That damned bike bearing
...is still making noise. It's not overtight, it's properly lubricated, and three different professional bike mechanics have said that the cones and hubshells look completely fine. I get the feeling that trying to troubleshoot this issue piecemeal would be a fool's errand. I've already put in new bearings. The noises seem to happen in time with wheel rotation, indicating that it's not the cones, but rather the hubshells that are somehow messed up. There's just no economically reasonable way to replace those-when they get messed up, the cheapest option that doesn't involve me lacing spokes and truing shit is to just buy a new built wheel. They don't even really make seven-speed freehub bodies anymore, so I'll just get a new 8-speed built wheel and a spacer, slap my existing cassette on there and go. And bonus: the damaged spoke replacement and wheel-truing I need to have done on that rear anyway? OBVIATED!!!