Thanks -- good advice, I will rotate the shim gap toward the front of the stem. But my shim is a Thomson (non-flanged). Wondering if I can get by with that (it's one of the few black shims on the market, if you look at the stem, ControlTech Ti-Mania, you can see why color shows). As the for the Ti spacers -- well double-dagnabbit, I really want those to work (Ti-fetish bike). Maybe I will look for thicker 1" Ti spacers?