Bicycle Mechanics - bottom bracket noise....

ARGH... I JUST bought this bike and it's already giving me problems. So I bought this 2000 Specialized Allez Comp off the internet for a great deal. Bike comes home, I assemble it, and 2 weeks ago I sent it to the LBS for a complete tune up, which includes "Repacking bottom bracket". Being that the weather was still crappy for a long while, the only real riding I got to do was on the trainer there (no BB noise), and during a brief warm spell, when there was plenty of salt and sand on the roads (no BB noise, a little derailleur noise).

Now it has been 1 week since I last touched the bike. When I got off the bike last week, there was a generous amount of salt and sand on the bike, but nothing I felt was worth worrying about.

Now my bike has the ultegra bottom bracket... isn't it true that it's a sealed bearing mechanism? such that I shouldn't need to worry about road grime getting in there? now when I put very minimal pressure on the pedals (largest cog, smallest chainring), i get a loud grinding/creaking noise.

Now.... could it be that the LBS didn't correctly "repack" the BB? Or was it my negligence in not giving the bike a good washdown after my ride? Needless to say the bike is gonna go back to the shop on Sat, but I'm asking you guys whether its likely that the LBS is at fault?

Also, do you think it's ok to continue riding with this noise? My friend wants to ride tomorrow morning, but I won't do it if I'm guaranteed to destroy the bearings.

I think you're right about Ultegra being sealed. I'm guessing if anything, it's not the bottom bracket bearings, but maybe the BB itself squirming inside the frame? Sanity check; does it make the same noise when you stand and pedal? Many BB noises are actually seat-post noises. (A recent BB creak on my bike turned out to be the saddle rails!)

What you are probably hearing is the grinding of the salt and sand on the outside of the BB, between the seals and the crankset, along the spindle. I get that alot this time of year when there is moist sand on the road from sanding. It gets kicked up and goes everywhere on the bike. The area around the outside of the BB has a way of collecting that stuff. It makes noise as the cranks turn around. We don't have salt here, but you do and you NEED to clean you bike after riding in it!

I have to admit I spent a long time thinking my BB was creaking, turns out it was just my new cleats taking about 300 miles to wear in. I would advise cleaning regularly. If its muddy or wet or salty I'd never ride without cleaning it. Once you get in a routine of it, you can do a good clean in ten mins and a thorough one in 15

Shimano cartridge BB unist are sealed and are non-maintainable. You cannot repack them, when they are worn out you junk them a buy a new one.
Solvents such as WD-40 and degreasers, and high-pressure hoses can infiltrate the seals and remove grease.
Check that your pedal bearings are not lose, this can often be interpreted as bb noise, but is a lot easier to fix.

After ruling out noise from saddle rails, seat posts, cleats et all, I guess you would be back at the BB. In wet weather mine would make the sound like two fat people having sex on a metal lawn chair. The BB shell was Cinelli with a cloverleaf cut-out which I thought was a poor design until I compared that shell to the shell of a similiar vintage bike that has no cut-out and was full of rust, just at the point of ruining the threads. The advice that I got was that the sound was metal to metal, and needed either loc tite or grease between the cartridge of the BB and the BB cups, and in my case loc tite on the threads of the cups on both sides. Thread locking compound is on most of the cups of the Shimano BB's when you buy them I understand. When I mentioned that the cut-out seemed to be keeping the shell rust free, but may be contributing to the problem of water and salt getting in, the LBS recommended one of those accordion plastic sleeves to loosely encase the cartridge. Hope this helps, I cannot check it out myself on the road-it's minus 40!

I had a noisy BB cartridge , I thought it was toast but it turned out to be working it self loose on the left side, after tightening the noise went.:)