Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
I use carbon assembly paste. It's a carbon steerer after all. One of the stems I tried was a Thomson with a greatly cutout contact area. That worked better, but was a 0° stem and I wanted a 17° drop. The best stem so far is an Eleven81, which has a short body, about the same as the Thomson and is 17°. I stacked washers on top of it to make up the difference. It's possible that the increased PSI from the lower surface area helped, or that it does not grip the steerer in the worst worn area. Anyway, that's what works the best.
I have a ~.5mm plastic washer between stem and top cap. Should there be another, thicker washer? If so, what would it do?
Dispersal is the proper aim + grip surface area, whereas "increased PSI from the lower surface area" is the last thing you should want for any attachments to carbon components. Any deformation of the carbon is a sign of crimping damage. A stem with narrow gripping area may dig into your steerer and provide temporary grip, up to the point where the steerer is decapitated.
Washer spacing between the headset and stem is not the area I was referring to (in earlier posts).