Originally Posted by RLHawk
So its all just one gigantic crap shoot? You drop a bundle of money hopping you get a bike with the right "ride", without ever being able to know how to judge what the right "ride" is.
In general, ride is determined almost exclusively by head tube angle. Everything alse being the same, the steeper the head tube angle, the quicker the bike will turn. Terms like "twitchy" are usually used by people who are used to a more relaxed HT angle and find they can't control a bike with a steeper HT angle.
Also terms like "rides on rails" really mean little or nothing. My road bike, with a fairly steep HT angle, "rides on rails" just like my Raliegh three speed which has a much more shallow HT angle.
If you are just starting to ride, I would say stay towards a shallow HT angle bike.