Broken Shoe!

[Ti-Boy]

I seemed to have stripped the thread in the cleat mounting hole on my Nike shoes. Can this be fixed? I'm faced with the prospect of doing back to back 130 milers this weekend with brand new shoes and I can already feel the break in pain.

[Doc Austin]

I'm not sure I'de trust a repair on a ride that long. I'de hate to be miles from nowhere and have a cleat pull out of my shoe, or worse fail in a sprint and cause me to wipe out.

This probably isn't the answer you're looking for but when I bought my sidi Genius shoes I never had the first bit of discomfort from them at all......ever. They are, next to my setottas, the best money I ever spent cycling. I think you might get away with buying a pair and just riding.

[Bruce Jacobs]

By the time you have ridden your miles the shoes will be broken in. For I guy who has two of everything, how come no shoes? :crap:

[Kevan]

SPD-style you might be in luck (the metal guts on most replaceable). Look-style you're likely sunk. Pull up the soul padding and take a peek.

Good thing with bike shoes is there is very little break-in. The shoe isn't really designed to stretch or mold. The sole is a rock and the tops more often than not are synthetic materials meant to not stretch over time. Okay, some of the padding might soften back by the heel, but that's about it.

If the shoe doesn't feel perfect out of the box, don't buy it. You want as close to a bedroom slipper feel as you can get.

[Too Tall]

Just a hunch and two possible solutions...one real the other classic hillbilly.

The stripped portion should be a standard "T" bolt which you can get at a good hardware store. *IF you can pry up the insole to get at this bolt than you can fix it....if NIKE has buried it so well that this is impossible well you can't.

The Hillbilly fix is to use RED locktite. Use a q tip to clean the threads nice before doing this...it'll prolly work.

[Ti-Boy]

Thanks for the help.

Mr. Jacobs- I do have a brand new pair of Nikes that have been sitting in my office for 3 weeks because I was too lazy to put cleats on. Missed my opportunity to do short "break in" rides this week. We'll now the cleats are mounted on the new shoes. Given the rain predicted for Saturday am, I was hoping to use the old shoes.

[Bruce Jacobs]

But I can't resist. :banana:

[Ti-Boy]

Ron at the LBS is the man. Pryed up the sole, dug out the old 3 hole plate, cut some t-bolts and shoe is good to go. Thanks for the advice. I was just going to trash the shoes.

[Too Tall]

Well done laddy :)

[Ti-Boy]

Owe it to you Too Tall. You put the thought in my head. The inner sole was glued down to the extreme. I didn't have the guts to play hard with it. Ron took it as a personal challange.