His dad also loved riding his Harley Davidson and had a big group of fellow bikies he spent time with.
"They were his second family," Roydon said.
Roydon was the eldest of Errol's three kids. He had split from his wife and the children's mother Dianne over a decade ago, however Roydon said the kids had a close relationship with their dad.
His younger brother Nathan lived in Napier and his sister in Warkworth but they had both rushed back to Kumeu to help organise the funeral.
Errol's love of horses led Roydon to the Kumeu Trotting Club and Equine Training Centre, where the pair trained horses.
The club's track manager Ken Sefonte had trained with Errol for about 20 years. He described Errol as being very sociable and a confident handyman.
"There wasn't anything he couldn't do - according to him, anyway."
He had a property just across the road from the trotting club, where he trained when he wasn't busy with the painting and decorating business he owned and operated.
Errol had belonged to an old motorcycle club in Kumeu too, and Sefonte said he used to go on trips up to Kaitaia.
"He lived life to the fullest - everything had to happen today.
"He was Kumeu's oldest teenager."
Roydon and his siblings had organised a funeral for Friday, which would be carried out in true Errol fashion.
"We'll do a convoy with the casket with his bikie friends following and go around the trotting track that he loved so much," Roydon said.
"I'm expecting there'll be 40 or so bikes."
Downey was one of half a dozen people killed, and more than a dozen injured in a shocking few days on our roads.
Three crashes killed five between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
On Tuesday, New Plymouth man Wallace Flay was killed on State Highway 3 when a ute, a light truck and a cyclist collided near Bell Block.
A crash in Northland near the Towai Tavern on Friday afternoon was the beginning of a night of carnage on New Zealand roads. A female died when her southbound car crossed the centreline on SH1and collided with two other vehicles.
Two men and two women from the northbound vehicles also suffered moderate injuries.
A two-car crash involving a long-haul PBT Group truck and a van on State Highway 65 in the South Island's Buller District claimed the life of Motueka local Davila Renee Koroi.
A man and a woman were also rushed to hospital as a result of the crash, which was under investigation by the Serious Crash Unit.
One person died and four others were injured later that afternoon after a three-vehicle crash in South Canterbury.
The crash happened on Waimate Highway, State Highway 1, near Morven.
And three pedestrians were killed by trains in two crashes later that night.
A person was killed by a train in Hornby, near Christchurch, about 9.30pm.
And two pedestrians were killed on a level crossing in Papakura at Boundary Rd shortly before midnight.
On Wednesday night the road toll stood at 323 - inching closer to last year's total number of 328 crash fatalities.
The total number of fatalities last year was the highest it's been since 2010, when 375 died on our roads.
