My good friend Bob is a mechanical engineer for Husqvrna. The other night I asked him which is better for a bicycle crank axle, 11 loose or 9 caged bearings. Without going into a lot of detail, he said, in most applications caged bearings have the advantage. The predictable position of the bearing reduces wear on the race. Because of the loose tolerances and the light load on bicycle crank bearings, it probably doesn't make any difference if the bearings are in a cage or loose. The downward force produced by a rider is 2 times their body weight. Crank bearings can easily handle 5 times the load produced by a 200 pound rider. Lubrication is far more important than bearing type or grade.

Please don't shoot the messenger