Originally Posted by UG_Passat
It is valuable information to the pro-peloton. The riders often get brand new bikes, fresh from the factory, where their mechanics assemble them at the day before the race. There is no break-in time for bearings for riders go on their 1st stage with the bike.
Much of the bicycle hub bearings don't need adjustment, as there is no adjustment built in, with the exception of notably Shimano, who still uses loose bearings. I have always found in all of my Specialized bikes, the hub bearings have more drag on them, so they don't coast as well, which is why I have aftermarket wheels on my Mountain bike (Stan's Arch EX with SRAM X.7 hubs) and road bike (Mavic Ksyrium Elite, which have preload adjustment, which I never touched in 6 years). The preload adjustment is just for play in the hub. Too much preload, then yes, it restricts the bearings from rolling over the cones.
Road riders seek to find efficiencies where ever they can down to the bearings, to tires, though some of the old guard still insist on 22-23mm tires.
What do pro-riders have to do with this? The rules of road cycling are modeled off of pro riders.
Well - what I remember about the CR reviews on these bikes was that this was in the late 80s before non-adjustable cartridge bearings kind of took off. My first hub with cartridge bearings was a 28 hole Mavic (I don't believe they sell hubs any more that aren't part of complete wheel) that I never ended up building. Now I did build my own wheel out of a 32-hole Record hub and MA2 rims, but that was for recreational riding. That hub was beautiful, but had the worst dust cap design in history. It required a special tool to remove. It could always be pried open with a screwdriver, but since it was aluminum it wasn't such a great idea. It require this tool, which served no other purpose than to remove dust caps from a hub made for only 3 years.
However, the CR review was for consumer-grade entry-level bikes and it wasn't like they came with Dura-Ace or Record hubs. I read something about their methodology, which was extremely crude and not likely to produce repeatable outcomes. There was just way too much of the human element in just allowing a bike to coast with a human rider to accurately measure. Also - the heavier bikes obviously came out better in this test, even though more weight is obviously not considered a benefit. I recall their top rating went to Lotus, which was a brand that I couldn't find at any local bike shop.
I've dealt with cup and cone bearings. I've rebuilt a few myself, and even threw away wheels after a lack of adjustment meant the cones were severely pitted. Every bike shop I remember at the time would do tune-ups where a bearing adjustment was part of the service.