stem and spacers?

HermanHedning said:

I have a trek 1400 and there's three spacers directly under the stem. They're 10 mm. or 0,4" each. Now I wonder if it's okay to take one of these spacers and put it over the stem instead and this way lower my bar 10 mm?
I hadn't thought of this way to adjust the bar height until I got the tip from a website but I figure it would be smart to hear if there's some reason why I shouldn't do it.
thanks

No problem. Go for it.

Awesome!
This gives me superadjustability of my bar height since I also can flip the stem.
There's no end to the possibilities! 😄

Yeah, just like Capwater said it's no probelm. I've put a bunch of spacers on initially, swapped them around until I find the position I like best and then cut the steerer tube. Works great!

HermanHedning said:

I have a trek 1400 and there's three spacers directly under the stem. They're 10 mm. or 0,4" each. Now I wonder if it's okay to take one of these spacers and put it over the stem instead and this way lower my bar 10 mm?
I hadn't thought of this way to adjust the bar height until I got the tip from a website but I figure it would be smart to hear if there's some reason why I shouldn't do it.
thanks

Take some measurements before you start messing with things. Typically a new bike assembled in a shop will have as many spacers as possibly under the stem. You may or may not need them. What you need to measure is the vertical distance from the top of the saddle to the top of your handlebars. I do this with a level (longish... at least long enough to sit on top of your saddle and extend past the bars). Put the level on top of the saddle, making sure that it is... LEVEL! 🙂 Then take a tape measure and find out the distance between the bottom of the level and the top of your handlebar. The general rule of thumb is that the handlebars should be 5-9 cm below the saddle. NOW BEFORE YOU GO MEASURING- - - I need to say that this is not an exact number for everyone. It is meant for typically healthy, relatively flexible, and possibly younger people. I am a competetive racer and I have a ~7.7 cm drop to my bars. My father is 52 years old and has his bars level with his saddle. A lot of the European pro riders - sprinters especially - have huge drops from saddle to bars. I have never understood how they can stand a 6+ hour race with a super long stem and a 10+ cm drop to their bars. I would recommend starting out with a smaller drop and slowly going bigger. Go for at least a few rides in the new position before you make any changes. You will know when you've gone too low because your neck/lower back will hurt on longer rides. Good luck.

gregk said:

Take some measurements before you start messing with things. Typically a new bike assembled in a shop will have as many spacers as possibly under the stem. You may or may not need them. What you need to measure is the vertical distance from the top of the saddle to the top of your handlebars. I do this with a level (longish... at least long enough to sit on top of your saddle and extend past the bars). Put the level on top of the saddle, making sure that it is... LEVEL! 🙂 Then take a tape measure and find out the distance between the bottom of the level and the top of your handlebar. The general rule of thumb is that the handlebars should be 5-9 cm below the saddle. NOW BEFORE YOU GO MEASURING- - - I need to say that this is not an exact number for everyone. It is meant for typically healthy, relatively flexible, and possibly younger people. I am a competetive racer and I have a ~7.7 cm drop to my bars. My father is 52 years old and has his bars level with his saddle. A lot of the European pro riders - sprinters especially - have huge drops from saddle to bars. I have never understood how they can stand a 6+ hour race with a super long stem and a 10+ cm drop to their bars. I would recommend starting out with a smaller drop and slowly going bigger. Go for at least a few rides in the new position before you make any changes. You will know when you've gone too low because your neck/lower back will hurt on longer rides. Good luck.

As long as the poster is moving spacers and not cutting the steerer,there is no issue.Hell, the steerer doesn't even have to be cut,but it does look a bit goofy wiht too many spacers on top.Grant Petersen says bars level with or even higher than saddle.Euro Trash types don't agree.

gregk said:

Take some measurements before you start messing with things. Typically a new bike assembled in a shop will have as many spacers as possibly under the stem. You may or may not need them. What you need to measure is the vertical distance from the top of the saddle to the top of your handlebars. I do this with a level (longish... at least long enough to sit on top of your saddle and extend past the bars). Put the level on top of the saddle, making sure that it is... LEVEL! 🙂 Then take a tape measure and find out the distance between the bottom of the level and the top of your handlebar. The general rule of thumb is that the handlebars should be 5-9 cm below the saddle. NOW BEFORE YOU GO MEASURING- - - I need to say that this is not an exact number for everyone. It is meant for typically healthy, relatively flexible, and possibly younger people. I am a competetive racer and I have a ~7.7 cm drop to my bars. My father is 52 years old and has his bars level with his saddle. A lot of the European pro riders - sprinters especially - have huge drops from saddle to bars. I have never understood how they can stand a 6+ hour race with a super long stem and a 10+ cm drop to their bars. I would recommend starting out with a smaller drop and slowly going bigger. Go for at least a few rides in the new position before you make any changes. You will know when you've gone too low because your neck/lower back will hurt on longer rides. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice. I have done some measureing and at the highest setting the bar is 6.8 cm's under the sadle. When I got the bike the stem was on the other side and the distance was about 11 cm's. I didn't even consider riding it that way and fliped the stem to the 6.8 cm position. So now I'm close to were I want to be. And I can try lowering it one cm at a time 🙂

HermanHedning said:

Thanks for the advice. I have done some measureing and at the highest setting the bar is 6.8 cm's under the sadle. When I got the bike the stem was on the other side and the distance was about 11 cm's. I didn't even consider riding it that way and fliped the stem to the 6.8 cm position. So now I'm close to were I want to be. And I can try lowering it one cm at a time 🙂

It is good that you flipped the stem. An 11 cm drop is quite a bit. The 6.8 you have now should be fine, unless you feel too high. You can even get spacers that are less than 1 cm in thickness, so you can make even smaller adjustments. Maybe look into getting some 5mm or 2.5mm spacers to fine tune if desired. I had a -6 degree stem and the drop was too big, so I picked up a 90 degree (no angle) stem, and I'm exactly where I want to be with 3cm of spacers. One more thing to note- you should have no more than 2.5cm of spacers with a carbon steer tube or 3cm with an aluminum steer tube (under the stem).