Hi I bought my first "real" bike towards the end of last summer, and then I was sick and off the bike for about 4 months. When I bought it, I had put about 200 miles on it and noticed the crank arms were loose, so I took it back to the LBS that i had bought it (07 CAAD 9 Ultegra) from and htey said the bottom bracket had failed.

Ok, not good but its under warranty, so i leave it there. When I go to pick it up they said that something had stripped out in the bottom bracket and they chased it and its all better now. I check the arms and they no longer have play so i figure its good to go. Today I was cleaning the bike and i noticed that the crank arms feel a little bit tight. If you give it a push it will only "freewheel" maybe a 1/4 revolution. I went outisde and checked my dad's bike (GIANT hybrid) and his crank spins MUCH smoother.

Sorry for the terrible description. Does something sound wrong here or am i just looking for problems?

My Park Tools class doesn't start for 3 weeks! doh!

If you are concerned bring it back while you still have warranty. If it is different than when you bought it they should fix it. There is no reason for a BB to go bad in 200 miles. Roger

I recently replaced an old cup type BB with a cartridge type. There is noticeably more drag, but it's really not THAT much.
You said your dad's bike spins SMOOTHER. Do you mean EASIER or SMOOTHER? IF just easier, I'd expect yours will "loosen up" a bit with some use. IF it actually feels ROUGHER, than I'd be back to the LBS.

there are two causes for this on an outboard bearing set.

a) they have overtightened the preload assembly and have introduced some side load onto the bearings. the result is they don't spin smooth. given it's like this after you've had it worked on, its a good chance this is the issue.

to fix you undo the pinch bolts, undo the preload cap, reseat the crank axle redo the preload cap (only just past finger tight!). after you've tightened the preload cap spin the cranks to see they are running smooth. if they are, then redo the pinch bolts.

b) the faces on the bottom bracket shell are not parallel and need to be faced. if they are out of alignment with each other the spindle wont pass straight through the bb cups. usually when you are pushing the axle through if the bb isn't perfect it's fairly obvious cause you'll have to force it a bit. again this results on incorrect load on the bb and some binding.

ultimately however, 'spinning' an unloaded crank doesn't tell you very much about what the bearings are doing when they are under load. so maybe there is simply no problem at all.

--brett