The local bikeshare bikes have a stable, predictable steering response. They track straight down the road even when I turn my head to look behind me. And easily follow a pretty straight line at really slow coasting speeds -- like 1 to 2 mph.
It's the opposite of my nice carbon road bike, with lightweight wheels and very good, supple tires. The road bike is not really "twitchy", which is more of a racing bike thing, I suppose.
The road bike steering has an instant response -- it steers around obstacles that I don't see until the last second. And that's also related to the light weight of the bike -- it's easy to move it sideways a few inches with a bit of body english--no steering needed. The bikeshare bike is way too heavy to react like this.
As Iride01 said, fast response bikes will seem normal after some riding time on them. But it's really noticeable for the first few rides.
I think "lively vs dead" is quite subjective. But lively implies quicker steering responses and a reasonably lightweight bike. I expect my road bike to accelerate through an intersection with just couple of hard pedal strokes. The bikeshare is amazingly slow to to get moving, even when standing up and sprinting. A totally different feel!
Last edited by rm -rf; 09-26-22 at 10:37 AM.