Scraping noise coming from rear wheel when moving in neutral

Was moving my bike in neutral today just to reposition it and I heard this scraping that seems to be coming from my rear wheel. Maybe even a bit from my front. I also feel a bit of drag. It sounds like the brakes are locked and they're scraping my disc. I recently got this bike (99' Ninja 250) but I don't remember this sound at all when I took it out to ride a few times when the weather was nicer a few weeks ago, and I think I definitely would have noticed it.

I read that it might be caused by cold fluid. It's around ~2 or 3 degrees out right now so I don't know if that could be the cause or not, but the bike has been covered outside so it was definitely on the cold side. I've given both brakes a good squeeze to try to reset them or something but I still get this grinding or scraping noise happening when I move it.

I put my bike on the centre stand and spun the back wheel, and sure enough the sound happens and the wheel does not spin freely, as in it doesn't keep spinning after I stop rotating it (I don't know if it's supposed to, but I would guess so?). Haven't tried the front wheel though.

I've confirmed the bike is in neutral by the way because that will probably be the first comment

Rust on the brake pads/disks? Can happen overnight. Park it after a bit of moisture and the next morning it could be locked up a bit. Clears up after the first application of the brakes. If it continues after, then could be something else.

A bit of noise from the pads rubbing on the rotors isn't out of the ordinary...you just don't usually hear it with the bike running vs pushing it around by hand.

As for the rear wheel spinning freely, again, neutral or not, there's enough drag in the drivetrain that it'll never spin "freely" more than a brief few seconds, if that.

Your best bet to confirm if a brake is actually dragging or not is to take the bike out for a few minutes ride at speed without touching the suspect brake at all, so in your case use only the front brake, then stop and feel the rear rotor. If it's still basically cold, it's not dragging. If it is dragging, well...the rotor will be warm or hot.

There is rust on the disks so that definitely could be it, I had to drag it around in neutral quote a lot to move it so I thought it would have scraped off the rust that was causing the sounds. Nothing like riding it though, just moving it a few dozen feet.

I'll do that PilotPilot suggested next time I take it out for a ride (hopefully if the weather is nice in the next few days). If the brake is dragging, what can I do about that? Thanks for the suggestions

If the brake is dragging it's probably a sticky caliper and will require servicing accordingly.

1. Post a picture of the chain / sprocket, let us see its condition.
2. That '99 250 has a centre stand - if its still on the bike you can roll the wheel back and forth to see pin point the noise.

In the event you cannot find it - there are a lot of forum members who would help you find the sound.

Sorry for the late update, but the problem is solved now. I checked on the bike after a month to find that the front brakes were dragging now too, even more than the front (even hard to rotate by hand). Took Riceburner's suggestion and everything seemed to clear up after one ride. Wheels both spin freely when on the centre stand now. Thanks for all the help!