Hi boilerboy,
-Got your PM. First off, beautiful bike.
As for the headset spacers: Well, a lot of what I am expressing here is opinion, so take it for what it is worth. And remember, different people have different opinions.
Now, that out of the way…
I don’t use carbon headset spacers below the stem hardly at all. When the compression plug bolt is tightened to establish your headset adjustment the carbon spacers seem to be able to spread out or expand enough to influence the adjustment. The headset/stem area creeks at best, comes lose at worst. That is annoying.
Also, if you need to run that degree of stack height, it is best to do it with one alloy spacer sleeve 4 cm long (high) so you don;t have a series of them compressed against one another with the possibility of movement or vibrations in there. One unified headset spacer adds strength and stiffness to the front end and preserves head set adjustment. I looks better too. When I see a bunch of spacer stack up I get the (sometimes mistaken) impression that the rider’s head tube may have needed to be higher.
One thing oddly missing here is a conical top cap for your headset like this:
A conical top cap can help do double duty by building up some head tube height and serving as the top cap of the headset assembly. The nice thing about this is that it is wider at the base giving the entire assembly good stability and is one piece so it won’t slide against itself.
I think at the center of this is the conern that you somehow got the wrong frame size. Now, realistically, it is impossible for me to say if you did or did not over the Internet. However, I will say these things: If Robert at Guru refered you to a fitter- the fitter is good. Robert knows his stuff and I know he is a perfectionist. I would stand behind his recommendation. For what it’s worth, if this is the position you ar riding the bike in I think you are OK. I mean, the proportions look about right to me saddle height to exposed post to head tube. Now, remember, this amounts to a wild-assed guess, but if you are riding it like this the frame probably is the right fit. Let me guess… Long leg, short torso… When I see aerobars turned up like that I immediately wonder, “Is his/her reach too long?”.
I think this is a beautiful bike that appears to be well proportioned and your dealer did a good job fitting you. It is worth exploring some additional strategies for supporting the stem position, i.e., one unified spacer from anodized aluminum or a conical headset cap. These items can be obtained from your dealer who can get them at Quality Bicycle Parts in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Good luck, awesome bike!
