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Great info, thanks very much.
The reason I was looking at sizing down was to try to reduce the head tube length, so I could be lower at the front and closer to my usual position. Everyone seems to be saying that I shouldn’t worry too much about the front being higher though, so I’ll have another look at sizing today.
TTM-
What is the purpose of this bike? It's not your race bike so you're not going to be racing it are you? The 4S had the same thing for me with head tube length so I did run a -17 on it but that was being raced so it was a lot closer to my road race position than I'd care about if it was just my commuter. With the Tripster I've still got it setup in ultra position but I'm rarely going to be near the aerobars while off-road and it's not a stretch for the drops which is handy because the skinny bars means I'm fighting the bike a lot when it gets muddy (w/ slicks).
hippy
To get mine set up to my ultra position it's basically a half way house between my TT position and my road race position because I'm using drops with clip-ons. So yeah, it took initially a 130mm stem to get that right and now it's got a 120mm fitted because the front is quite high and the effective tt is short. I wouldn't size down though if I could avoid it - bigger frame triangle = more space for bags.
Anyway, why would you run 120mm stem but "size down" to 54? Ride the 55.5 or 57 and you could use a much nicer length 100mm stem.
@scherrit is pretty, what's the word, fastidious with builds so he probably would've done it anyway. As mine was a warranty job I never saw the frame until it was built but he might remember what state it was in.
Again, cables rattling internally is due to the shop not installing them properly, not the frame. I've had this in aerobars before but that's easily fixed. Bear in mind the RD Di2 cable isn't internal because of the yoke they use at the BB. So mine is just tape along the underside of the chainstay.
The lack of total internal cables, ie. the RD due to the yoke. It could do with a sexier fork. But to be honest I got mine as a replacement for the 4SD and it wasn't my first choice but its kinda grown on me. The first one was hit from behind by a car and didn't break (it was written off due to risk of future cracking) so they're pretty tough (the back wheel didn't survive). I'm in the process of flogging it on gravel stuff now and it's quite fun but the same could be said for most bikes. I do like the fact I can fit 47mm 650b tyres on it or swap to my 700Cs for road. I don't think you can get my sexeh high viz any more unless you find a used one. Oh, yeah, one thing I liked on the 4SD was the top tube had cable routing so my dyno cable rear light was internal but the Tripster doesn't have this so the cable is taped along the top tube. No biggie for me but people more precious about looks might have a sook.