First modification on the Sirrus (and my first ever modification on any bike, apart from tuning brakes!): flipping the stem.
This post is just to help others who want to do it, but aren't sure how to - and also for folks to let me know if I goofed up!

1. Unscrew the cap with the word "Specialized"


2. Unscrew the four bolts that hold the handle to the stem.


3. Handle removed


4. Unscrew the bolts that hold the stem.


5. Take off the stem, flip it.


6. Reattach in reverse order. Final result:


Edited to add: haven't taken it out for a ride yet - its 12:41 am so too late! But will do so tomorrow, and update this thread with how it feels.

I need to do this. My stem has much less rise, but my bike is pretty upright (2009 sirrus base model, they seem to have a shorter TT than most years). Someday...

I took it out for a short ride. I haven't aligned the stem perfectly to the frame, so I need to redo the two bolts holding the stem to the headset/fork. But it definitely felt like there was less weight on my bum and more on my arms. Hopefully this will help on longer rides.

Are there any other folks who have flipped their stem? Any comments on results? I am considering giving it a try.

I flipped my stock stem, then got a longer one (110mm instead of 90mm) and put it right side up on the lowest possible spacer setting right side up, and now am thinking of flipping it again.

whatever works best for ya! with a typical 10-15 degree (shallow rise) stem, flipping it makes it pretty much level, like a road stem. its all good. :thumb

edit: just looked closer at the pics. the stem shown above has more rise in it, so inverted it looks like its going down. on my globe vienna (similar to a base model Sirrus), the rise was shallow so inverted it just cancels the steering rake angle and comes out level.

I have a 10degree stem on my trek, I flipped it last night and going to do a 25 miler today. Should be interesting, will report back.

Yes, tried flipping the stem (15 deg.) on my 2012 Giant Escape and didnt like it. Didnt think it was going to make a big difference but it did so I ended up flipping it back and removed one spacer from underneath, its perfect! (for me, anyway) Also, to the OP, I think you have to set the preload on the bearings with the top cap screw before tightning the stem screws.

yes, definitely, tighten the cap while rocking the forks back and forth a bit to ensure the bearings are settled in, THEN tighten the stem clamp.

Yep, I got that from another thread and corrected myself ages ago - didn't remember to update this thread though. Thanks for adding that here

just looked at those pictures.... I think before I flipped it over, I would have swapped the spacers around, so you had just one spacer under the stem. once you decide on the right number of spacers, you can cut the steering tube so it doesn't stick up as high. I ended up with just a 5mm under and 5mm over my stem (you should have one spacer above and below...)... my bike came with 4 10mm under, similar to what I see in the first pic above.

Would there be any difference between lowering the height by flipping the stem or lowering the height by reducing spacers? This is a serious question, I'm really wondering. The bike feels much better now than it did before, but I'm willing to make the stem straight and shuffle spacers if that will help improve things.

well, if you look at it, when you flip it, you are moving the bars slightly more forward as well as lowering it (picture the radius...). but, when you lower it via the stem spacers, they also move forward slightly because of the angle of the steering tube, however, I don't think its quite as much as the radius. its a pretty minor difference, for sure.

I rather like a horizontal stem, not sure why.

Me too but I think you need to flip a 10 deg stem don't you to get close to horizontal? I think I read most head tubes are about 17 deg.

Come Christmas I will be installing a new 0 deg stem on my Cannondale so I hope to achieve a slight angle upwards. To compensate I'm changing from 100mm to 80 mm and slamming the stem. (drop 5mm) I have riser bars so my guess is there won't be much difference in feel.

This is my flipped 10 deg stem on my road bike, with a 5mm spacer below. It looks pretty close to horizontal.

my bike came with bars and stem like this, only I'd already dropped the stem 20cm worth of spacers when I took this pic.


bigger

after switching to flat bars, longer stem lower down, its...


bigger

I'm probably going to go a little lower... flip the stem and maybe trim another 3-4mm from the spacers...