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Hi all, my name is Michael, I am a 28 year downhill rider from Shenley near Watford, although I am fairly new to the sport.
I have seen some of the videos you guys posted on YouTube which led me to come here. Although not up to your standards yet (I do learn fast though) I would love to come on a ride with you guys sometime.
The downside here is that I don't have a car. I usually ride with a couple of friends but their commitment to/time for riding is not very overwhelming and as I seem to have developed quite a strong interest for riding I want to do so as much as possible. If any of you guys at E/H MTB (or anyone else on the forums) would like a riding partner that is happy to pay the petrol costs in exchange for a lift then please contact me.
I work from home and I'm self employed so I am available to ride any day from Monday through Sunday.

Not being rude,
but how have you managed to define yourself as a downhill rider whilst living in Shenley ??

Its a state of mind Mark... even when im cycling to work im a DH rider

Cool to hear DemoRider. Where do you normally ride? Ive got a demo too but only seem to use it for holidays.

There seem to be less DH rides on here these days and more Enduro Dh days as is the fashion - keep an eye on this forum for rides.

http://www.essexhertsmtb.co.uk/mountain-bike-downhill/

PORC and Aston are probably the hubs for DH related activity in the south east although I see the odd DH bike in Winterfold but that's just a bit mad really.

I define myself as a downhill rider because I ride a bike that is solely for downhill, and I go to places with hills I can ride down...
I don't really understand the confusion. I specified downhill rider so I wouldn't get invited to a 20 mile cross country or enduro ride as both would be impossible on my bike.

I normally ride Swinley, Chicksands and Aston Hill Jon. None are really proper downhill places as such but I could only afford one bike and I wanted one I could take places like bikepark wales and Cwmcarn etc. Plus I hate pedaling up hills lol.

Okay got it

Only asking since you are only about 8 miles from the places I hack round.
So very reachable on a H/T or long travel trail bike (but Demo would be very overkill - of course) without burning petrol

"hate pedaling up hills" +1

Fair enough mate, about 10 months ago I bought a bike for the first time since I was 13. Was never really into cycling as I played football all the time. I picked up a bad injury playing football though and after more than a year out injured I bought a shitty Barracuda Arizona for £20 just as something to ride around Shenley/Radlett/Aldenham to build up some fitness again. A couple months in me and my friend realised we really enjoyed all the tricky sections and little natural jumps etc we found and it led to us ending up at Chicksands. Not somewhere you wanna be on a 20 year old piece of shit. I went and bought an old Demo and it's gone from there really.

Wow I really didn't intend to type an essay when I started that...