Originally Posted by HillRider

That's very interesting and I'd also like to see the source of this information. A Campyphile poster on another froum used to insist Campy used Grade 10 (or was it Grade 5 or maybe even Grade 3...) bearing balls and "hand matched" each and every set and they had to be used as a complete set. I was always suspicious of this claim and would like to know the truth.

Originally Posted by FBinNY

It would be somewhat interesting to know, and certainly to debunk the hand matched nonsense, but does it really matter. As long as I was in the bike industry people always asked about what stuff was, rather than what it did. When I made cone wrenches and freewheel removers, I got all sorts of inquiries about the material they were made from. My answer was always that it didn't matter why or how a product did it's job and lasted, as long as it did both well.

I use the phrase " the proof of the pudding is in the eating" on the Chain-L site, and I used it years ago when selling tools, because I believe that that's the only issue a user needs to concern himself with. If I go to a restaurant where the food is consistently excellent, I don't query the chef about his recipes.

Back to Campy, given the extremely long service life of their bearings I don't need to know what grade balls they use, I already know that it's plenty good enough for the job.