Originally Posted by
gregaz
Yes, the bearings are caged. I am going to go ahead and replace them to be sure.
Thank you for the good advice on tight vs. loose. Unfortunately my only reference at the time was the Sheldon Brown article, and he clearly states that they should spin freely.
Before you go buy anything, just check to see if the cages are in backwards. If you do buy new loose bearings, just pop the olds ones out of the cages and put the new ones in the cages.