After a very wet ride at Llandegla, my Shimano MT91 boots smell like an army of tom cats have marked their patch in them.

How do I safely clean my leather/goretex booties please?

Ta

You better mark them yourself!

We have the same problem.

So far only workaround solution has been one of the cheap / tough Crane PVC rolltop drybags to hermetically seal the things when not wearing them 🙂 (especially when in the car)

Did you dry them properly when they got wet? Try soaking them in a bowl of water, scrubbing with some detergent or other then stuffing with newspaper to dry them out.

You might find dropping a few tea bags into them once they are dry may remove some odour.

HTH

Dogsby

Milton ?

(I’d start with Paradise Lost)

I once met a man from Guadalajara…

stuffing with newspaper to dry them out.

I thought this was the quickest way to make them stink. As far as I recall the shoes/boots will absorb the ammonia in the paper into the linings causing them to stink even more.

Can’t remember where I heard it so it’s possible I made it up…

Edit – I soaked some years old sandals in Milton (2 tabs in a small bowl) and it sorted them. They didn’t quite smell like the cats had marked them, though.

I’ve got two big bags of silica gel I put in my boots now (you microwave them to ‘refresh’). They stink when wet (due to a previous ‘I’ll leave them in the garage and dry them later’ fail) but as long as they’re dried quickly seem ok to be in the house.

Just be sure to remove the insoles after a ride so as to let that cardboard liner to dry.

Stare at someone else’s feet, then tut and shake your head.

Stuff them in the wash (possibly in a pillowcase) with some sports wash (then again with nikwax tech wash*, then he re-proofing wash).

My wetsuit boots probably smell worse as they rarely dry out, but as they’re getting to the end of their life I’ve just started washing them with the rest of my kit despite the care instructions saying hand wash in fresh water only and they’re not dying any quicker and don’t make the entire house smell of trench foot for days if I forget to leave them outside.

*I don’t find tech wash very good at removing smell, hence wash with some anti bacterial wash first.

It’s the glue used, when it gets wet/damp it give off the cat p smell. Are your MT 91s very old? Was hoping by now the glue would have been changed as it’s quite a known problem, not just with Shimano. My wife’s had running shoes with the same pong when wet.

Bi-carbonate of soda is reasonably effective for absorbing smells.

Personally I’ve never been a fan of Goretex shoes/boots as water gets in but can’t get out.

If everything is totally soaked then remove insoles, laces (if they use laces), get as much air in to them as possible. Modern leather shoes/boots usually have manufacturer specific coatings or are impregnated with some solution to “improve” water resistance and the like but regardless of this you need to dry them slowly. With the current fine and hot weather simply leaving them outside (if you have somewhere secure to do so) for up to 48 hours will sort them out. Obviously this means that if you want to ride during that time you need a spare set of shoes.

Milton ?

(I’d start with Paradise Lost)

*applauds*

Back to the OP, you could try Odor Eaters spray, which helps neutralize the bacteria causing the pong. I’ve also tried putting my running shoes in the freezer, this also helps kill off those stench causing microbes.