Repairing a vintage cycling shoe

[GuyGadois]

I am starting to gather my vintage stuff together to participate in my first l'Eroica (in Paso Robles, CA) in a few months. I'll be rockin' my mid 70's Bertin with Campy NR. I don't really look forward to having to wear toe clips and vintage shoes but I game for the ride. I got out my trusty old Marerssi shoes I raced and loved for a good part of a decade and notice that time has been cruel. The plastic bottoms have started to peel away from the leather uppers starting at the heal. What is the best way to reattach this? Unfortunately I am not aware of any cobblers left in my town :mad:.

GG

[Scuzzer]

I'd try Barge cement. If that doesn't work then you can get a really nice pair of vintage shoes for next to nothing off ebay, especially if you've got smaller feet. I've got a vintage shoe buying problem but luckily there aren't a lot of interesting size 46 ones on ebay.

[11.4]

Call Don Lawson at D2. If he can't tell you how to do it yourself he may be willing to take them and do a good fix on them.

As you probably remember, mounting cleats on classic shoes was always a pain -- small nails or sheet metal screws or pop rivets or whatever you used, they always wanted to pull loose. Plastic soles were worse than the old DP leather ones or the Duegi wood ones because the plastic didn't hold nails as well and weren't stiff enough just to conform passively to the cleats. Don might be willing to put a modern sole on the shoes -- one that can still mount a slotted cleat but with sliding bolts or something like that. There are lots of slotted cleat systems from MKS and others that work this way. They still meet the needs of Eroica but work better than what you have now.

If you really want the whole shebang in the original form, you can definitely find lots of NOS shoes around and then you might still have Don work on them. He's a great guy and this is just the kind of project that piques his interest.

[GuyGadois]

I'd try Barge cement. If that doesn't work then you can get a really nice pair of vintage shoes for next to nothing off ebay, especially if you've got smaller feet. I've got a vintage shoe buying problem but luckily there aren't a lot of interesting size 46 ones on ebay.

Yep, same size as you and there aren't a lot of shoes that are interesting. Here's what I am on the lookout for. I have the all black version.

http://www.fototime.com/86000CB3E87FD8D/standard.jpg

[ultraman6970]

Remember when every neighborhood had a good shoemaker where to take stuff like this to get fixed.

[Scuzzer]

Here's what I am on the lookout for.

Those are really cool and I'm guessing they'd be rather expensive if you did find them in a 46.

[bart998]

I brought my 1980 Vittorias into a cobbler a few years ago to have new heal/toe plates nailed on.... the cobbler was an old Italian guy and got really excited to see "good" shoes again. Sadly, I went by the shop a few weeks ago and it was closed.

[unterhausen]

we have a shoe repairman here in town still, don't assume they don't exist. I am not sure they would ever fix glued together shoes though, you might want to try shoe goo

[oldpotatoe]

I am starting to gather my vintage stuff together to participate in my first l'Eroica (in Paso Robles, CA) in a few months. I'll be rockin' my mid 70's Bertin with Campy NR. I don't really look forward to having to wear toe clips and vintage shoes but I game for the ride. I got out my trusty old Marerssi shoes I raced and loved for a good part of a decade and notice that time has been cruel. The plastic bottoms have started to peel away from the leather uppers starting at the heal. What is the best way to reattach this? Unfortunately I am not aware of any cobblers left in my town :mad:.

GG

SLO? San Luis Obispo?

http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=shoerepair&find_loc=San+Luis+Obispo%2C+CA

[rrudoff]

If you are willing to ship the shoes up to the Bay Area, you might try European Cobblery in Palo Alto. They are quite good and have fixed a lot of shoes for my wife and I over the years. Address: 410 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone:(650) 323-0409

I have some Maressi Cross shoes I wore in the L'Eroica this year, I was actually glad not to have cleats as at least for me, there was a fair amount of walking. I would be a bit worried about the plastic soles holding up, I have had them crack on vintage shoes in the past.
http://www.europeancobblery.com/home.php

[Llewellyn]

Cool looking shoes, they deserve a :banana:

[Louis]

On this sort of ride does one actually have to use old shoes, or shoes with the appropriate styling for the era? If it's the later, then I would get some Maillard pedals with toe-clips (or similar), and a modern re-creation of the original lace-up cycling shoes with the old-style cleat design (there are several out there) and make sure they all play well together with my feet.

[zennmotion]

I am starting to gather my vintage stuff together to participate in my first l'Eroica (in Paso Robles, CA) in a few months. I'll be rockin' my mid 70's Bertin with Campy NR. I don't really look forward to having to wear toe clips and vintage shoes but I game for the ride. I got out my trusty old Marerssi shoes I raced and loved for a good part of a decade and notice that time has been cruel. The plastic bottoms have started to peel away from the leather uppers starting at the heal. What is the best way to reattach this? Unfortunately I am not aware of any cobblers left in my town :mad:.

GG


I would trust these guys in my home town with a project like this. If Bedo's can't do it nobody can. http://www.leatherrepair.com I'm not sure if they work by mail or not, and they're not cheap but they are the real deal.
If you want or need an "agent" I would be happy to have you ship the shoes to me and I can drop them off just down the street and ship them back to you. Cause it's the new year, and I'm gonna be a better person...