thebulls

My bike shoes have a little "port" in the insole right under the ball of my foot, I guess it's so you can replace the cleat attachment plate if you needed to. But the damn thing creates a dent under the ball of my foot, maybe 1/4" deep. Makes my foot hurt if I stand up to ride hills.

Any suggestions for fixing the dent? I was thinking of squirting some hot glue in there, but then it's gonna be hard to fix the plate if I ever needed to.

Maybe I could try and cut a piece of leather to size, if I had a piece of leather sitting around.

celticfrost

Are these shoes new? Sounds irritating enough to return them. If not, sounds like you're on the right track w/ a wad of leather. Maybe styrofoam, pieces of an old t-shirt. Whatever you do, don't use cheese.

Elvish Legion

Wait wait...DONT use a piece of cheese?That explains the problem!

celticfrost

Yep, you learn somethin' everyday, dontcha? Also, never use a piece cheese as barsoap or toilet paper.

cyclintom

Don't you have an innersole in those shoes? If so then you can get some pads from a shoe shop to cut to shape and place over the "dent" and then cover with the innersole.

It you DON'T have innersoles just buy a set of the PROPER sized innersoles and trim them to fit perfectly. There are some really nice gel innersoles for pretty cheap.

TallRider

I had this same issue with a pair of spd-compatible cycling shoes back in the mid-90's. The problem is not because of having the wrong size insoles, it's actually something with teh shoe construction. Basically the manufacturer was lazy. (The nice part about it is that you can change the cleats more easily, long-term.)

What I ended up doing was cutting pieces out of an old leather belt that fit into the hole in the sole. Then my insole was sitting on a level surface. If you ride in rain or mud, you'll need to clean this every so often or the leather will go nasty. But on the whole it was an effective solution. Leather worked well because it was about the right thickness, and is firm (not spongy like an insole) but can flex/compress a bit.

Without filling the hole underneath, any innersoles (including gel) will just sag into that hole. Unless the innersoles have a hard plastic stiffener on their underside, which is rarely the case in the forefoot.

thebulls

Thanks, this is very useful. The comment about the leather rotting makes me think I'll use either duct tape or rubber. My LBS gave me some nice thick pieces of rubber and also suggested using inner tubes. Problem is _not_ the insole, because any insole I've ever seen just sinks into the stupid hole! I will try to avoid using any cheese to plug the hole :-)

TallRider

Use rubber outsole that you tear off an old piece of running shoes, or something. Cut to fit. Btw, I never had a problem with the leather rotting, actually - it was just a theoretical concern.