your ears.

Good times (if you let em)!

It's that time of year again...

"It's Texas, it's the law" © Mike Moore Studios 2025

I did basically this same thing last year. Consistency is key. It's Texas, it's not hard to get a pic like this this time of year, and it's beyond a cliche'...but you knew that. It was a beautiful day out today, so I couldn't help it.

March had some fun in it. This iMac I'm hammering away on decided to take a dump. Tech guy said it was the hard drive, so we replaced it...then the journey through hell began. Restoring a computer sucks, there's no other way to say it. Trying to restore a computer from Apple's Time Machine is supposed to be super easy...it sorta is, especially if you want it really screwed up. Sometimes new systems don't want to have anything to do with old ones, restoring from a back up of a bad drive can also be problematic. Yippee. Spent a couple days trying to restore from back up, limped along with it...then decided to drop the bomb, gut it again and do a clean re-install. It's working better. Kinda. It's becoming evident that possibly more was wrong with the old machine than just the drive. Might be Mac shopping soon.

Rain. Mud. No trails. Had to get the pedal on. Took my show on the road. I'd almost ALWAYS rather off road then on road...but I had all these lemons and I was thirsty. The worst day of riding is better than blah blah blah, and other catchy and/or motivational type tripe.

Good Times!

Ch-ch-changes...

"Out In The Sticks" © Mike Moore Studios 2025

 New year, new me? Nah, of course not, I've been on this particular road to ruin this long...might as well see where it ends up. I did, however, make the monumental...NAY! STUPENDOUS! I did, however, make the STUPENDOUS decision to change up the accompanying photo style with these here random rambles.

When I started doing this, I thought a cohesive/through look would maintain a certain vibe. Problem is/was, what the hell's that vibe? I was digging the retro oversaturated look...but it also looked painfully like an old IG post. So from here on out...something different each time. Why? The whole point of this little nug of narcissism was to stretch my skill set with writing and picture making. I'll let you, dear reader, judge to whatever level of success.

This shot was taken 2/03/25 at Dana Peak Park in Harker Heights, Tx. My bike is about 6' off the trail, balanced in the aftermath of May 24's flooding. I hadn't been down to this area since right after the floods, when it was still impassable. Ol' mom nature can wreck some havoc when she gets in a mood, but this is an oddly peaceful destruction...a natural upheaval.

Meh, enough of that. Okey dokey Bat fans, strap in and let's take a ride...see where we end up.

Good times!