"normal"??? Common, yes. I went back and reread some of this thread and see that the rim play amount is about .5mm. This isn't too much at all. By the way I was reading before, I had the impression the play was much more. Southerland's manual has a good explanation of radial contact cartridge bearings. I've attached scans of this but suspect the text is too small to read. Basically says these bearings want and need a small free play during running.

One more pet point that I'll mention. There's a trend to use smaller and smaller bearings in bike parts. Lighter weight and smaller dimensions (think integrated headsets and tiny hubs) are positive goals. But the load capacity of the rolling element is the number and the diameter of the balls. Ball count is linear. 10 balls of the same diameter make for twice the load capacity as 5 balls do. The diameter, however, increases a ball's load geometrically with increasing diameter. So if those 5 balls were twice the diameter as the 10 were the bearing would have twice the load capacity. When you open up a modern bike cartridge bearing and look at the ball diameter then do the same for "traditional" cup and cone you'll see that the cartridge bearing almost always has the smaller balls. Then subtract the ball count because the radial cartridge bearing rarely has a full compliment of balls because of assembly issues (unless much expense is taken). No doubt some will have "fast" bearing wear. It's easy to see that the bearings that come in many new designs have been picked despite the lifespan limits. Andy.