""some grit in the grease or in the hub and it just got pulverized after a day of riding and now will polish the races.""
I'm a pretty relaxed, undemanding guy. Maybe too much so. However, there are exceptions. Dave B**** taught me to overhaul high quality bearings, and he was a demanding instructor. He's now an anaesthesiologist, if that helps describe his personality.
Bearings were cleaned immaculately. First they were washed thoroughly in the Saf-T-Kleen parts washer (fairly easily duplicated at home). Then they were placed on what I now think of as the "sterile field" -- a perfectly clean, fresh piece of lint-free fabric -- and they were allowed to dry briefly. Grease containers (we usually used Lubriplate) were always handled carefully -- a reasonable amount of grease was taken out, usually using a carefully wiped peanutbutter wrench, placed in a fresh paper cup, and the grease tub was immediately sealed so that it couldn't become contaminated. Hands were wiped off, or even washed, and then the bearings were assembled.
I don't think that any of this took any significant extra time -- it was habit, and it was quickly and easily done, and we all took it for granted. Simple discipline, zen of bicycle maintenance. There was no grit in the grease, and if there was, that tub was marked and set aside, so that it would only be used for stem/seatpost/bolt installation. Grit was not used to polish the races, and if the bearing was gritty following overhaul, the mechanic swore loudly and started the process all over.
It's funny -- as I describe this, it sounds prissy to me, but it absolutely wasn't. It was simply a standard of craftsmanship. Besides, it's much easier, and faster, to work on high-quality bearings than on cheap ones. Adjusting a cheap hub "perfectly" is a challenge, and can take a few tries, but adjusting a Campy hub is cake. (Now we can have an argument about whether hubs should be adjusted a tiny bit loose, and whether or not the compression of of the QR is so great that it actually compresses the cones very slightly. I adjust my hubs a tiny, tiny bit loose.) We just figured that thousand-dollar bikes (1977 dollars, back when a Ben Franklin was a serious amount of cash to have in the pocket, a George Washington bought four DeutschMarks, the Greenback was still king, and the federal deficit...... oops..... sorry..... I'll take that to another list).... we figured that thousand-dollar bikes, whether they belonged to us or to our customers, deserved to be handled correctly and with respect. And besides, as I mentioned, it's a lot easier to adjust good bearings than cheap ones.
Anyway, freshly overhauled bearings shouldn't have grit in them. Grease shouldn't have grit in it. Rags should be clean. Hands should be clean (you wouldn't put fresh white cork tape on a bike, using dirty hands, would you?). These are valuable and precious parts, and it's SO easy to treat them correctly.
Another discussion might cover the subject of tuning/semi-overhauling a complete team's worth of bikes, every night, night after night, through a three-week stage race. I've done it, and let's just say that efficiency was critical. Buckwheat lives, and any lister who knows what I mean by that -- please, drop me a line, and we'll raise a glass in memory of our friend Bill.
<blather off>
Peter Bridge
15000km west of Vicenza (a wild guess)
SD CA USA