Lowering my Headset

[Mojo Johnson]

Hey everyone,

I'm sure this subject has been covered before but my attempts at searching for a an answer did not yield the exact result I was looking for. I have lowered my stem and placed the spacers above it, but now I have an ugly looking headset sticking up. What I want to do is create a flush appearance between the top of the headset and the stem. Do I need to buy and install a new headset? Do I need to cut the something? Is this something frivolous enough for me to just leave it alone and live with?

Thank you in advance for any and all feedback!

Here's a picture of my bike so you can see what I'm working with:

 

[daveryanwyoming]

If you're absolutely sure you've got the stem height right where you want it then you can get a flush top cap by cutting your stem to length.

Ideally you use a cutting guide to make sure you cut the steerer exactly square after double checking the correct length including an appropriate gap between the top of your stem and the top of the stem. Here's how it's done: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/fork-column-length-and-sizing

Remember, not all stem clamps are exactly the same height so once you cut it you may or may not be able to swap stems without problems. Most folks don't cut the stem perfectly flush but cut it down so it still needs at least one half cm spacer so there's some wiggle room for future changes.

-Dave