You city dwellers ... how do you get your o

How do you get your off-road fix ?

they seem to drive out to it.

Thi is something I've always wonder...well not so much how do they do it, but how did they even get into mtbing in the first place?
Where I live, cities arn't that big, 80,000 people here, and the biggest city in the state is like 200,000, heck there is only 500,000 people in the whole state. So you're not more than a 10 minute drive from decent trails.
But in cities of millions, how do people even get involved? I see posts of people in the US that drive like 4 hours to the trails, 4 hours gets you to every trail network there is around here.

Urban mountain biking.

If you're fortunate to be close to hills in the city, then there's usually some sort of path / trail network. And if your close to hills, that usually means your on the outer reaches of the city, which usually means it's not too far from the countryside where the real fun is.

Failing that, long weekends and holidays to trail centres / areas with excellent riding.

I used to cycle up from Hove to Devil's Dyke and play around there all day. But there was also plenty of 'urban' trails to have fun with plus a few parks to play in and around.

In London, train out to the North Downs (Dorking or Redhill), alternatively Chilterns.

Hampstead Heath.

In the 80s you needed to be able to ride very fast on certain parts.

Or if you spotted a Special Constable and you were not on an offical cycle route

Hampstead Heath was the local playground for us too but we used to ride out to Epping Forest at the WE. There were loads of mountain bikers on the latest must have bikes bitd. As a treat we would train it down to Petersfield and spend all day on the SDW and fall asleep in the mail carriage on the way back. Such happy days.

Worked in Hampstead 86-92 and bought my first mtb in 87. Big shop in Finchley where I lived at the time. No I didn't live in the shop silly. Lived in N3.

Would cut across the heath and Kenwood etc from Downshire Hill on my way home.

And I WAS the local constable so no problems.

Happy days indeed.