Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - How much steerer to leave

Eyeballing my new frame next to my old ones I THINK I only want about 10mm worth of spacers on the steerer at most. the thing is the new frame is really different geometry than my old frames, so this is more or less a wild guess until I can put wheels, bars, cranks and a seat on I won't really know. So obviously it's better to go too long than too short. So how long should I go? 20mm? More?

2 ideas here: one is, no spacers, get the right angle stem. other is, stems going the wrong way look ugly.

i left 40mm worth of spacers, because i am unable to fadiddle around with too many different stems (i own two), and because i switch handlebars and bar height more often than i change pants (bullhorns, flop and chops, road drops, track drops...). i say leave a whole mess of spacers and deal with the fact that it's mildly inconvenient to the eye. ride it for a while and get a feel for where you really want that sucker to be. try out a few different stems. then, when you feel like you're really not using that top 20-30mm or whatever, chop it off and re-set the starfangled nut. oh my god, starfangled nut banger is my favorite tool name ever.

starfangled nut banger is my favorite tool name ever.

Would be a good name for a band as well

Just wait to chop it off. Ride it around all uglified with spacers for a long while (a month?). If wait until you feel super secure before you cut it off. Definitely don't do whatever people on an internet forum tell you to.

heheh. I'm more interested in fit than style, but I really do think this one is gonna be a short rise, because the frame is at the upper limit of my size range. I don't really want it poking way up in the air, but I think I'd better live with a big pokey thing for a short time than have to live with a stem with ridiculous rise for the log haul.

Definitely ride with some spacers for a bit before you decide to chop it off. My threadless set up had about 60mm of spacers for 6 months. My other bike has a threaded set-up with a deep track drop, and I started to feel odd between the two. When I went to my threadless set-up (no drop), it felt like riding a huge car (wide handlebars as well). I recenty chopped off about 30mm and now it feels perfect, switching between the two.

It's always fun to play with a threadless set-up -- I generally try to find a stem with the same negative rise that brings it level with the top tube.