Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart

Your theory might be correct in the extreme but the real life of a riding bike suggests that "minor" hub bearing slop is often not even noticed. There are likely many thousands of bikes right now with slightly sloppy hubs and these bikes get to where they are steered well enough to not read of bikes "going out of control".


I have a few sets of Phil hubs with the common radial contact cartridge bearing slop. Even on the tandem the only time I notice it is when servicing the bike.


So the real question might be "how much slop can happen before I notice it when riding?" Andy