LittleGreyCat wrote:In my head I see myself moving the bars in an arc where the bars are furthest when horizontal, and come back towards the rider when moved up or down. This would, for example, allow me to move the stem one spacer down and then swing the bars upwards to get them into roughly the same position as they started, but closer to the saddle.
I am still moving the saddle position a bit so I will wait for that before addressing the bars.
As you say, once you start tinkering then everything else is in a slightly different place.
Sounds like a plan, using the adjustable stem largely to adjust reach and compensating for height change with the spacers. The bell spacer looks to be about 10mm and the smaller spacer 5 ish, so re arranging them in conjunction with the 20s will give increments of 5mm over the entire height range.
Most of those stems can be adjusted while mounted on the steerer, although as you say you might well be swapping the spacers around with each angle adjustment so you are only adjusting reach independent of height. Of course you have to fiddle around with bar angle as you adjust stem angle too.
By the way if you want to make frequent adjustments to your spacers you can buy locking stem spacers. If you put one of these right above the headset and lock it off once you've set your headset up it saves you having to re-set your headset bearing adjustment every time you swap the stem and other spacers around. If you live near decathlon you might be able to get one cheaply from there as they come fitted to some of their bikes. Otherwise available online.