I'm New!

[7rider]

Welcome!
You certainly broke out of the gate with a great bike and you sound like you have it all together!
For me, speedy downhills are the result of two things: knowledge of my bike and how it handles, and knowledge of the road surface itself. I like to be confident that I know all the bumps and holes and how the bike "behaves" - for instance, my bike rides like it's on rails, my husband's ("DH" on the forum) bike is much stiffer and is very squirrely on hills - not confidence inspiring in my book! Once you are more familiar with the bike and have a few more miles in, you can keep up with your friends on the downhills - if you want to. In the meantime, you can probably already smoke them on the uphills, right?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Whippet, sounds like you are doing GREAT already!

As to downhills- it's way worse to be overconfident in downhills than it is to be cautious! Only go as fast as you feel in control of. I was SLOW and riding the brakes on all downhills, even little ones, until I had been riding a few months and now I feel I can go a bit faster but still be in good control. You don't want to get hurt because you feel like you "should" be going faster downhill. Ride SAFE and you'll be riding a lot more, instead of in bed nursing broken bones.