Is there a trade off between lateral play and efficiency?
A. Yes. A radial cartridge bearing is designed to take vertical loads. The balls run in a precision groove (think of a half pipe) that is machined into the inner and outer races. You can remove the play from the bearing by imposing a preload on the inner race (i.e., a threaded adjustment), however, the likelihood of most people is to tighten too much. And the bearings were not designed for that, they were intended to have the balls in contact with the bottom of the groove, not forced to the side of it. Also, when the skewer is tightened, the axle is compressed. This has the same effect as further tightening the adjustment, and the preload on the bearing becomes excessive. This causes unnecessary friction and premature bearing wear. And it’s common. In our system, there is no adjustment. Instead, one of the bearings is mounted in a slip fit bore in the hub. It is backed by a wave spring internal to the hub which imposes a set preload of approximately 5.5 psi on the outer race of the bea
