I've read somewhere - and it's been my experience - that just the opposite happens. A short bike is equipped with a small rake in order to make it more stable. A longer bike is equipped with more rake in order to help it turn quicker. Thus, criterium bikes have little rake so that they are easier to control during hard cornering (they will be more stable in a turn, and not as "twitchy," as they would be with more rake). Tandems have lots of rake because they tend to want to go straight. More rake makes them easier to steer.

As I recall, back in the 70's, some university did a study using different rakes. It's been years, but I remember that bikes with negative rake were very difficult - if not impossible - to steer. Which is odd, because the old "demi-fonde" bikes, the ones used for motorpaced racing behind the big motorcycles, always had their forks mounted backwards (they stopped doing this at the Worlds years ago, but you still see it at some European 6-days). This was primarily to get the rider closer to the roller behind the motor (and thus closer to the windshelter of the pacer), but I would imagine that it would have made the bike extremely stable, as it would have to be, spinning along at 60-80 kmh on the 250 or 333 meter velodrome.

As usual, I could be wrong, but I'd be curious to hear from those more knowledgeable than I.

- L.