How might I lower my handlebars?

vermin

Posted this on Road Workshop, but am posting here too in case someone who doesn't go over there much can help me.

Just took delivery of a Caad8. Seems a nice bike, but head tube is so tall that I can't get into any sort of comfortable position (I'm used to riding a Scott Foil, on which the bars are about 50mm lower).

Two really simple questions:

1. Can I replace the stem with a track stem (eg Deda Pista or Cinelli Pista)? Is there anything preventing the use of a track stem on a road bike. Are these two my best options for a cheap method of lowering the bar height, or should I look at alternatives (a flipped high-rise stem like the BBB BHS-25, perhaps)?

2. The bottom-most spacer under the stem is huge - about 20mm tall. Given that it's conical, is there a way to replace it and still provide protection to the headset. If not, do I even need to worry about protecting the headset, or can I simply do away with all spacers and seat the stem directly onto the top race (the bike is bought for the specific purpose of hammering into the ground on a 60 miles round trip daily commute)?

Thanks

The Rookie

1/ Just get a steeper angle stem and run it inverted (pointing down), you can get some bizarre stems but a -17 at the right length will drop you a bit

2/ Yes, different top bearing caps can be found, assuming you have a semi integrated headest then the one on mine is a stack height of about 6mm. I wouldn't run without it as it's designed to get water and rubbish out of the bearing.

vermin

Thanks.

Making progress now - received a used Deda Pista from ebay and have ordered a 5mm bearing cover from Cannondale Spares. Should sort it out.

See here for results so far.