Answering as someone who’d never ridden or driven anything, anywhere, until I rode my first bike home from the downtown dealer, and who still does 90% of my riding in the city, even back when I had no car and was doing 15k km a year...
Most of my my-property-backs-onto-woods friends are 100% better riders than me. Hands down. But they can’t ride for **** in the city. They look as out of place here as I do off road (when I ride the trails behind their homes like a little *****). But they couldn’t keep up with me if their lives depended on it lol.
It’s a different animal, and if you treat it like the same animal, you’re going to suck. Just like I suck balls, really big hairy balls, when I try to ride trails like I would ride asphalt.
It's like that line from the Batman movie. You merely adopted the city. I was born into, moulded by it, it made me the rider I am. So here's my 3 cents:
1) You win in the city by average moving speed. By never stopping. Stopped for more than 30 seconds? You’ve failed. If you’d be the only one in the left turn lane, skip it, you probably don’t weigh enough to trigger it. Turn right, make a U-turn. You’re small, you’re quick, you’re agile, so be all of those things.
If you're not going to do that, why the **** did you come here on a motorcycle for??? Just bring your cage next time if you're going to ride like that, you'll be more comfortable.
2) You’re not riding
in traffic, you’re riding
through it. If that doesn’t make sense, read it again. Up the parking lane (carefully), cheating in the bicycle lane (slowly) to get a few cars ahead at a time. Laneways, zig zags through residentials ripping from stop sign to stop sign because you're 0-50km/hr is insane vs a car staying in traffic on the major arteries, lane splitting, over the yellow line when it’s safe to pass another half dozen cars. Left turn lane wide open at a red, seven cars ahead of you, and you want to go straight? Take it, and outgun all seven when the light turns green.
Do all that at least once and you've shaved off ten minutes already. Look at you go!
3) And a “nice/performance bike” doesn’t mean the same thing here. I’d never try to keep up with what one of my buddy's does on his 600 SS on the highways. Even on my best bike. No thank you. In the city he can’t even keep up with my 250cc Vespa for ****. Performance here means never stop moving, good suspension (or at least cheap suspension but with enough travel), and adequate brakes at a minimum.
When I shipped my bike to Rome, I had two choices: complain about how Italians drive like a little Stacey, or spend the first two hours of my first morning in Rome, following the two-wheeled commuters and mimicking everything they do to learn how the locals ride. Rome quickly became my favourite city in the world to ride in.
TLDR: Throw away what you thought you knew. The city is a different animal. Approach it accordingly and you'll succeed and have a blast.
If anyone needs me I'll be being a little ***** on the trails, or being a ******* menace in the city. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
