Vintage....shoes?
 

I have a pair of Sidi Genius shoes that I bought in '95, and lightly used before putting them away 5 years ago. I just got back into cycling, and ordered nice new pedals (among other things) to spruce up the bike after pulling the cob webs off. When I got my new Look Keo carbon pedals yesterday, I took the old Look cleats off and tried installing the new KEO cleats. Turns out, after 13 years, the Sidi soles don't take the newer style Look cleats. D'oh!

So, I guess I have vintage shoes that are obsolete! Guess I have to order me some modern Sidi shoes after all!

Andy

Have you looked into the availability of adapters? I have some old AXO shoes that required an adapter to use with SPD. I was able to find some with no trouble.

Hmmm. I just assumed Sidi wouldn't make a modern Look adaptor that fits the older shoe. Maybe a call to Sidi is in order!

Thanks for the idea - although I wouldn't dread buying the latest technology in Sidi shoes if no adaptor is available.

Interesting - what does the bolt pattern on your Sidi's look like. My Sidi's/Look pedals are only 4-5 years old and I use the old style red arc cleats. I hadn't heard of any changes in the shoes soles for Keo. Were much older Sidi's different?

Bolt patern is identical to old Looks. Problem is the depth of the screw threads in the shoe adaptor sole. Older Look cleats are thicker than the new Keo cleats, so the new cleat screws don't go deep enough into the shoe to catch the threads. Using longer screws doesn't work because the heads stick out too far, inhibiting the entry into the pedals. The newer Sidi soles have much shallower screw threads.

Know what I mean?

Ok, gotcha. Could you maybe find different screws? IIRC, my old arc cleats used to come with slotted flat head screws and I could never get them tight enough so I tried allen head bolts and ran into the same problem you're having with the heads being too thick. My new cleats come with flathead fasters setup for a 4mm allen wrench so I'm happy. Also I believe the threaded plate is a separate pices that could be swapped if you could find a recent pair of Sidi's that are worn out.

I should take my shoes apart and see what's under the adapter plate. I noticed on Cambria they sell a Look adaptor for Sidi shoes. Not sure if that's the new shallower threading, or if it will even fit my old shoes. I could also try to find screws that are slightly longer than the Look screws. Are they 4MM threads, or was that the allen head size?

It would be fun to get away with a few new screws for $1 instead of spending $180 on new shoes!

They should be M5, your LBS should have something for you. We definitely have different length cleat bolts and most bike shop should be able to figure something out.

Vintage shoes? I have a pair of Nike bike shoes made for toe clips. Bought them at a garage sale in '91. Pre-clipless pedal days.

No offers on them yet. Better list them as fixie-racing shoes

Ha! I remember shoes like that! Vintage lover or not, I am so glad I don't have to deal with Cristoph toe clips or Binda straps anymore! Click, done!

On my shoe screw dilemma, I do have the original Sidi screws that came with the shoes. They are longer than the new Look screws - but as long as they don't poke through to the inside of the shoes, I might be able to use them?

My shoes are in great shape, but I may be delaying the inevitable new Genius 5 purchase anyway. I could use a 44.5 instead of my 44. I think my foot grew (arch changing shape) in the past 14 years!

Flying Merkel, tell me about your shoes, pm is jsut fine. I need a backup for my old Adidas.

Road Fan