Originally Posted by
ClarkinHawaii
I think the application is an important consideration. Clearly I can get away with more on a street-bound grocery-getter than an mtb hurtling downhill through boulder-strewn gullies. Common sense and paying attention to how my application is behaving under its load should guide me successfully.
A reasonable attitude but it doesn't make sense to use a shallow angle stem and a bunch of spacers when a steeply angled stem and typical spacers could be used instead, unless you had some other reason for wanting to leave the steerer tube long. If all he had was the 17 degree stem and didn't want to buy something else, that's one thing. But, the fact that's he's building the bike and has the oppurtunity to select a more suitable stem for the purpose of raising the bars, the 17 degree stem and long steerer make no sense.