Originally Posted by freshvalley

agree.

for me i wanted a combination of being able to ride with no hands easily, good response so maybe just a little twitchy but not to a point where it affects ability to ride in straight line, and overall comfort when riding. to accomplish this, i really had to test ride a few bikes at the lbl, memorize how each ride was, and then look at each bikes geometry. what i found for me was that the bikes that were more twitchy or quick responding were the ones that had less wheel base and chainstay length. i thought rake and head tube angle would have a lot to do with it but at the end of the day, the important thing is trail and most bikes have a similar amount. 55-62mm trail, which i feel is enough to handle well and/or ride ina straight line depnding how all the other factors affect it.

so to summarize, i rode bikes with various ht angles and rakes equaling different trail sizes and at the end of the day, i noticed that wheel base and chainstay length affected the ride more. the longer it was, the easier it was to ride in a straight line, the shorter it was, the more responsive it was. this may be true for you or it might not be because the bike may have a diferent reaction to your body type. the best thing to do is to try a few different bikes and get your own opinion.

oh just to add, i also noticed that the better the steel quality, the smoother the ride. by that i mean shock absorbtion. not sure what those panasonic frames are made out of but i rode some italian frames made of columbus zona and those felt so much better than just cheapy 4130 cromo...