Bearings

[Skipper]

I serviced my hybrid rear wheel the other day, i.e. hub to pieces, bearings out, good wipe round, fresh grease, back together again ..... runs smooth as anything now. Only trouble was that I had one bearing still left on the bench? Since the wheel seemed OK, I couldn't be bothered to take it all apart again to find out where it was missing from. I was sure I'd fitted them all back again, but it was tricky to see with so much fresh white grease in place. It turns out that one side is short and only has 8 instead of 9 (I happen to have an identical 'spare' wheel, and checked to see). I'll re-fit the bearing eventually, but how bad will this be for the bike? i.e, 8 instead of 9 bearings?

 

[accountantpete]

The optimal setting is to run a full race of bearings less 1.

Check the spare wheel and see if they were built using a full race of bearings (ie no gap between the bearings).

If so the missing bearing won't have a big effect.

If there is a full race less 2 I would have thought that there would be play in the wheel and would re-fit the bearing as soon as possible.