Serious bang from Cycling Shoes

Allabaah

Got soaked last Saturday along with half the country and as usual left the shoes to dry naturally.

However this time there is a serious bang that can be only described only as "tomcat piss"!

Very strange as the shoes are about 2 years old, hit with plenty of soakings and never had a smell from them. I don't have smelly feet either as confirmed by The Chief of Staff.

I removed the insoles which were fine and gave the uppers a good scrubbing with soap. Still the same!

Any suggestions?

cowboyBuilder

I remember had similar problem, probably is some fungal thing which can f*cking stink to high heaven, you can get sprays that will kill this fungus.

magicbastarder

Allabaah wrote: »

Got soaked last Saturday

was it cat piss you got soaked by?

Doeshedare

Allabaah wrote: »

Any suggestions?

Advice I read and used was put them upside down on the top rack of the dishwasher and wash on a normal cycle, without any dishes!

Wishbone Ash

Have you a chest freezer? If so, place them in it for a couple of days. The low temps should kill the fungus.

brianomc

The same thing happened me before after a soaking. I don't have smelly feet but the shoes couldn't be left indoors. Best thing for me was to let the shoes dry fully and then I sprayed them with http://www.wiggle.co.uk/halo-proactive-shoe-odour-eliminator-50ml/?sku=5360708184

It was last chance saloon for those shoes before I binned them, but it worked perfectly. I have to do it again now after the last few days of soakings.

benneca1

Dry them well then stuff them with cat litter (stuff cut of legs from a pair of ladies tights with cat litter and place in shoes) Absorbs moisture and seems to kill smell

Trojan

Another one to try is baking soda, sprinkle it all over insides and leave a couple of days. It kills stuff.

TOEJOE

I get the same smell off a everyday pair of shoes ("and I have spotlessly clean feet") will try bread soda?

Eamonnator

This happened to me a couple of years ago. I tried everything. No joy.
As a last resort, I put them in an old pillow case and washed them in the washing machine. It worked perfectly.

Lusk_Doyle

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Have you a chest freezer? If so, place them in it for a couple of days. The low temps should kill the fungus.

Do upright freezers not work?

monkeyslayer

Freezer didn't work for me, the dishwasher did, ran the dishwasher empty for another spin after just to clean it out. Might or might not of needed it but just to be sure. I didn't and still wouldn't tell my housemates / gf etc tho!

saccades

Napisan (nappy cleaning soaking solution) works a treat too (and is dirt cheap).

Just be careful if using a dishwasher/washing machine not to put the temperatures too high, a lot of shoes have thermosetting plastics for the heel supports and the like, so when heated a bit and then bashed about the heels will shrink/bend and be pretty much impossible to get comfortable afterwards.

That was an expensive lesson :facepalm:

misterdeeds

I got soaked again today and so did my shoes (naturally) took out the insoles gave the shoes a run of a hair dryer and put some baby powder in then ,as a runner for years this always worked with drying and refreshing my runners , so no reason it wont work on my shoes ( I hope ) hope this works . worth a try anyway

Allabaah

magicbastarder wrote: »

was it cat piss you got soaked by?

It might as well have been! Serious bang!

Allabaah

Doeshedare wrote: »

Advice I read and used was put them upside down on the top rack of the dishwasher and wash on a normal cycle, without any dishes!

Tried this last night and worked treat! Smell gone surprisingly to be honest! I was skeptical but it worked. Cheers!

I might go the full hog and drop them in the freezer as well, to be sure to be sure!

Thanks all for the banter & suggestions.

magicbastarder

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Have you a chest freezer? If so, place them in it for a couple of days. The low temps should kill the fungus.

my brother in law once bought a pair of jeans and the instructions on the label explicitly said not to wash them, but to use the freezer method.

John_Rambo

Are the products neoprene or do they have any neoprene in them? I think I saw a cyclist with neoprene boots, could have been protective covers.

There's a product called Plss Off made by Rip Curl for smelly wetsuits (bacteria) and booties. But, some of the salty dog surfers reckon the same chemical is in Head and Shoulders shampoo. Hope this helps.

http://www.surfworld.ie/products/rip-curl-piss-off-wetsuit-cleaner-w2poff

tomasrojo

Caldesene medicated powder defunkifies hiking boots. Might work for cycling shoes.

laraghrider

I give my shoes a full soapy water wash every not and then and never let shoes dry naturally. Always stuff them with news paper. Gets rid of the damp smell and also they dry quicker.

Lusk_Doyle

magicbastarder wrote: »

my brother in law once bought a pair of jeans and the instructions on the label explicitly said not to wash them, but to use the freezer method.

Instruction not to wash clothes? Wtf???

tomasrojo

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Instruction not to wash clothes? Wtf???

Danny Baker in Going to Sea in a Sieve mentions a story about clothes that shouldn't be washed. He worked in a record store frequented by Marc Bolan in his glory days. One day, Danny Baker complimented Bolan on the beautiful shirt he was wearing. I think it was a linen shirt with Little Richard hand-painted on it. Something like that. Bolan took the shirt off and gave it to Baker as a present, and left the store bare-chested under his fur coat.

Then Baker went on to leave the one-off artisanal shirt on the floor of his bedroom and his mother scooped it up and put it in the washing machine with all the other clothes he'd left on the floor.

crosstownk

How did you get on with this issue, OP? What did you try and did it work?

