I just recently picked up cycling and am by no means accomplished in the practice of bike mechanics, but today I decided to attempt to give my bike a tune up. Everything was going swimmingly, that is, until I reassembled and remounted my front wheel. For no apparent reason, with every rotation of the wheel the tire would sway about half an inch to either side; or, enough that it alternated between scraping each brake pad without coaxing. After about ten minutes of staring at this scene in a state of puzzled frustration, I said f*** it, took the wheel apart again, and shook out all of the ball bearings. After a quick inventory I discovered that there were only 19 bearings in the wheel. Now, as I said I'm no bike mechanic, but it just seemed like there should be an even number of ball bearings, which either meant that A. My bike was defective from the beginning or B. I'm an idiot and lost a bearing during the tune up process. My tendency was towards B so I scanned my entire workspace, and, after several more minutes of frustration, came to the conclusion that the bearing must have fallen down the drain in the floor. So, in a moment of panic, I quickly disassembled the wheel on an old, $90 Mongoose MTB in my garage, stole a bearing, and jammed it into the wheel on my road bike before I could convince myself not to. Now, all that being said, my front wheel runs better now than it did before, so I ask you: was it sheer genius or incredible beginner's luck?