[Closed] Rancid bike shoes - Cure?

bucket of milton ?

exorcism ?

washing machine ?

Washing machine. Also helps if you dry them outside in future, keeps em a wee bit fresher.

Kill it with fire.

I've had a few shoes that have done this - some Specialized S-Works were the worst. Get them a little bit wet and they'd make half the house smell of cat wee. I ended up drying them outside/in the barn and it eventually stopped. Must be something to do with what adhesive is used I suspect.

I had the cat wee smell coming from my roady shoes after wet rides this summer. Absolutely minged the house out.

I assumed it was something I'd ridden through as I never suffer from stinky feet or shoes.

Soaked them in bleachy water, rinsed and dried - seems to have cured it. They were fairly new Shimanos...

Stop upsetting people and they will maybe stop pissing in your shoes when you're not looking. 😉

This used to be a well known Nike trainer cat piss smell phenomenon and one answer was to put the product in the freezer to kill the bacteria, not sure if its the answer for your Shimanos but maybe worth a try ?

despite the fact i will be contradicted in a minute - the adhesive used in manufacture reacts to heat , like drying on a radiator.

Wee in them.

Bicarb of soda works well on many mings. It kills the ming bacteria.

Generous serving in each shoe, coating every part you can. Leave for 24 hrs then dust off (hoover nozzle is handy here).

For general sweaty foot ming I've found this stuff really good:

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Kiwi Deo Fresh

It's your sweat and moisture soaking the cardboard footbed and then being broken down by bacteria and fungi and giving off amines, which smell fishy.

Always remove the insole and dry the shoes after a ride. Machimne wash them then spray them with a fungicide spray like the ones used for athlete's foot. If you've got athlete's foot, treat it with Canestan cream, buy the thrush version as it has 2% clotrimazole not the 1% of the athlete's foot version. Spray all your other shoes otherwise they will reinfect your feet.

Stick them in the dishwasher. I cleaned mine when I left my last rented house-share

napalm...prob best to apply in the garden

I also have a problem with some Specialized road shoes, they honk.

After trying just about everything, the only thing that works is Bounce. A sheet in each offending shoe for the foreseeable will rid the worst of the stink.

I you're allowed to, try freezing them. Stick them in a well sealed heavy duty plastic bag and leave them there for a couple of days.

Then wash them again

Then freeze again.

Couple of sprays of febreeze in each shoe while they're still wet stops the smell.

Soak in a bucket of halo sports wash, rinse thoroughly, dry naturally stuffed with news paper. Don't force dry them.

+1 for Halo. Incredible stuff, available from Wiggle.

whenever returning from a ride I open my shoes up, take the insoles out and allow them to breath over night. Seems to work. But then again most of my socks are fairly new so maybe that helps?

anyone else getting a stupid login popup when viewing this thread?

Something to do with kiwi. Is it the fault of grahamS?

I find sunshine...ok then daylight, seems to be good for neutralising the smells. i.e. drying them outside. Not easy when its 100% humidity I know. But when mine get smelly I try and dry them in daylight and it works for me.

Same here. On my second pair of Giros. Absolutely stink just like cat piss. Ive tried everything. I now bag them up with a carrier after each ride so I don't chunder over myself or kill off the kids.

Thanks for the tips. Cat piss describes it quite nicely(?)
I'll try the freezer thing 1st. Failing that Halo next.
Maybe pouring neat bleach into them could work. Can bleach damage the materials or glue?

neat bleach would destroy them. diluted milton might be better.

It's nothing to do with smelly feet or bacteria. It's to do with cotton used in the make up of the shoes and then getting them wet. If you google 'Nike football boots that smell of cat wee' you'll see its even been on Watch Dog.

Personally I'd take them back to the retailer, use the 'not fit for purpose' line and swap them for something different.

Personally I always remove the liners and stick them in the washing machine, sponge the shoes down when I wash the bike down and put everything on top of the boiler in the airing cupboard until the next ride.