smontanaro 

Wear your classically styled cycling shoes long enough and you'll need to replace the laces. When mine went, I thought, "no problem." I just headed to the local shoe repair shop to get something. The closest he had were 30-inch waxed dress laces which miss the mark in a couple ways. One, my old laces were 32-inch, and since cycling laces are meant to be short, 30-inch is barely tieable. Two, dress laces are too thin and don't stay tied very well. Nothing better pops up with a simple Google search for "cycling shoe laces." Any pointers?

cb400bill

Try a sports shoe store like Finish Line or Footlocker.

CliffordK

Hmmm...
I haven't looked specifically for bike laces. But, in the past I've found rope to be much preferable to shoelaces.

You might try 275 or 325 paracord:
https://www.paracordplanet.com/275-p...-solid-colors/
https://www.paracordplanet.com/325-p...-solid-colors/

Burn the ends, and it won't be quite perfect like a shoelace, but it should serve you well. And, of course, dirt cheap.

thinktubes 

cuffs/collar/laces match...

Drillium Dude

Ebay has a few options:

Nathan No-Tie Laces

NOS Black Shoe Laces

DD

79pmooney

I've gone to the local chain, Fred Meyer, and found laces that work just fine. I buy at least as long and cut down to desired length (usually not a standard shoelace length). Then I take a match and melt the end I cut.

(I always have on hand laces long enough to do any of my shoes since I only wear lace up shoes and boots save a few pairs of cycling shoes I haven't converted yet. Us sailors have been cutting and burning ropes and strings since synthetic rope was invented.)

Ben

smontanaro 

Thanks for the responses. Once again, forum software failed me. I remember looking at the first response, must have missed a website visit on the next one, because it stopped notifying me altogether. I only just now stumbled on it looking for another thread.

Bigbus

Paracord for everything!

gugie 

Synthetic?

tyler_fred

Amazon round athletic laces

https://www.amazon.com/OrthoStep-Rou...1-4&th=1&psc=1


Amazon flat athletic laces

https://www.amazon.com/OrthoStep-Nar...-10&th=1&psc=1

Phil_gretz

I love waxed laces in dress shoes.

I also love using them to lace the skirt of leather saddles. I try to keep both spare black and brown wax laces in my spare saddle box.

That little tip on a shoelace is called an aglet. Cool word.

Vintage_Cyclist

Since we're talking laces and cycling . . .

If you break the waist drawstring in a pair of sweatpants, shifter or brake cable housing works really well to get a new string in, by sliding the housing in with a new string taped to one end (on some sweats, where the string is sewn-in, you might need to open the inside of the waist band to cut the threads out).

fasthair

I bought mine from here https://shoelacesexpress.com/ they can even make custom ones. I had them make these red with black tip laces for my "dress" cycling shoes.

smontanaro 

Thanks. I suspect these days there's a <something-or-other>express.com vendor for just about any definition of something-or-other. (My most recent laptop battery purchase was from laptopbatteryexpress.com.)

79pmooney

Yeah, synthetic, The natural stuff just burns. As I said above, I'm a sailor. I grew up knowing that nylon was a recent invention that replaced the silk in parachute cloth during WW2. After WW2, nylon ropes were made (preferred anchor rope for many years; strong and stretchy). Late '50s polyester rope (Dacron) started appearing and quickly became the preferred rope for sail handling and most of the other non-anchoring duties on sailboats due to its much lower stretch than nylon.

The most common non-synthetic ropes? Manila, cotton and hemp. And yes, all three burn when heated.

Ben

SurferRosa

I'm trying to think of the last time I owned "sweatpants."

SurferRosa

Also what short folks from Texas A&M are called.

noglider 

If you have natural laces and therefore can't burn the ends, the word you need to know is "aglet" so you can buy or make your own.

gugie 

see burning rope: urban dictionary

CliffordK

I hadn't thought much about burning vs not burning. I don't think I have much that isn't synthetic, except perhaps some cotton or hemp rope.
The reason I started using rope (paracord) as above is that I hate the way shoelaces tend to fray. I've been wearing velcro bike shoes for a while, but getting back to laced shoes... and frayed laces...

My experience in the past was that ropes and cords would just hold up much better than laces. Thus, I very much avoid stock replacement laces.

Bigbus

I still wear jump boots for everything I do including biking and hiking. I haven't purchased boot/shoe laces in ever. It's always been paracord for everything, including a roll in my go bag and survival kit. Can't (shouldn't) live life without it

noglider 

Yeah, but ... now you don't get to say "aglet."

smontanaro 

Thanks all. I went with 550 Paracord. Not that I needed that much strength, but that it was roughly the diameter I was looking for (~3/16"). I wound up buying 25 feet from an eBay seller (paracordgalaxy). The place CliffordK referred to did a weird bait-and-switch on shipping, leading me to believe shipping was free, taking me to PayPal and back (still, no shipping), then adding $14+ for shipping on a $4 order.

I'll try using heat shrink tubing for aglets. If that doesn't work, I'll just melt the ends and call it good.

jonwvara 

Let those guys with the custom frames talk all they want--nothing makes riding better than a pair of custom laces.

By the way, I love that email address. Shoelace Sex Press dot com! It sounds like an old-school publishing company whose customers have a very specific area of interest.

RobbieTunes 

And people tell me Bike Forums is not exciting.