The bike is a few years old and has an Ultegra crank w/external bearing cups on the bottom bracket. I heard some clicking noises that occurred in the same spot on a revolution of the crank. It seemed to be coming from the bottom bracket. I suspected a bearing problem, so I tried to remove the cups. Problem is they won't budge and I'm pretty strong. This doesn't seem normal. The crank also turns with more resistance than it should. It doesn't make any clicking noises without any load, but I suspected it wouldn't. Since the crank is not moving as freely as it should, I suspect than maybe the threads in the bottom bracket are not clean and the cups are turned too tight, or the threads not in straight and it's binding on the axel. Can someone tell me if these bearing cups are normally difficult to remove? Dare I put a pipe over the end of the wrench to get more torque on the cups?

English bb's have a lht and rht side. Make sure that you aren't trying to turn them in the wrong direction. I've never had any external bottom brackets need cheater bars. They usually come off easy compared to standard bottom brackets.

These actually have arrows on them for tightening, so I'm sure I turning the correct way. I have a feeling the threads are not clean and/or straight.

Assuming you are using the right wrench and turning the right direction, they should break free pretty easily.

The shaft on the crankset needs to be well greased where it contacts the bearing cups or you will get clicking.

I have the right wrench and they are definitely not breaking free. My question is, would it be safe to use a cheater bar or would a bike shop have a better method of getting these off? I can put an lot of stress on the frame, even without the cheater bar. I don't want to break anything, but if a shop is going to do the same thing, then I'll do it.

If you have the spanner type wrench (one that is "C" shaped and doesn't encircle the entire bearing cup), I'd not use a cheater bar on it. If you have the type that fully encloses the bearing cup, I'd make sure I was turning the correct direction and use a cheater bar with opposing pressure being on the down tube or seat tube. Not really anything a shop would be able to do differently.

I have a Park Tool that fully encompasses the cup. I used the cheater bar and got it off. The threads were tight the whole way off. It appears that I'll have to have the threads chased at the very least.

To update the thread for others who may have a similar problem: The threads of the bottom bracket cups were messed up, not the threads of the shell. I cleaned them up and filed off some metal shavings that shouldn't have been there and re-installed it. CaCycling had it right. The clicking was from grit that got between the crank and the bearing cups. Once cleaned and re-greased, it now works as it should. Thanks for the help.