Any question answered...

Will I be able to get a sufficient quantity of spacers in there to increase my stack height a bit?

Don't add spacers, change your stem angle. Use this handy tool to select the appropriate stem to place your bars where you want them.

On closer inspection I can actually see the gap. I believe the bike came set up like this from the manufacturer!

New question: what's the best way to clean the gunk off of bars after removing the tape?

I use turpentine.

Fire!

Set a hammer aflame then smash it off.

Are you sure the sprocket is the right way round?

ie, the flat surface facing outwards, and the 'lip' facing the hub?

Yeah that's in order.

An ACID hammer!

Obviously flammable acid should be used to light it.

Won't the plastic spacers you get with external bb's fit and work (between cog and hub)

Where is a good place to get my macbook fixed / serviced? Would like to avoid the apple store.

It is shitty of me to recoil ever so slightly, feel a touch of jealousy, and ask where I went so wrong, whenever I come across media featuring hugely successful/glamourous/rich/famous people I went to school with?

Hmm, feels strangely weird to be on here again.

Ha! A few of whom post on here...:)

Edited...

Is it shitty of me...?

I would say it is very human, and normal of you to compare yourself to others, and to feel inadequate sometimes. These successful rich people probably also feel jealous and inadequate at times themselves, also being human. It is natural to wish to improve your lot, whatever level of success you have achieved. It would be shitty to never aspire to something better than what you have, and it would be shitty to be so smug that you didn't think anyone was worth looking up to.

A bit of jealous bitching can be cathartic, even fun, so long as you don't let it eat you up.

Won't the plastic spacers you get with external bb's fit and work (between cog and hub)

No, plastic will creep under the compression load, very bad idea to have it under the sprocket, and still quite bad to have it between sprocket and lock ring. My sprocket washers are 0.4mm stainless steel, and given what the machinist quoted for making more I'd have to charge £10 each if you wanted one. Somebody like Ison or Wheels Mfg. needs to get on the case and laser cut them by the thousand, then they would be £4.99 for a pack of ten.

what's the best way to clean the gunk off of bars after removing the tape?

D-limonene followed by isopropanol

Degreaser.

True. Wouldn't go so far as bitching though (will leave that to readers' acerbic/malevolent comments underneath the articles) - just some half-baked, tongue-in-cheek moaning. :)

I actually have a lot of admiration for these individuals. Besides, who wants to walk around in skyscraper heels, emblazoned with semi-precious jewels, that cost five times the price of Sidis anyway?

Me.

five times the price of Sidis

You could probably get a genuine diamond-encrusted skyscraper for that much.

Suggestions for a decent 1/8" chain that doesn't stretch so easily and doesn't make a racket.

It is shitty of me to recoil ever so slightly, feel a touch of jealousy, and ask where I went so wrong, whenever I come across media featuring hugely successful/glamourous/rich/famous people I went to school with?

no

kmc z510hx is pretty popular, wipperman something or another is tester's suggestion. I got a wipperman on my track bike and it's not noticeably different from the kmc I had on it before.