What if you knew how to make your cycling shoes last longer? That’d be amazing. You’d get start getting more wears than you’ve been seeing. And that means you’d start saving money while not exercise a moment less than you have been.
In this post, my job is to share with you practical and tips for prolonging the life of your lovely bike shoes. Some of the tips may have spending some money, but not too much that you don’t want to try them.
The rest of the suggestions I’ll give won’t cost you a dime, but that doesn’t mean they’re less effective. Here’s the thing — make sure to put to work every suggestion you learn here and see if your biking kicks last longer.
10 Tips to Prolong the Life of Your Bike Shoes
Here’s a list of 7 simple strategies you can use to increase the durability of your biking shoes. Here’s what to do to get more wears out of your biking kicks:
1.Use overshoes
2.Avoid using harsh bike shoe soap
3.Never machine-dry your biking shoes
4.Don’t leave your cycling shoes out in the sun
5.Use home-formulated strategies to kill bacteria
6.Clean your shoes regularly
7.Repair them when necessary
8.Take care when traveling with your shoes
9.Use shoehorns
10 .Store your bike shoes properly
Let’s now see how your bike riding shoes might benefit from each of these longevity-boosting suggestions.
1. Use Overshoes to Prolong Your Shoe’s Lifespan
If you’re an all-weather type of cyclist, you’ll want to be a little careful when biking on snowy and icy days. The coldest days outdoors throw all kinds of problems at even the best winter cycling shoes.
There’s water, snow, sleet, mud, sand, and salts all over the place. Cycling through these extremely nasty conditions can fray the material of your shoes while staining and scratching them.
Such harsh conditions can also easily ruin your shoe’s fastenings. In other words, riding in super-cold weather can shorten your shoe’s lifespan.
But wearing overshoes when biking through impossible weather conditions can help ward off those consequences. And increase your shoe’s longevity.
2. Avoid Using Harsh Cleaning Detergents
Certain types of soaps aren’t meant for cleaning road biking shoes or any other kind of cycling kicks. That’s because their chemical formulation can initiate shoe material degradation.
Luckily, the biking market offers tons of non-toxic household soaps that won’t harm your shoes. Now, if your kicks don’t get damaged during cleaning they’ll last longer, right?
Consider using regular mild dish soap to clean your biking shoes. But you’ll still want to dilute this dishwashing soap with water to make it even safer.
3. Never Machine-dry Your Biking Shoes
Machine-drying your biking kicks does get them ready for use noticeably faster. However, machine-drying these kinds of shoes is one of the quickest trails to damage.
Tossing your bicycle riding shoes in the oven isn’t advisable. Nor is placing your bike shoes atop a radiator or using a hair dryer to speed up drying. There are better, safer ways to hasten the drying process.
Putting old newspapers into shoes helps absorb excess water, which means the kicks dry significantly faster. Alternatively, you can use clean paper towels or a clean dry towel to wipe off any excess water.
4. Don’t Leave Your Cycling Shoes Out in the Sun
Avoid using direct sunlight to dry out your mountain biking shoes or road bike shoes or whatever it is you own. It’s for the exact same reason you shouldn’t machine-dry these types of shoes.
5. Use Home-formulated Strategies to Kill Bacteria
Bike shoes happen to be a great bacteria magnet. While you’re biking out there and enjoying the outdoors, your cycling shoes are doing something else.
Your shoes are collecting all kinds of bacteria according to Cindy Gellner, M.D., a pediatrician at the University of Utah.
Some of the bacteria your bike shoes bring home include E. coli. And we all know that these bacteria can cause all kinds of problems.
And when you’re pedaling hard trying to maintain your cadence on a single-speed bike, you sweat up a storm..inside your shoes.
All that moisture and warmth create an extremely conducive environment for the growth odor-causing bacteria. Additionally, keeping the interiors of shoes moist isn’t a great way to lengthen their lifespan. Nor is letting whole tribes of decay-causing bacteria turn the inside of your shoes into a cozy home.
6. Clean Your Bike Shoes Regularly
Maybe I should have started with this point. Because keeping shoes clean and fresh is the number #1 trick for promoting durability. As you clean your trail bike, make sure to show your MTB shoes some love as well. Also read: How to Clean Cycling Shoes.
Keeping your bike riding kicks clean isn’t nearly as demanding as lazy riders imagine. It’s easy and inexpensive. And the task doesn’t take a whole ton of time to complete.
7. Repair Your Biking Shoes Whenever necessary
So, what do you do with ripped or scuffed bike shoes? Don’t throw them away, yet. A little shoe repair could be what you need to get those kicks to serve you longer.
Sometimes all you have to do is glue back together parts that have come apart for whatever reason. You could also get a couple small screws through from the inside to reattach a detached sole.
