Help with my separating mountain bike shoes

[cbuddy005]

New to the site, howdy y'all! OK, that's enough Texan for today.
Anyway, both of my old and very beloved mountain bike shoes are separating between the plastic soles and the body of the shoes. Both of them at the same time--interesting. Anyone out there ever re-glued a favorite piece of footwear back together?
I have a shoe place not too far away, but thinkin' I'd chat a bit with you good folks first.

And as far as I can find Specialized doesn't make anything close to the shoes I am using anymore.

Any advice is appreciated, thanx.

CB

 

[dabac]

I really like Liquisole, for that type of gueing jobs. Has a bit of stretch to it and sticks well to most stuff. Good gap filling capacity too, which can't be said for contact cement.

 

[alfeng]

FWIW. I have an old pair of SHIMANO Road shoes which separated at the heel ... the shoes were well worn at the time ...

I happened to use Tub-and-Tile caulk which itself would probably NOT have been adequate BUT I also used a few short (~1/4") "dry wall screws" to secure the upper to the sole ...

I bought an assortment of short "dry wall screws" from HARBOR FREIGHT specifically for the task.

While the "dry wall screws" are theoretically self tapping, I am pretty sure that I pre-drilled the soles FROM THE INSIDE AFTER PULLING THE MID-SOLE AWAY FROM THE SOLE & THROUGH THE EDGE OF OF THE UPPER ...

The "bugle" head allows the screw head to lay flush against the mid-sole AND the inner sole obviously covers the mid-sole & screw heads ...

If I were to do it again, I would probably use GOOP or SHOE-GOO (which are readily available & which I presume would be as effective as the fore mentionied Liquisole) alone to see if it held without needing to be bolstered with the screws ...

BUT, I would probably continue to use screws in lieu of clamping the upper to the lower while the glue cured.

 

[maydog]

I had a sole of a relatively flexy MTB shoe completely separate during a spin class this winter, I sweat buckets which probably dissolved the glue over time. The instructor suggested shoe-goo or epoxy - neither of which I had used before. I used ample shoe-goo, taped the sole to the shoe for a day and wore the repaired shoe to the very next class. Clamping was unecessary in my case, I tried but it was counterproductive - the clamp has a flat surface that can't really mate the shoe and sole well.

Shoe-goo has exceeded my expectations as a repair product. I have used it to get extra miles out of several sets of my family's shoes. It can also be used to attach magnets to bladed spokes or the crankarm and silence a rattling rear brake cable after those little rubber washers wear out. As others have mentioned it can be used to fill gouges or superficial cuts in tires.

I recently tried epoxy on stiff soled road shoes that were beginning to separate at the ball of the foot and heel. I mixed up the epoxy and knifed it into the gaps. It dries translucent and is not noticeable. They are holding up well after a couple hundred miles.

 

[Pat Stowe]

Take it to the shop, it takes special glue/cement, and correct techniques to do it right. If any layers are polyethelene you have to get the special glue in Europe unless the patents have been long expired and/or the formula has been cracked