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How I repaired my Cycling shoes

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How I repaired my Cycling shoes

Old 07-16-15, 01:28 PM
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How I repaired my Cycling shoes

Skip ahead for shorter version

Background:
About a year ago I made up my mind that I wanted to get back into cycling. I found an old Cannondale R600 That was far from perfect but road worthy to see if I was actually going to ride. I still had a lot of smaller stuff (kit, helmet, pump) but needed shoes. I found a pair of Cat-1s that were "carbon sole" road shoes that accepted both 2 and 3 bolt cleats on Ebay with 12 days left in the auction. I entered a starting bit of $10 to make sure I was alerted of updates. A couple days later a local guy was selling some entry level Giros for $30. I jumped at the chance since I knew I liked the fit and the size was dead on. I met him only a few miles away and they were in pretty good shape. I tried them on and the fit was excellent so I bought them. Flash forward and I get an E-mail confirmation that I won the auction. I now have 2 pairs of cycling shoes. I ended up using the Giros with a pair of old Delta Look pedals.

The Cannondale that confirmed I was going to ride

Giros

Cat-1s


Now I have sold my Cannondale, moved from Phoenix, AZ to Charlotte, NC, Bought a new bike and decided to try the SPD 2 bolt cleats. The advantage being better access to walkable shoes and Pedals that have a Psudo-platform pedal on one side. This also means the Giros I was using with their 3 bolt cleat only attachment will not be usable.

I picked up the new bike and had already located a group ride that does 10/25/35 mile increments based out of a local brewery. I show up and everyone is VERY nice (not usually my experience). I don't hear anyone going to do the 10 miler so I assume I will just do the 25. Then a young female, Meghan, shows up who proclaims its her first big ride with clip-less pedals and is very nervous. With it being my first ride in ~4months and used to perfectly flat Arizona, I decide to ride with her. This ended up being a very smart decision. One of the organizers says he will ride with us to show us the way and help initiate us to group riding. He said he is recovering from a "chest cold" but my guess is he is just being nice, which we both appreciated and said so repeatedly. The ride was fun, I was the least physically fit. Meghan, not used to the road bike geometry and lightness of the bike on the road could out climb me but was timid at high speeds and any type of descending. We rode the 10 mile loop with rolling hills of about 550 feet of total climbing.

As I dismount my bike and remove my shoes to have a beer and walk around in socks I notice the damage done. I assume this is because of 3 reasons. 1.) they are not a name brand shoe and may have inferior products used for attaching the shoe 2.) they were bought second hand. For all I know the previous owner had the same issue, repaired them himself and it never came to the surface until I finally used them. 3.) Arizona Heat. Im pretty sure they were in my car or garage for a while and possibly the previous owners. I have seen many items age quite faster because of the temperatures that cars can reach in hot sun especially solvents like glue. I think this is probably the actual reason.

Damage


What do I do: The 10 mile ride went well. My feet feel good so I decide I will try and repair them myself. If not, I will convince the bread winning wife (I'm a recently turned stay-at-home dad with a 7 month old) that I need a new pair. I only paid about $17 with shipping so its worth the gamble. Plus worst case scenario I support a local shop and get some new shoes.


Start here for shorter read

I did some research and found some advice but thought I would post here for others to see how I did it and figure out better ways of repairing them.

The one thread (not bikeforums) had a guy who posted a certain type of Gorilla Glue and claimed to have 5.000 mile on the repair. I found a couple more types of glue that should work, went to the closest store (Lowes) and bought a 2 part syringe of it and a C clamp to hold them tight while curing.

Glue in Question


I simply made sure there was no dirt, mixed part A and B using a small portion at a time, then careful not to make things worse I pulled the upper away from the sole and applied to both the upper and sole as thoroughly but thin as possible. I did scrape off the mixing wooden stick that came with the glue along the outside of the sole leaving a little more then was needed in these areas. I would rather have it come out then have a weak spot for a crack to form. I applied the C clamp to the heel pad and the heel inner sole until the glue started coming out. Then using the same mixing stick I smoothed the remaining glue out. Again I am more of a function of form kinda guy. I left the shoes clamped for 1 hour and let it cure for 36 hours before even touching them.

