Mysterious Slowing Wheel
 

While reinstalling my back wheel I noticed that it wasn't spinning completely freely as a wheel should. I thought it was the brakes that I had just reset since the sound of the rubbing was near there, but even after letting them loose again the friction continues. I don't know where it's coming from. It seems like there is an audible rubbing whenever a certain spot on the wheel rotates past, but there's nothing touching it at all!

I cleaned my drive train recently just by flossing with some rags and degreaser. I only mention that because after staring at the spinning wheel with a confused look on my face for 10 minutes I figure it's got to be some sort of internal resistance that's slowing it down.

Anyway, what should I do? It's not enough resistance that I even notice while riding, but something certainly seems up since the front one spins so freely. Maybe back wheels are always like this and I just never noticed?

Take it to an LBS and have it retrued. Or you can do it yourself if you know how. Check the chainstay to see if the tires rubbing on that, or the wheel could be out of round.

Take the wheel out of the frame and see if it does the same thing off the bike. If so, it's definitely a bearing issue. If not, it could just be excessive clamping force from the quick release.

ive a few ideas but not too sure if it will help. none the less, it might be the degreaser, if it got in the bearings it will ruin the grease and u will get lots of friction which is bad. it also may be the pressure on the spinning system due to excess pressure on the quick release. they arent meant to be that tight , just so u know. or the third option is uve a minor buckle and the tire is rubbing of one of the chain stays up by the front derailleur area. check these out. take the wheel off and spin it see if there is any friction, if there is its the bearings that are the issue. best of luck

Its called..... FRICTION...

Oh right, you knew that already.. get it checked out by the LBS. Probably the hub gone bad. Have em take it apart, clean it, and reassemble it.

Does the rubbing sound disappear when turning the cranks? If so, it could be the biggest cog is rubbing against the plastic dork disk which could be busted or dislodged.

I second the vote for checking the chainguard disc. I've had numbers of those silly things come loose or get tweaked, and they do cause that annoying rubbing sound.

If it's bad, you can either pull the cassette or just break it out with some needle-nose pliers.

if you have a rubber seal and were messing with hub adjustment, check to see if the seal is seated properly.

I made a video so we could all be on the same page. I've looked all over and can't find any source of friction, other than the possibility of internal friction, which I wouldn't understand since I never messed with the hub or anything like that. I can't tell if I've just spent too much time tuning it recently and am being paranoid or if this really is something I can fix. Is there something wrong, or are rear wheels just impeded a bit from the cassette and clickity clicks?

Mysterious Slowing Wheel.

Is this wrong too? Again, I don't know if it's just because I'm paying too much attention to every detail or if this really is as wrong as it looks:
http://oregonstate.edu/~chambchr/IMG_1911.jpg
The latch isn't over tight. In fact I loosened it up and that had no effect on this apparent axel bend.

Can't tell if it's an optical issue with the picture, but you're right, that thing does look bent to me.

Looks like the wheel is screwed.

You really need to take this wheel out of the frame to get at what's going on here. WRT the apparently bent axle, remove the quick release entirely and see if that's really what's bent.

Your video, in and of itself, doesn't look unusual at all. Rear hubs always have more friction than front hubs because of their freewheel ratcheting mechanisms (or "clickity clicks", as you put it).