I’m servicing the bearings in my Shimano WH-M775 wheelset. The tech document:

Shimano Tech Doc

Shows some sort of caged bearing, “item 5: Ball retainer (3/16)”

Can I just replace this with lose 3/16inch ball bearings? Or do I have to get one of the caged bearings?

thanks Jai

anyone?

can’t see any reason why they need to be caged, other than ease of assembly, but you will need a few more bearings to take up the space of the missing cage.

cool thought so. I assume the same method as headset bearings applies? ie Fill up the cup and take a couple out.

thanks Jai

Just remember XT uses/requires Grade 25 bearings. Not Grade 100. And certainly not the Grade 1000 rubbish sold at most LBS.