C-clamp in place



Finished product


It was very easy to do and if it makes the shoes work I see no reason why any one could do it. I could have easily made it look nicer by taping off the heel portion of the upper and heel of the sole but again, function over form. I will see how the glue holds up as it did quite well after another 10 mile look 48 hours after application. I used a 3" C-clamp, I would recommend at least 4" or bigger as the 3" was barely big enough. The glue in question had no noticeable smell to it which was a bonus.
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Old 07-16-15, 01:56 PM
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If it breaks again take them back to Performance Bike.
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Old 07-16-15, 02:30 PM
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That was fun to read. I hope your repair holds. Welcome to Charlotte, I was born and raised here. I'm not a good enough rider to jump into any clubs yet, but I know there are plenty around.
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Old 07-16-15, 04:25 PM
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I've had that happen to a couple pairs of shoes (only modern, clipless shoes, not my vintage slotted-cleat shoes). I just take them down to the cobbler shop downtown and get them fixed. Only costs a few bucks, supports a local business, and they stand behind their work.
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Old 07-16-15, 05:06 PM
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The bike and brew ride at unknown brewery is great. They are nicer then any group ride I've ever seen. Meet at the brewery on Saturday at 2:30 pm with speeds and distances for everyone. Even better is the beer afterwards in air conditioning. They let us put our bikes in the brew room. The girl I mentioned won't be there this Saturday. It would be nice to not be the only 10 mile guy if you want to come or even try the 25 I'm game for a painful Sunday.
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Old 07-16-15, 05:29 PM
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Nice job, I would be very surprised if it doesn't work. I love any job that is as simple as glue and clamps to fix! I probably have 10 different types of glue and just read the label and use whichever one lists the materials I'm gluing. Looks like that product is just a two part epoxy, with the Gorilla marketing behind it. Epoxy would have been the first thing that came to my mind too.

I also have about 30 or so various clamps, so any opportunity to use one, I'm in.
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Old 07-16-15, 06:21 PM
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Good job. The problem with certain adhesives is that they react adversely with the material. I once tried to fix a delaminated (plastic separating from the shell) cycling helmet with contact cement, but the adhesive started reacting and eating away at the shell.

So, whoever wants to use any type of adhesive in repairing a composite material should first make sure the adhesive won't react negatively with the material.
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Old 07-16-15, 06:23 PM
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Shoe Goo. Been using it for many years to fix stuff like this, and much worse, on shoes.
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Old 07-16-15, 07:47 PM
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Originally Posted by jdotconnor
The bike and brew ride at unknown brewery is great. They are nicer then any group ride I've ever seen. Meet at the brewery on Saturday at 2:30 pm with speeds and distances for everyone. Even better is the beer afterwards in air conditioning. They let us put our bikes in the brew room. The girl I mentioned won't be there this Saturday. It would be nice to not be the only 10 mile guy if you want to come or even try the 25 I'm game for a painful Sunday.
Already got tickets to a baseball game in Kannapolis but I would be game for a 10 miler another day, do they meet every Saturday at that time?

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Old 07-16-15, 08:02 PM
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Every Saturday. I do a similar ride during the week too. Usually -7pm. Let me know if you want to come.
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Old 07-17-15, 06:45 AM
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I'm an old, overweight geezer so I don't usually go in for those types of rides, but if it's only 10 miles, and the people are nice I'll give it a try, also Unknown is only about 3 miles from my house. I'll shoot for next weekend. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll send you a PM.

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Old 07-17-15, 02:03 PM
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I've used epoxy on my road shoes as well. The latching mechanism started to separate from the shoe due to some bad stitching, so it bonded it back down. Been holding fine for the last 700 miles.
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Old 07-21-15, 01:51 PM
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I went on my third ride post repair and on returning home I noticed the right heel had started to separate again. It appears that adhesion to the upper was quite good but as it is starting to spread again. I can see whatever is over the carbon portion of the sole, the carbon itself or whatever material is covered in carbon to form said sole does not want to adhere to the gorilla glue. The left is still good. I'm assuming that this is due to the large amount that was smeared around the outside. I did not do this extra smear to the right side nearly as much. Either way I found a local guy selling some Look Keo Classics that I will probably go buy and use with the Giros for now. I can technically still return the SPD/platform pedals as they are from Performance Bike and I have had them only 2 weeks but I'm not a fan of returning stuff that has obviously been used. Thoughts?
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Old 07-21-15, 09:22 PM
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Originally Posted by jdotconnor
I can see whatever is over the carbon portion of the sole, the carbon itself or whatever material is covered in carbon to form said sole does not want to adhere to the gorilla glue.
If the surface was hard and smooth (like a plastic), then it's usually best to abrade the surface with some sandpaper to roughen it and give the glue something to physically grab.
I think the polyurethane Gorilla Glue would have been an excellent choice here as well. That stuff sticks to everything.
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