Hmm... That's not good.

Well I went for my typical 5 mile after work ride on the Centurion today. About 3 miles in I start hearing "Tick.. Tick.. Tick.. Tick" coming from down by the peddles. The bottom bracket going? I think to myself, sparing as much time to look down as I could. Didn't feel like it. At about 4 miles the noise has evolved into "Viiiip.. Viiiip.. Viiiip.. Viiiip.." What the hell is that? It sounds like when I bent the rear rim on my mountain bike, but there is no increased peddle resistance, not to mention the complete lack of knobbies on the tire. By 4.5 miles "Viiip-Tick.. Viiip-Tick.. Viiip-Tick.. Viiip-Tick.." with the Viiip coming from low and the tick coming from up front. I finally get home and look really close at the bike. The tires, which might be close in age to myself, are coming apart. The threads in the side wall had ripped and were hitting the frame, and thus producing that noise. Tomorrow I need to go past the bike shop on the way home and pick up a new set of tires as well as a few cone wrenches so I can get into those bearings.