i'd like to start slowly lowering the front end of my road bike. i think i've got room to get more aggressive while not sacrificing comfort.

does it make sense to remove spacers first? or lower the stem angle first?

naturally, i wont go too drastic and will give myself plenty of time to adapt to a new position.

fwiw - my current stem is a specialized with an adjustable angle insert.

I'd go the the stem first and fine tune with the spacers later as needed.

spacers.

Moving spacers is easier than changing/flipping a stem. Try that first.

Flipping a stem isn't hard at all. I would start by doing that. Mostly because slammed stems flipped up look dumb.

i would adjust the angle my stem first

I don't think anybody read the last sentence of your post.

Adjust it, see where it gets you. Slammed stems look ridiculous, like a dog in a turtleneck.

Why?

How many spacers do you have in cm? What is the angle of the stem, and is it + or -?

i want to get into a more aero position as i'm using my road bike (only bike i've got) for TTs. if it boosts my power output, even better.

Let out some air from your front tire.

Lose the spacers. Never liked them anyway.

If you have something like a Specialized Comp-Set or Pro-Set stem with angle shims, just change your stem angle by swapping shims or reversing the one you have installed. That'll give you a less drastic change than flipping the whole stem. Of course, you can flip the stem if you want more change, and you can still swap or rotate shims to dial in your angle.

Most likely lowering your stem will never generate a power increase. You're going to generate more power in an upright position, but being in a more aerodynamic position will lower the amount of power required to achieve a given speed.

So...like all things in life it's a tradeoff. You're not necessarily going to go faster with a lower stem. You're not necessarily going to be more aero with a lower stem. You're most likely NOT going to generate more power with a lower stem either.

So...why do it? Kids in really good shape that have a lot of flexibility seem to be able to generate a great deal of power in just about any position you put their body in (TWSS). In that case lowering the stem will usually result in a more aero position for them (it doesn't require them to stick their arms out wider to gain breathing room) - resulting in a beneficial trade off in the power to drag balance.

If you're in Bloomington, IL then are you just wanting to do this so you can be more like Nick Ramirez or Chris Curran?

And flipped stems on top of a big stack of spacers look dumb too.

Go cold turkey if you want - flip the stem and remove all the spacers. Put them on top of the stem until you decide whether you like your new position or not. Just don't post any pictures of your new periscope style cockpit in the Hot or Not thread and you should be fine.

Yeah, but which looks worse?:

A)



or


B)



Both images pulled from Google.

They both look off but I'll grant you A looks worse. That's not a particularly extreme angle on the stem in example 2, -17 would look hideous. Maybe just awful.

Hi,

Just lower it and see how you get on. You can use the adjustable
stem to work out the ballpark your spacers should be set to.

rgds, sreten.

Nothing wrong with A) if gets rid of spacers not needed.

I'm always amazed by the number of people who are more worried about how something looks than how it works for the rider Everyone has different body mechanics, flexibility, fitness, riding style, and personal tastes. What is "dumb" is putting up with a less comfortable position because you don't want the stem police to laugh at you.

Remove spacers first.

The average spacer is 5mm. Removing one spacer lowers your handlebar by about 5mm.

Flipping a 6 degree stem will change the overall angle by 12 degrees, which on a 100mm stem is almost 2cm. It often is best to make fit changes gradually.

Before you do anything OP, take inventory of how you ride. How often do you ride in the drops? 1/8 of the time? 1/4 of the time? All the time?
I ride with all kind of guys..every shape, speed and form. My handlebar position is higher than most. This is for the simple reason that I prefer the drops position for general hammering. I live in the drops because they are the most comfortable to me. So I tune my bar height for the drops and not for the hoods. So before you do anything, assess how you ride. If you don't use your drops much then your handlebar maybe too low and not too high.
As Rob said, moving your bar position has pretty much nothing to do with speed. Many will produce less power when closing the hip angle but aero profile trumps slight reduction in power...but the important point is, there isn't necessarily a correlation between handlebar height and aero profile either. Your arm and elbow position changes more than torso. Arms more horizontal produce less drag and a higher handlebar can be more aero...especially if you use the drops more.

650c front wheel. Problem solved.

good info. thanks for the response.

i actually had never heard of those guys until your post. i looked them up and it seems they might know a thing or two about cycling.

good thoughts and definitely gives me something to think about. given that i want to do more TTs in the future, but dont have the budget for a TT dedicated bike, i'm thinking as much about positioning in the clip-on aero bars as i am the drops/tops/hoods.

does that change your perspective at all?

A lot of amateurs do TT's with clip ons on a road bike. Typically you would be faster on a dedicated TT bike. The issue is the geometry of a road bike mostly. Most TT bikes have more upright seat tube angle, shorter top tube and shorter head tube compared to a road bike for a given rider size. Now, you can adjust your road bike with some success to replicate a TT bike...but you end up spoiling it for road riding. This is because by using a flip around seat post to reduce sta this generally shortens the cockpit of a road bike with drop bar to the point you are cramping the hoods with too much weight on your hands. The reason why the rotated forward postion with reduced sta works for a TT bike is because you support your weight with your elbows and skeleton and not your musculature as with a road bike where your fore/aft weight CG is neutralized with more saddle setback which inhibits closing the hip angle and getting into a true tuck position as with a a TT bike. So clip on aerobars on a roadbike are a tradeoff of sorts if you don't change your sta. Now this tradeoff is widely popular...most don't want to mess with their road bike position and simply mount aerobar elbow pads and grab handles back farther and higher. This produces a quasi TT bike position which is suitably fast, but generally not as aero or as fast as a dedicated TT bike.