nortonguy
Finally riding a big boys bike
As much as the average bicycle actually gets ridden, it will not make any difference if the bearing cages are removed. 99% of bicycles sold in the USA since WWII anyway were leisure time toys or toys for children that did not rack up many miles over their entire service life before being thrown in a corner or the city dump. I am just pointing out that leaving a cage out of a ball or roller bearing is not a performance modification in any way, going by how essential bearing manufacturers considered cages in high-performance applications. I have had factory racing motorcycles as used in national and world-championship racing events where their engines use ball and roller bearings, and they always have caged bearings, and the bearings cost over $100 each, sometimes hundreds of dollars each, and the cost is happily paid because sticking loose balls or rollers between the moving parts of the engines would not let them run for more than seconds before turning themselves into scrap metal. For a child or adult collector riding a vintage bicycle a few miles each year don't worry about it though. I just put what I have learned from assembling high-performance racing motorcycle engines into what I do with bicycle parts, which is not necessary, but it is not more effort to leave the cage on a bearing in a coaster hub, it is more effort to remove the cage and fiddle with loose balls during it's assembly.I was thinking more at wear of the small cone, which is replaceable, but not as easily replaced as ball bearings, (i.e., if the cones are not made anymore).
Not sure of the significance of the ball bearings wearing against each other, as compared to the weight “bearing” forces, (those in between the cup and cone).