Angular2 testing logic before .subscribe - unit-testing

Question

I am currently writing unit tests for one of my components. In particular, I have login(): void function. Here's the simplified logic:
login(): void {
this.showSpinner = true;
this.userService.login(loginData)
.subscribe(result => {
this.showSpinner = false;
}
)
}
I am struggling to write a test that checks that showSpinner property gets set to true before calling the userService.login.
Here's my test:
it('should display the spinner when the form is being saved',
inject([TestComponentBuilder], fakeAsync((tcb: any) => {
createComponent(tcb).then((fixture:ComponentFixture<any>) => {
fixture.componentInstance.login();
expect(fixture.componentInstance.showSpinner).toBe(true);
tick();
});
})));
});
And this test fails, because .subscribe gets resolved / run immediately (i tried commenting out this.showSpinner = false in my component, and the test passed).
In my userService mock, I have the following, for the login method mock:
this.loginSpy = this.spy('login').andReturn(Observable.of(this));
Where this is mockUserService.
I am confident that I am mocking userService and specifically the login method on the userService correctly, as I have other tests for this component that behave correctly.
I have also tried returning Observable.of(this).delay(1) from my spy and then calling tick(1) in my test. However that results in inconsistent behaviour in that sometimes my tests pass, but other times i get an error saying:
Error: 1 periodic timer(s) still in the queue.
How can I test the logic that precedes .subscribe()?

Answer 1

After more consideration I have realized that my current code does not abide by the single responsibility principle. This thought came from the fact that everyone is always repeating that you should "Refactor hard to test code".
With that in mind, I have moved all the logic that needed to be done before the call to userService.login is being made - into its own separate function. Which essentially results in:
login():void {
this.userService.login(this.loginData)
.subscribe(result => {
this.showSpinner = false;
});
}
formSubmit(): void {
this.showSpinner = true;
this.login();
}
This logic is now much easier to test.
HOWEVER we need to remember to add a spy on our login() method when we are testing formSubmit(), as if we don't, formSubmit() will simply make a call to login(), which will again complete synchronously and we will have the same problem. So my new and final test for this feature is:
it('should display the spinner when the form is being saved',
inject([TestComponentBuilder], fakeAsync((tcb: any) => {
createComponent(tcb).then((fixture:ComponentFixture<any>) => {
var loginSpy = spyOn(fixture.componentInstance, 'login');
fixture.componentInstance.formSubmit();
expect(fixture.componentInstance.showSpinner).toBe(true);
});
})));
});