Don't do it all in one hit. Drop 10mm, wait till that feels ok (could be immediate, could be 2 weeks) then drop again. Give your body time to adapt to each change (so no changes in the 2 weeks leading into a race) and you shouldn't have any issues.

Ditto above. Take a little out at a time and get used to it. I did that this winter and made my bike 25W faster.

Go get a fit. If It is truly that dramatic for comfort and aero, he/she will not stop you 3 inches all at once. Chances are your saddle position will get moved too.

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Team Zoot So Cal

Fair point, I should dump the idea of changing it in one shot & just bring it down over time.

Did you change anything else when dropping the front?

Respectfully, I think the idea that you should "melt" into a better fit isn't consistent with my experience. Riders can adapt just as easily to big changes as small ones.

If the rider is sufficently lean, they can go straight to what most would consider aggressive out of the gate. Adapt once, not 10 times.

I know it seems sensible to suggest small, incremental changes, I think such advice just ends up wasting lots of time and opportunity. A good fitter should be able to discern when a position has gone too far for what an athlete can sustain (assuming the athlete gives it a real shot, which isn't always the case).

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

I moved my pads closer together recently, which seemed to cause some shoulder issues when swimming (backed them out a little & it cleared up).

That leans me towards the incremental approach. However it is tempting to make a bigger jump in one fit session rather than two or three.

My main concern is injury.

Considering you didn't realise how far out the ball park you were I imagine your whole fit needs looking at and what just dropping the front that far could do I wouldn't go down that path if you aren't going to get someone experienced to check. Drop it say 10mm for a ride and if feels ok for the whole ride then drop again. When and if it starts to feel to much give time to adapt or work out what else you need to adjust. That would be my logic.

It would probably be sensible to get a fit to identify the optimum "orthodox" position first. If that's a huge change, it's a huge change. Try riding it before deciding if it's an excessive jump.
If you find it too extreme to maintain, measure everything and then back it off a bit and try again. Once you've become accustomed to the intermediate position, move back towards the "optimum" position again and see if you've improved your ability to maintain it.
In other words, make the full change all in one so long as it doesn't cause you major problems. Do it in a couple of increments if you need to, but identify the intended final position at the start. Don't just gradually start removing spacers and hope you'll end up in a good place eventually.

Once you get to the identified position you can tweak it but keep a record of the measurements you started at and keep an eye out that you don't accidentally drift into a silly position through excessive incremental but unplanned experimentation.

I moved my pads forward a couple cm, but then I just moved them back. And, I have since experimented with tilt.
I totally agree, so I have a little context for my incremental recommendation... It is as a do-it-yourself experimenter. I have had it on my to-do list to get to a very good fitter this off-season, but I just did not get to it. I also wanted to post good pictures on this forum for guidance. I did not get to that either. So, I became my own fit doctor and experimented. Since I was just guessing, I did not want to go too far and mess myself up. However, had I gone to a professional, I would have done all at once from the guidance of a pro.

I still plan to go to a pro fitter, because I think I can both get more aero and more comfortable. I had a lot of forearm fatigue at Gulf Coast 70.3 last week and had to come out of aero frequently to shake out my arms. I know it was from my fiddling with my fit. I was still way faster, but I was not comfortable. I want to be fast and comfortable.

I do think I should get re-fit at some stage, but given I'm pretty high up now what's the risk in popping out a spacer & seeing how it goes?

I am/was in the same boat. I was at 725+, realized it was too much and dropped 25mm late last year when my weight loss would allow it, and then dropped another 20 over the weekend. Now I'm in the upper portion within the "band" and that's about what I would expect.

Anyway, I couldn't really tell a major difference with 5 or 10mm drops. 20 was noticeable, but not crazy. Try it.