To Flip or not to flip an Ahead stem?

dieselgeezer

I've been having issues with my knees brushing the side of the stem where it attaches the steerer tube. The stem is set at -6' & has 25mm of spacers below. As an experiment I've flipped the stem to +6' without any spacers below. This gives the same bar height but moves the stem down & away from my knees. The few mm this gives helps quite a bit.
If I now cut the steerer this not only saves the weight of tube + spacers, fairly maginal I know, but also should give a stiffer set-up for the bars/stem as the stem is now tight to the headset top cap.
Why are so many bikes set up with spacers to increase the height & then a stem set to take it back down again? Presumably fashion, apart from raising it a bit later on due to back issues.
Just wondering.

rozzer32

Your knee is hitting your stem???????

cougie

I think we need photos. I've no idea how you can hit the stem with your knees.

biscuit959

I think you might need to buy a larger bike!!!!

dieselgeezer

Oops!
Two important words missing.... when climbing (out of saddle), that's when my knees brush against the side of the stem where it attaches to the steerer tube.It's all down to the horizontal reach dimension from BB to the top of the head tube. On the problem bike it is 20mm less than on my other bike. Both bikes are 56 TT's but the problem one has a 73' ST while the other has a much steeper 74 1/2'. This is why the head tube is closer (& so is the stem).
Hope that makes a bit more sense now.

on-yer-bike

flipped stems dont look as nice/fast as unflipped ones with spacers. thats the only reason i can think of. I wouldnt go cutting the steerer tube to fit a flipped stem in a hurry. It does sound slightly unusual to hit your knees on the stem.

cougie

How wide is this stem ? Or do you have really knobbly knees ? Your legs shouldn't be that close to the bike ? Something's is odd here.

Crankbrother

Although not a problem, I too have caught the inside of my knee on the fastening bolt on my stem/steerer when climbing out of the saddle ... It's a bit like catching your knee on the shifters of your mtb when out of the saddke ... It happens once in a while but is no hig deal ...

Regarding thevroad bike, i just assumed it is having wide thighs (i'm 5'6" so any muscle goes sideways pretty fast) ...

ddraver

It's a fashion yes - roadies have them down and MTB ers have them up...Both are convinced they re right!

dieselgeezer

I guess that if I could climb out of the saddle whilst keeping the bike completely vertical there wouldn't be an issue. I think I'd look pretty strange if I tried it though. It still begs the question about the front end being stiffer without any spacers.