Originally Posted by
puma1552
I'm basically a french fit with just a few cm of saddle to bar drop and average flexibility, and I'm 40. Regardless of going to a smaller frame size which might show more seat post, the actual saddle to bar drop is unlikely to change much overall except maybe a couple extra cm.
Which is roughly the amount of spacers you have under the stem on your bike pictured. If you take those spacers out from under the stem, it might give you a idea what the smaller size bike might feel like for more bar drop. Not so much for the difference in reach. But at least you'll know what that much drop will feel like. Saddle height is the one thing that will stay the same between any road bike model or size in the same model that you pick. Bar height will only get lower with decreasing sizes that generally decrease the frame stack too. There is only so much steerer tube the bike will come with that you can get over that.
I don't know if on new bikes they shorten the steerer tube to a certain exposed length as the head tube length decreases with size, before sending them out to the LBS or customer. On the size bikes I look at, they generally come with about 30-40 mm of spacers in varying size thicknesses. Maybe another knows.