Who appoints the Spacer Police?

[Stolichnaya]

The spacer police are not appointed, they are annointed.
They are everywhere.
Resistance is futile.
You will be assimilated.

[xena]

[F45]

Ebruner has a point you know.

[BRM]

Flexibility and core strength might help but if you have long legs, with a long femur and short upper body and arms it is not enough for me. Plus I also have a long neck that is not the most flexible in the world. On shorter rides I can easily ride slammed but on long rides it puts too much strain on my shoulders, neck and arms. So leave the stem higher and on short rides I just ride in the drops to get a lower position.

If you need that much spacer, and that much seat post on a standard geo frame, why is it so small? get a bigger/correct size frame.

-Eddie

Ebruner has a point you know.

No you both are missing the point.
Visualize whats going on.

Long legs means you sit higher than normal and therefore you need to reach further than normal to handlebar (1)
Short torso / arms means you have less reach in the body to the handlebar and so you sit more stretched (2)
Poor flexibility / back/neck problems/ bit overweight requires a bitmore upright position (3)
The long femur is also a factor, it increases saddle setback (4)

Here we see 4 levels that has significant effect on the right position. 4 levels that has dramatically effect on reach and stack.

This person requires a short frame with a high headtube. Much shorter than average. A size up will mean that the toptube becomes even longer. Also have in mind that the more stretched you sit the more the bars need to come up in height to compensate this.

[CBJ]

BRM you are 100% spot on (except the overweight part) I wish I could have describe it as precisely as you.

Why I change from a Tarmac to a Roubaix to get the taller HT. As you said a larger bike would not work I am 187cm and even on a 56cm I run a 90mm stem.

[FastDad]

No you both are missing the point.
Visualize whats going on.

Long legs means you sit higher than normal and therefore you need to reach further than normal to handlebar (1)
Short torso / arms means you have less reach in the body to the handlebar and so you sit more stretched (2)
Poor flexibility / back/neck problems/ bit overweight requires a bitmore upright position (3)
The long femur is also an factor, it increases saddle setback (4)

Here we see 4 levels that has significant effect on the right position. 4 levels that has dramatically effect on reach and stack.

This person requires a short frame with a high headtube. Much shorter than average. A size up wil mean that the toptube becomes even longer. Also have in mind that the more stretched you sit the more the bars need to come up in height to compensate this.

spot on BRM!

[Djkinsella89]

What's wrong with thinking a bike with a slammed stem looks good? What's wrong with thinking a bike with a spacer tower looks bad? What's wrong with voicing that opinion after someone wants to show boat their new racing bike with a spacer tower on a forum that is notoriously opinionated?

Posting a race bike on this forum with a short stem and a spacer tower is like making an adult movie when you have below average anatomy. You're more than free to do it, but don't get bent out of shape when you read the comments.

[AJS914]

What's wrong with thinking a bike with a slammed stem looks good? What's wrong with thinking a bike with a spacer tower looks bad? What's wrong with voicing that opinion after someone wants to show boat their new racing bike with a spacer tower on a forum that is notoriously opinionated?

Posting a race bike on this forum with a short stem and a spacer tower is like making an adult movie when you have below average anatomy. You're more than free to do it, but don't get bent out of shape when you read the comments.

There's nothing wrong with thinking a slammed stem looks good. I have a certain aesthetic in mind for my bikes and most of us cannot achieve perfect aesthetics because of our body shapes.

Pissing on someone else's ride because they have 2, 3, or even 5 cm of spacers is wrong. It's not gentlemanly. People here probably wouldn't do that on a club ride or at a race but on the Internet they get anonymous courage. And if someone posts some pics of their bike here, why do people feel the need to trash them for their spacers? In real life, you get punched in the nose for opening your mouth when it's uncalled for.

I disagree with the notion that you shouldn't ride a "race" bike unless you can run it slammed. As BRM eloquently explained, bodies are different and we all can't afford a custom frame. And there is no reason to pay many thousands for custom when a few spacers will serve the same purpose.

Times have changed. Pro riders are trying to be more aero. In the Hinualt/Lemond era they were riding the equivalent of 5-8cm or more of spacers. Now Pros are riding smaller bikes, shorter top tubes and much more drop. Chris Froome says he looks down all the time because he gets neck aches. All for the sake of being aero? I guess it's worth it if you are winning the Tour. For a regular guy on a training ride, is any amount of neck ache worth it?

[liam7020]

Well spoken and so true. I wonder how many of the slammed stem proponents can actually ride on the drops for any great length of time?

[Zigmeister]

I don't really give a sh*t what people think of my setup.....

[Djkinsella89]

Pissing on someone's bike is disgusting. Commenting on someones bike that was posted on a forum is normal and expected. Punching someone in the face for opening their mouth when you think it's uncalled for is most certainly not gentlemanly.

Zigmeister has the right idea, since when the discussion is gone and done, the people who have spacer towers will still have the spacer towers and the people who comment on spacer towers will still comment on the spacer towers. Long live the internets.

[fogman]

So is it better to have 25 mm of spacers with a 110 mm stem and everything else about the fit is in proportion or go up to the next frame size and have a nubby, short, zero setback seatpost and a 90 or 100 mm slammed stem? To me the former would be preferable to the latter.

[9734344]

The Spacer Police must be appointed by the Spacers for the Spacers!

[xena]

Well spoken and so true. I wonder how many of the slammed stem proponents can actually ride on the drops for any great length of time?

If I made a uneducated guess using the results and data put into a computer and printed out on this graph
you can see I have no idea what I am talking about

[ak47]

We are here... watching you...