----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Williams" <8pbw@qsilver.queensu.ca>
>
> Here's another basic question - the bearings are in clips - do I abandon
> those and go loose?
>
I use the retainers. I am a believer that one of the "tricks" to Campy's bearing smoothness is the "matched set" concept. If you remove the retainers and add more bearings, those added won't be matched to that set, even if the overall grade is equal.
Additionally, I've heard that the retainers help the bearing sets roll smoother since they maintain roughly equivalent spacing between the balls (although there is still a little jiggle room). With a loose packing, the balls can crowd together and shift. This allows them to actually rub against each other when they roll, as well as allow non-symmetrical support between the races. This certainly sounds like grasping at straws, but I've experimented and the retainer-filled systems do seem to feel smoother than if I pack the same item loose.
The only time I use a loose pack is when I want to nurse more life from a lightly pitted HS. The loose packing makes the number of balls not match the number of pits, so the "indexing" effect isn't as apparent.
Jon Schaer
Columbus, OH