I have spacers above the stem on my threadless stem bikes. And spacers below. All of the Treks sold at the local stores have a couple inches of spacers below the stem.
A couple of inches below the stem? Not real common. If anything, there will be one or two spacers, giving maybe 10mm, of adjustment. Trek's website shows the road bikes set up with maybe 10-20mm of spacers, certainly no 2 inches.
Especially considering that many threadless forks have a 2-3cm maximum spacer spec.
I didn't know about that. Huh. So ya gotta use a stem with sufficient rise to get the bars up where ya want 'em. Good to know.
I think it reinforces the idea that frames and bicycles are not long term investments...like riding for 15 years, changing fitness as you age and thinking that your fit/position would change, which of course, it does.
Does it? I haven't aged significantly while riding seriously yet, but IWHT the only likely adjustment was to the bar reach and height if back flexibility were reduced.
