[kevin_thibedeau]

Road bikes are twitchier because they have less trail. Even 25 year old MTBs are twitchy compared to modern equivalents succumbed to the fashion for negative stem lengths and slack head tubes trying to imitate DH bikes.

[alhirzel]

Good point and makes sense - probably the reduced trail dominates most of the feel. I wish I had time to dive into a model to see if there really is any non-minimum-phase behavior.

Also, I skimmed the following to help my understanding; others may find it useful too: https://www.cyclingtips.com/2018/11/the-geometry-of-bike-han...