And yes, you can also shoo goo your bike shoes to hold together torn areas. In some cases, you may want to visit a bike shoe repair shop to get the issue fixed.
Here’s the thing. Repairing your cycling shoes is a cheap way to squeeze out a little more wear.
8. Use Carabiner Neatcleats for Stroage When Traveling
When traveling to some city with your biking shoes, it’s all too easy to throw them into some backpack and leave there. As a result, the shoes get crumpled up, losing their shape. Now crumpled bike shoes are stressed out shoes, and stress isn’t known to promote longevity.
Here’s the smartest way to carry your bike shoes when traveling: using the Carabiner Neatcleats. The Carabiner Neatcleats makes it extremely easy to attach your bike shoes onto your backpack or hang them in your car.
This bike shoe storage system also comes in handy when you need to safely store your shoes at your work.
9.Use Shoehorns to Prolong Your Shoe’s Life
Wiggling your way into your bike shoes can cut their life short to an extent. Forcing your feet into shoes doesn’t foster longevity at all.
Quite the contrary; repeated forced entry damages the heel cups. And destroyed heel cups do little when it comes to providing your foot with the support and protection it craves. Instead of wiggling your way in, loosen the fasteners first before attempting to get the shoes on.
Another great idea is to invest in shoehorns. Good shoehorns make it super easy to put on shoes without ruining the heel cups.
10.Store Your Bike Shoes Properly
You’re exhausted after a long day cycling outdoors. Now, all you want to do is kick your biking shoes off and get on the couch. Listen, stop leaving your bike shoes on the floor. Little lovely pups love chewing at leather, plastic, and everything in between.
Nor is tossing your shoes in some bag the best way to store your shoes. Do this instead: light clean or deep clean your cycling shoes. Then, hang them on the wall using Neatcleats. Well, you probably don’t absolutely need this product. But I can’t seem to think of a neater, more convenient bike shoe storage.
In fact, I found that hanging my shoes on Neatcleats has them drying noticeably faster than placing them on the floor.
Don’t want to look at muddy MTB shoes hanging on the walls of your house? No problem. Consider storing them in the garage, again let Neatcleats help you out there.
7 Bike Shoe Longevity FAQs
Let’s ride!
1. How Long Should Cycling Shoes Last?
Biking shoes typically outlast running and skateboarding shoes. While some skateboarding shoes last months at most, good biking shoes can last over 5 years. More or less depending on how much you use them. That said, the actual longevity of cycling shoes can only be measured by how long the shoes remain usable. And that varies from model to model and from bike rider to bike rider.
2. Can I Make My Biking Shoes Last Longer?
Yes, you can. The next section lists down a couple of ways to prolong the life of your bike riding shoes.
3. How Can I Make My Cycling Shoes Last Longer?
Transporting your bike shoes properly and drying them out completely are some of the ways you can prolong your shoe’s lifespan. Other strategies you can employ to boost your bike shoes’ durability include using overshoes and shoehorns plus storing them right.
4. How Do I Protect My Cycling Shoes?
One of the best ways to protect your biking shoes is to use overshoes when riding through nasty weather conditions. Another good idea is to never use harsh cleaners when cleaning them. And when drying them out, avoid putting your bike shoes near heat sources such as your radiator or oven.
Also, resist the temptation to dry out your cycling shoes in the sun as that’s been found to damage them. Additionally, protect your shoes from bacteria by using simple home-formulated solutions such as a mixture between white vinegar and water.
5. How Long Do Cycling Insoles Last?
Cycling insoles typically last a long time, and most riders rarely replace them. If you’re training extremely hard, like riding 600 miles each month, you may have to replace your bike insoles after 8 months. However, many cyclists don’t replace their insoles until they’ve taken 10,000 miles out of them.
That said, bike shoe fitting experts recommend replacing bike insoles every 1,000 miles.
6. When Should You Get New Cycling Shoes?
Change your bike shoes when they fall apart, of course. Also, if your shoes are cracked or have stretched to the extent they don’t fit properly, buy a new pair. You may also fall hard and have your shoes rip badly. That’s another scenario that’d necessitate buying new ones.
Additionally, if the soles wear out and there’s no traction anymore, buy new bike shoes. Another reason to replace your cycling shoes is if the fasteners break and you can’t get them repaired.
Some riders own road bike shoes that last 20+ years. And a time comes when that road cyclist just wants the latest arrival just because it looks rad and promises biking heaven. So, the biking enthusiast splurges on brand-spanking new biking kicks.
7. How Long Do Peloton Bike Shoes Last?
Peloton bike shoes last many years, in some cases 10+ years. The longevity of Peloton shoes depends on how regularly you ride and the level of abuse you throw at them. Even Peloton Specialized plastic bike shoes last 5+ years with normal use.
