New bike: Twitchy handling?

I find that handling on my Canyon Endurace is much faster/twitchier than my old bike (Felt F4130). I thought it was just something I could get used to, but then this weekend I almost took a spill while riding no handed - something I could easily do before with the old bike.
The Felt was a bit too large for me so I remedied that by switching from a 100mm to a 70mm stem. This change didn't really affect the bike's handling and I could still ride no handed without any problems. On the other hand, the Canyon is very very quick. I changed the stem (80mm to 90mm) and bars (380mm to 420mm) for fit purposes, which I would have thought would have slowed down the handling, but this didn't make much perceivable difference.
Is this something that I just need to get used to? I do like how the Canyon handles corners much better than the Felt did. Its like driving a sports car vs a truck. It's just riding no handed which makes me concerned.
If it helps, here are the geometries of the two bicycles (first number is the Felt and second number is Canyon):
Head Tube Angle: 73 vs 70.9
Seat Tube Angle: 73.5 vs 73.5
Top Tube Length: 531 vs 526
Head Tube Length: 130 vs 127
Seat Tube Length: 472 vs 475
Chainstay Length: 405 vs 415
Wheelbase: 974.2 vs 979
Reach: 386 vs 366
Stack: 536 vs 541
Stem length: 70 vs 90
Bar width: 42 vs 42
The Felt was a bit too large for me so I remedied that by switching from a 100mm to a 70mm stem. This change didn't really affect the bike's handling and I could still ride no handed without any problems. On the other hand, the Canyon is very very quick. I changed the stem (80mm to 90mm) and bars (380mm to 420mm) for fit purposes, which I would have thought would have slowed down the handling, but this didn't make much perceivable difference.
Is this something that I just need to get used to? I do like how the Canyon handles corners much better than the Felt did. Its like driving a sports car vs a truck. It's just riding no handed which makes me concerned.
If it helps, here are the geometries of the two bicycles (first number is the Felt and second number is Canyon):
Head Tube Angle: 73 vs 70.9
Seat Tube Angle: 73.5 vs 73.5
Top Tube Length: 531 vs 526
Head Tube Length: 130 vs 127
Seat Tube Length: 472 vs 475
Chainstay Length: 405 vs 415
Wheelbase: 974.2 vs 979
Reach: 386 vs 366
Stack: 536 vs 541
Stem length: 70 vs 90
Bar width: 42 vs 42
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If it's only when attempting to ride no handed then it's probably just a case of safe practice until you get used to it.
You're right, riding with no hands would make the stem/bar irrelevant.
I thought that the change in the HTA would be the culprit, but shouldn't the steeper angle of the Felt (73.0) theoretically make it more twitchy than the Canyon (70.9)?
ah yes ... but what you didn't take into account was my inability to figure out if the lower the number is a steeper or slacker head angle
I confirmed the wheels are true by spinning the wheels and watching for any wobbling at the brake pads. How do I confirm if the wheels are are aligned between the stays/forks?
They need to be bang on in the middle of the stays/forks, as above
Alright. I'll check that tonight. When I installed the wheels when I got the bike, I just threw on the wheel and did up the skewers, but I didn't really check if it was in the center of the fork.
From the bike's I've owned the key thing that has made a bike feel twitchy has been head tube angle, the steeper the angle the more responsive the bike. Trail and wheelbase are the other things I look for, but trail is driven by head tube angle and fork rake so tends to be relaxed if the head tube angles are.
People say that handlebar width and stem length make a difference but having played around with my bikes I've not seen much difference when I've swapped things around.
From what you've said I would take a look at your bike fit. Do you have more weight on the bike wheel that is making the front wheel lighter?
From the bike's I've owned the key thing that has made a bike feel twitchy has been head tube angle, the steeper the angle the more responsive the bike. Trail and wheelbase are the other things I look for, but trail is driven by head tube angle and fork rake so tends to be relaxed if the head tube angles are.
People say that handlebar width and stem length make a difference but having played around with my bikes I've not seen much difference when I've swapped things around.
From what you've said I would take a look at your bike fit. Do you have more weight on the bike wheel that is making the front wheel lighter?
Means nothing without taking the rake of the fork into account ( what you'd call castor on a car )
This is likely the culprit. My days.. 70.9 as a HT angle? That's steep!
Erm, it really isn't. Have a think about it.
Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
Allround - Cotic Solaris
My Bad!.. In theory should make the canyon less twitchy? That's weird..
Rake is part of what makes up the trail.
retired 9.6kg Carrera Kraken
The Carrera Hardtail combined thread - come on all you Carrera's!
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What you are feeling is that as you inevitably rock the frame slightly when you pedal hands free, the steering reacts more sensitively.
The flip side of "twitchy" steering is that the bike as a whole should be more nimble and more responsive to steering inputs, most significantly by leaning the bike. So the Canyon will be a better handling bike when you are chucking it around, which is surely what you want isn't it?
I had thought that the slack head tube geometry was fairly recent, probably driven by the US weekend warrior market. Certainly when I went to get my custom bike I had to work hard to persuade the fitter to use my 20-year old bike's geometry as his starting point, rather than end up with a bike that looked to me like a Raleigh chopper.
The handling while descending at high speed is awesome. While my old bike would understeer in the corners, the Canyon is much more "pointable". I guess that responsive handling comes as a cost since I can no longer comfortably ride without both hands on the bars.
Surely it does? The rider is the same weight and sat up high so the centre of gravity will be higher, surely?
I don't think that I'm sitting too far forward. The fit on both bikes is pretty similar. Usually when I ride no handed, I'm seated up right so all of my weight is on the saddle/rear of the bike.
Is it just that some bikes are inherently more twitchy/responsive than others? I've only ever ridden these two road bikes so I don't have a lot of things to compare against.