Oh, I see. Maybe I was mistaken then, and it is alright. I still have to pull the seatpost up pretty high on my 20" frame, and the handlebars were so low that I added a riser stem to compensate...had the bars been any lower when I got my bike, I'd have had my nose below my belt...

Is 1" of clearance that bad, then? or is it alright?

The bike "feels big", but I certainly can control it. I have pretty long arms and long hands/fingers--not sure how this factors in, really.