The same thing has happened to my shoes after getting thoroughly soaked on Sunday. The smell is a little better today than it was yesterday and I'll try some of the ideas above as the days go by.How did you get on with this issue, OP? What did you try and did it work?

ednwireland

stuff the shoes wiith newspaper when drying seems to reduce the smell off mine

crosstownk

ednwireland wrote: »

stuff the shoes wiith newspaper when drying seems to reduce the smell off mine

I'll do that the next time they soaked but now that I let them dry naturally I've got this nasty odour that I need to get rid of. The last thing I want to do is have to bin a pair of +€100 shoes that are less than 12 months old. I can smell them as I type. :mad:

geros29

crosstownk wrote: »

I'll do that the next time they soaked but now that I let them dry naturally I've got this nasty odour that I need to get rid of. The last thing I want to do is have to bin a pair of +€100 shoes that are less than 12 months old. I can smell them as I type. :mad:

Had the exact same prob.soak the shoes in Milton solution overnight.the stuff for babies bottles.few capful in a container big enough for the shoes. Absolutely worked 100 percent.

magicbastarder

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Instruction not to wash clothes? Wtf???

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-clean-your-jeans-without-water-freezer-109266

mossym

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Instruction not to wash clothes? Wtf???

fairly common for expensive jeans, prevents them fading in the wash

greenspurs

dry tea bags work for nasty niffs also ......

cdaly_

geros29 wrote: »

Had the exact same prob.soak the shoes in Milton solution overnight.the stuff for babies bottles.few capful in a container big enough for the shoes. Absolutely worked 100 percent.

Trouble is Milton is a bleach and may fade your shoes. Dettol works also but doesn't bleach.

Chuchote

News from the archives of the past (also mentioned by a couple of other posters): When I was growing up back in the Neolithic, shoes were relatively very expensive, so when they got a soaking you always stuffed them with newspaper and left them close (but not too close) to a fire to warm them and dry them; if really wet take the first lot of newspaper out in an hour and replace.
If you could afford it, you had two pairs of shoes and wore them on alternate days, so neither pair got sweaty without having time to dry out. Made shoes last much, much longer.

Lumen

mossym wrote: »

fairly common for expensive jeans, prevents them fading in the wash

This is that seminal moment when I feel that nobody could be so stupid as to freeze-clean jeans because the whole point of denim is that it's hard-wearing, and surely everyone knows this, but then I realise that deliberately unlearning the fking obvious is a thing amongst young morons and I'm just old.

mossym

Lumen wrote: »

This is that seminal moment when I feel that nobody could be so stupid as to freeze-clean jeans because the whole point of denim is that it's hard-wearing, and surely everyone knows this, but then I realise that deliberately unlearning the fking obvious is a thing amongst young morons and I'm just old.

i've two pairs of jeans that say freeze don't wash, neither have been in my freezer, both have been in the washing machine. They tend not to get worn a lot for that reason.

on the subject of hard wearing, maybe, but you look at jeans shops now, same pair of jeans available in 20 different shades, i guess if you buy them in one shade you want them to stay in that shade. i dunno, i can't get my head around freezing them either

on teh subject of freezing the shoes, having to get rid of a pee smell is pretty common on distance races where people don't tend to stop to relieve the bladder. on doing a bit of reading on this, there was fairly solid arguments that this theory that freezing the shoes killed the bacteria was bull.

took me two goes in the dishwasher with mine but i can confirm it removes the smell. you do need something lemon or something in there to help, a pure water wash didn't work. i had to put plastic over and zip tie it tight around my boa fasteners but they turned were fine afterwards

mossym

and surely you should aspire to a more seminal moment than whether jeans go in the freezer or not?

crosstownk

Just to follow up in case anyone ends up with a similar problem.

Having read the suggestions here, I decided to leave the freezer and dishwasher as a last resort for fear of doing some damage to my shoes.

There was some out of date anti-fungal footwear powder (Mycil) in a press so I shook some of than into the shoes after they had dried out completely. After a couple of days the smell had reduced considerably. Then I stuffed them with newspaper and that seemed to get rid of the last of the smell. I've used the shoes a couple of times since and all is well, thankfully.

I'm inclined to suspect that the smell was due to the absolute soaking they got and that I just left them to dry naturally without putting in any special effort (probably because I was also freezing cold when I took them off!). Maybe the smell would have disappeared without any intervention - I'll never know.

Probably the best advice is to dry them as quickly as possible and not leave them lying around damp. The newspaper certainly absorbs the dampness and the anti-fungal powder can't really do much harm - even if it went out of date 6 years ago!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

BremoreDave

I stuff them with paper to dry them out and then pour baking soda in ( recommended earlier in the thread) , which has worked so far.

Allabaah

Got soaked again on Saturday morning so I stuffed the shoes with paper whilst still wet.

This has worked as no smell today at least. I must say the dishwasher trick gave them a nice cleaning as well as getting rid of the original hummm ;-)

WMP

I just leave mine outside over night (or for a couple of nights) to air dry and it always works, even after are a good soaking when they are smelly after being in a bag for a few hours. When not in use they are outside but sheltered from the rain and it works for me.