Originally Posted by ljsense

Yes, true -- I've done that from time to time. I like having a top cap, though. It looks right to me, but I also think it does add some amount of clamping security in addition to the stem, which isn't usually needed, but on one bike I had a tune gum gum, it felt like the headset would come loose a bit over rough terrain when relying only on a stem to keep it in place.