Originally Posted by
bobotech
I think as a general rule, loose bearings need to be put into a race minus 1. You don't want bearings to completely fill up a race otherwise there would be too much friction causing problems.
No, loose-ball hubs for example should have as many balls as will fit in the cup without jumbling. Bottom brackets, too. Headsets are different in that they tend to bind and not be smooth unless you remove an extra ball.