ChrisAlbertson

Not quite "Bicycle Mechanics" but just today I lifted my foot and my foot went up but the cleat and sole of the shoe stuck on the pedal.

So the question is -- what kind of glue would you use to repair this?

I was only about 12 miles from home when this happened. I must have been riding with the broken shoe for a while then I came to a stop to wait from traffic and tried to un-clip the cleat and fell over because my foot-twist did not release the cleat. I had to take my foot out of the shoe

AnkleWork

Something like:
https://www.shoeforums.net/shoe-cobblers/

delbiker1 

Shoe Goop. I have used it for many things, including re-gluing soles.

August West

I've had really good success with Shoe-Goo for minor repairs on sneakers but nothing with the extent of the damage you have. Since it is a cycling shoe and doesn't flex much you could also probably use something like JB Weld.

kaos joe

"E6000" craft adhesive. I've used it on heavy duty hiking boots and my winter MTB shoes, which suffered exactly the same failure. Smells bad but bonds really well.

Miele Man

When the soles came off of my Louis Garneau shoes I used Gorilla Glue to put them back on.




Cheers

Novalite

Considering the rather big quantities needed, I find those glues expensive for the job. Cheaper ones tend to be not water and not uv resistent. A sole that losens like the one of the topic must have been glued with crap (for these materials/conditions). The size of the surfaces also matter alot, some shoe soles are thick but the thickness is just along vertical framing, that has very little horizontal profile to glue, and most of the time the glue is only applied around the edge, meaning any begin of losening is quickly followed by a complete come off.
And then polyurethane, it's ofted much hyped, but so far all I've seen made from it, was plain crap. Check the web for reports of shoe soles desintegrating just like cake, without ever been used, just stored. I've seen it for real. Reason is similar to crap glue: required additives not there to cut the cost.

dsaul

This stuff worked great to fix the sole of my hiking shoes after Shoe Goo failed. https://www.amazon.com/Insta-Cure-Fi.../dp/B0000DD1QQ

JohnDThompson 

I had that happen to a shoe once; tore the sole entirely off the upper when jamming up a hill. It was a long ride home. I took the shoe to a local cobbler and they re-attached the sole. Cost less than $15 and has been fine since.

CadenceCrazy

Shoe Goo has also worked for me but, as others have shown, you have to clamp the sole to the shoe rather tightly. Don't clamp it so tight that you squeeze all of the adhesive out; I've made that mistake.

_ForceD_

Also if you have a hot glue gun...I've used that for identical cycling shoe repairs.

Dan

woodcraft

Barge contact cement- the classic.

sch

Fixing this is a piece of cake for a shoe repair store. They use the right glues and have the appropriately shaped press to clamp the shoe
together. Before any DIY attempt you need to assess how well you can clamp the sole/shoe together. You need pressure on the center
and the edges with complete approximation of the edges for best results. Cyanoacrylates are particularly sensitive to clamping, ie they
cure fast enough that getting the clamps fixed may be a problem. They are also marginal on gap fill. Shoe goo type glues are slow to cure
and very good on gap fill but there better not be any loose particulates in there ("dirt") and squeeze out cleanup should be necessary,
ie for sporadic users more goo is better than not enough. Shoe repair stores use super sticky contact cement putting on several thin
layers and letting them dry and then use shaped and padded compressed air operated clamps to fasten them together. They have no
problem with squeeze out. From shoe repair shop pov, it is better to complete the sole tear off, clean up the result and glue the whole
sole back on in one op. Us DIYers want to just glue it back together, which means that final distant crack where the sole is still attached
may not be glued as well.

63rickert

Shoes are expensive. Nicely broken in shoes that you already like are worth more than new shoes. No reason to make this DIY. Take to cobbler. I've had this job done many times by multiple cobblers. They always get it right and usually better than new. Best price was free. High price was 25 to re-glue the broken one plus take the other shoe, separate the fully attached sole, and do it over with fresh glue.

Why do people here want to do everything themselves? I have a friend who really seriously is omni-competent. He designed the waterworks for the city I am sitting in. First time he built a guitar in his garage it was a concert quality instrument. He can repair an espresso machine, a printer, a digital camera or a Leica. He uses the LBS for his bike. He uses a cobbler for his shoes.

Miele Man

One reason why people might decide to fix a shoe themselves is because there isn't a cobbler near them. ANother reason and the reson i did my own shoe repair wast that my shoes were ready to use the next day and I had repaired them with materials that I had on hand. It's also a nice skill to have in case your shoe comes apart on a long ride. I had that happen with the Louis Garneau shoe that the sole came off of except at the very end of the heel area where there were tow screws/bolts holding the sole on. Fortunately I had a toe-strap holding my jacket under the saddle and I used that toe-strap to hold the front of the sole to the shoe for the rest of the ride.

In retrospect it seems that some shoes supposedly made for use with clipless pedals aren't that well made.

