Stacks for stem / fork

[Gus]

Is there any advantage / disadvantage or any harm in putting your stacks (headset spacers if you will) on TOP of the stem instead of BELOW ?

[funky-funky-chicken]

Advantages:
Allows you some flexibility to raise and lower your stem height. By moving spacers from either above or below the stem to the other side (top/bottom) you can effectively raise or lower you handlebars. This is a great way to make sure that you have the number of spacers that you would like before cutting the steer tube on the fork.

Disadvantage:
Risk of injury from the protrusion of spacers above stem. It's maybe a little unlikely that the steer tube/spacer combo would in fact cause any more harm than the stem in the same position, but the perception is there.

# 1 disadvantage is probably aesthetics.