Want to get lower in front, so I decided to take out a spacer or two.
Removed the headset thinking I could then just slide the extra spacers off.
No go
What gives?
Take off your stem (top-cap first) and try again.
remove the headset top cap. loosen clamping bolts on stem and slide off. remove desired amount of spacers from under stem. put stem back on. put removed spacers on top of stem until you can get the steer tube cut. reinstall top cap and tighten. position stem straight and tighten stem clamping bolts.
I’m probably using wrong terminology
About to reveal my ignorance
Unscrewed something which allowed me to remove handlebars etc.
There now is a grey tube which is wider in cricumference than spacers.
This grey tube needs to come off but can’t figure out how
I did what you said - see my post above.
I am guessing that you have a 1" steerer tube, and a 1 1/8" stem, which requires the use of a shim to size down the stem to the steerer tube. Does the gray tube have a split down the back?
You need to slide that off, then the spacers will come. then reinstall the shim, stem, stack the spacers you removed on top of the stem, reinstall the top cap, snug everything down, then tighten the stem bolts. finally, check to make sure there is no excessive play in the headset.
Yes, split down the back
Now, in english, how do I get it off?
Assuming you have a metal steerer tube with a star nut, here is a trick to freeing the shim, spacers, or any otherbits that may be stuck. thread the bolt from the top cap into the star nut, without the cap itself. with the bike on the workstand or holding the frame (not the fork) gently tap the bolt with a rubber mallet or a block of wood. The fork must be unsupported when you do this. That will force everything above the headset up the steerer tube.
will give it a try
thanks all for your help
.
Oh yeah, when you do that be careful the fork doesn’t fall on the floor and all the little pieces from inside the headset scatter everywhere, leaving you with no idea if you have them all or not.
Not that I’ve ever done that, of course 
One site that has a lot of excellent resources on bike repair (including photos, very helpful if you don’t know what the various little sramsrams are called) is parktool.com.
They have a tutorial on threadless headset maintenance here. Scroll down to the heading that says “Headset Adjustment - Threadless Type” (about 2/3s of the way down the page) there are fairly complete instructions there.
Go to the Park tool bicycle repair website for instructions on headset installation and adjustments. This is an easy repair for you to do once you know the steps. You do not need to remove the headset or any of its parts, just the top cap, stem and spacers as was suggested.
Look at the pictures at the following link. You will just put the spacers on top of the stem rather than underneath.
Problem solved
After leaving the bike overnight, the shim magically loosened, and all was right witht he world.
When putting everything back together, is there a trick to make sure steerer is straight other than eyeballing it?
Thanks again for all the help.
Eyeballing is the best way that I know and is usually close enough. If you are haveing trouble sighting through all of the aero bar/cable clutter, you can make it a little easier if you align a ruler or other straight edge along the axis of the stem and use this to help eyeball the alignment of the stem with the front wheel.
Take off the front wheel and place the bike on a flat surface on the fork blades. With the stem snug, but moveable laterally, lean the bike forward so that your shifters touch the ground. Apply pressure so that the fork blades and shifters are all touching the ground, and hence are level. Tighten up and ride. If this is a road bike, it’s your hoods. If it is a tri-bike with bar end shifters, make sure both shifters are both all the way up or down so that everything is level on a plane.
I do this after setting the headset cap preload, which ensures the fork is not going to shift.
Don’t think anyone has mentioned that when you put everything back you will need to make sure the stem bolt is tightened properly. By this I mean, once you have everything centered (eyeball is best) you need to only modestly tighten the stem bolt. Do not over tighten it, try turning until you get a little resistance, then you can tighten the two binder bolts on the stem. Check the headset for play by pulling back and forth on the fork and/or handlebars. If you have any play then loosen the binder bolts and give the stem bolt a quarter to a half turn. Tighten the binder bolts again and re-check for play. Repeat until there is no play evident at all. If you overtighten the stem bolt you will here a distinct grinding noise, which means that your bearings will become fd-up over time.