Cheers

Litespeedlouie

I also used Gorilla glue on a pair of Giro Carbides. They are old and I had nothing to lose, and so far, so good (several months of winter commuting). I figured the glue was waterproof, very sticky, would fill the voids, and wouldn't need to flex much due to the stiff sole.

The original glue looked like a die cut double sided sticky shaped like the sole, perhaps heat cured. They did last 7 years and were a budget shoe ($80).

I cleaned out most of the dirt, moistened the surfaces with a sprayer (Gorilla is moisture activated), and gooshed a bunch of the glue in. It foams and expands a bit, so be prepared to block off any holes such as for cleats, with tape, including inside the insole. Wipe off any seepage, although it can be trimmed off later with a blade. The stuff is very sticky, so I wore gloves. It dries like stiff foam. I wrapped a big steel rod with a towel and put a plastic bag over that, and stuck it into the shoe, and used nylon straps around the outside as a clamp. Watch for ooze.

WizardOfBoz

I agree with the comment about Barge Cement (Barge All Purpose Cement, to be clear). It's the standard for shoe repair. Scrape and brush off old glue, apply a thin even layer to both upper and sole, and let them dry, the press them together.

Urethane glue like Gorilla may work for some folks. I guess if I was going to go that route I'd buy Polyurethane Construction Adhesive and use that. Stronger, less foaming.

Standard epoxy is not going to be flexible enough. I have on hand some West Systems G/Flex, a flexible industrial quality epoxy. Even so, if my beloved Sidi shoes ever show sole separation, I'm buying some Barge Cement. I suppose that Duco Contact Cement is similar.

Novalite

Alot glues, used in shoes for new as well as repair, aren't really water resistent;
The typical place where a sole starts to lose is the place where the shoe bends when walking. Left / right sides typically detach at the edges between top sole and upper part. Once losened, water fills it, doesn't dry up easily there, and the glue get detoriated by it, the more the quicker.

NHmtb

E6000 is good. I haven't had good results with barge cement, though I know it is supposed to be good. I used epoxy on some motorcycle boots that the soles came off of - granted a pretty different application, but it has worked well for me for years. They are flexible enough to walk in comfortably, and the epoxy has held up very well in a variety of conditions.

ChrisAlbertson

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I used a 3M product called "5200 Marine Adhesive, Fast Cure". This is a high-end polyurethane. I used to own a sailboat and found a spare tube. 5200 sticks to ANYTHING and never comes loose. I have used it underwater with scuba gear to install fittings on a sailboat If is 100% permenent and non-removable even on salt-water soaked fiberglass. The "fast" cure type takes 2-days to cure. The normal kind takes a week.

I used vinyl tape to hold the parts while the glue cured because the vinyl is elastic. The shoe was completely bound with three layers of this stretchy black tape.

These are now my indoor shoes for use with my trainer. After I have a couple of hundred miles I'll report back here.

I had forgotten about 5200. It works well but is expensive at about $16 for a small tube. But not much else works even on boat hulls that stay in seawater for years at a time. There is a warning on the tube that the connection can never be taken apart but I have found that it can be cut with thin piano wire and some force

WizardOfBoz

Hadn't heard of this before. It's styrene-butadiene rubber dissolved in tetrachoroethylene (aka "Perc"). Takes a while to dry, but heavens, if it sticks, it's going to be impervious to water, heat, cold...
Thanks for mentioning this.

sch

Clamping is the real bugaboo here. Several of the glues mentioned will work well if the shoe is clamped with
pressure on the entire sole. The mention of tape by one poster reminded me of methods used for odd shaped
wood glue ups, such as using a scrapped thin rubber inner tube. A good tight wrap with an inner tube should
apply fairly uniform pressure to the edges and center of a rigid sole. Have to remember this approach next
time one of my shoes tosses an outer sole. With a non-rigid sole a sole length piece square wood in the center
of the sole might suffice for pressure there, would require some experimentation.

bikeman68

I have similar situation with my 20 yr old diadora road shoes with composite aka nylon plastic sole......... Can we trust a cobbler using Barge cement? and for re bonding sole, will the old style shoe last give good solid rebond ? Is there a better glue to use ? I know I cannot trust Shoe Goo, I need a more reliable glue than that, but WHAT IS the best bond that the shoe cobblers (who know cycling shoes) use for re gluing road shoe soles? Is Loctites shoe repair glue better? And again, re gluing the sole to upper, It absolutely needs some kind of even pressure on the insole, so will the cobblers last do it well even if said last is made for a typical fashion or street shoe?
Thanks for ideas, I am not sure I can trust this BARGE CEMENT if it's made for more lower density rubber soles?

Novalite

Btw, something that works very well to temp hold stuff together is an inner tube from a bicycle. I twist it around and around then put a knot in it. And it can be reused afterwards.

Pop N Wood

+3 on the E6000. I use that on everything, fixed many a shoe with it.