bearing retainers
 

I have a question for those of you who use caged bearing and loose ball headsets and bottom brackets.

Does removing the bearing retainer, or retainers produce a noticible improvement in smoothness? Is this different for headsets and bottom brackets? In my Campy Record 1 1/8" headset, there are 44 ball bearings. In a Sugino 75 bb, there are 22.

What I'd like to know is if the benefit of even bearing spacing is completely offset by the drag introduced by the bearing cage.

No clue... I have used both, and in a track or road race after half of the race it really doesnt matter... U'll be super tired anyways hehehe... specialy if its a WC, Panamericans or even a National :)

my guess would be that there would be very few people who would be in a position to take advantage of the increase in smootheness, an very many people who would be in a position to take advantage of the increase in convenience when repacking those bearing assemblies.

i dont think retainers are really about spacing or smoothness..
they're about making the assembly process easier

no retainer = loose balls everywhere
BUT
loose bearings = more ballz to support the load, less wear on each ball
also
no retainer might mean a headset is less likely to get indexed from brinneling (the balls wear indentations in the headset cups from riding in a straight line all da time)
plus
removing the retainer and adding ballz from a worn headset with indexed steering can help the problem because the spacing is now switched up

i like to repack loose balls rather than retainers, **** all that convenience ****

if the retainers are in good shape just keep using them. a number of times ive had to tear apart a f'ed up retainer and add a few extra loose balls just to get a bike running, but ive never noticed more smoothness over a good retainer.