I have to swap out my ITM & bars on my new Merlin as I need to take some spacers out as I have too many. To get the proper rise, I'm planning to add a stem with 5 degree rise, like the Thomson on my c'dale. Any others worth looking into? The Thomson clamp will not work with the ITM, ergo the new bars with the new stem. Looking at a chart that shows rise/length relationships, a 13cm stem wt 5 degree would get me back to the same height as I had before removing 1 cm of spacers. I wanted to go a little longer that the 11cm ITM stem that came with the bike. Any idea how much longer this will turn out?

Any suggestions for bars or other bar/stem combos [wt 5 deg rise]? I was going to try Cinelli as once again their on my c'dale & the work. I appreciate the input!!

A 6 (84) degree stem is a lot more common. Ritchey stems are about the best for the money, IMO. There is more to your situation than just stem angle. The ITM stem is likely to have a shorter 35mm steering tube clamp height, compared to the more common 40mm. This willchange the amount of spacer that you need to remove and the change in the height. The stem angle won't change the length more than 1mm.

I don't understand why your ITM bars won't work with a different stem. All stems are either the older 25.8/26.0mm which are interchangeable, or the newer 31.7/31.8mm.

With the 6 degree rise (84), does this install like most stems or do you have to flip the stem to get the correct angle?

Regarding the ITM bars, unless I was really out of it, the Thomson clamp did not seem to fit. The ITM was too large. [this is an '04 Merlin]. Thanks for the help!

Nearly all stems these days can be used either direction. You ITM was probably a -10 (80) degree. The new stem would be a -6 (84) if mounted in the same direction. If you flip it to the high rise position, it would be a +6 (96) degree.

As for the bar/stem sizes, there are only two currentlt in production 25.8/26.0 and 31.7/31.8. It's easy to tell the difference between them.