[Closed] What is destroying my shoe??

catching on the crank?

catching on the crank?

Not that I can see and no signs of wear/polishing on the crank.  It's a 105 crank, am switching to Ultegra (on the same bike) when they arrive.

Er, maybe I'm missing something but if you sit on the bike at a standstill and backpedal, does the wear area come close to anything that might rub it?

That's drastic rub - gaffa tape a 'red crayon' on the spot and look for signs?

And stop snapping your heels together like Dorthy / German officers.

is the tyre worn on the NDS? Maybe you hold your foot in such a way it rubs when you're descending?

Er, maybe I’m missing something but if you sit on the bike at a standstill and backpedal, does the wear area come close to anything that might rub it?

Not that I can see in user testing, hence the mystery.

That’s drastic rub – gaffa tape a ‘red crayon’ on the spot and look for signs?

Interesting concept, but a whole crayon is going to really mess with real world clearances.

And stop snapping your heels together like Dorthy / German officers.

Ja mein Furher!

is the tyre worn on the NDS? Maybe you hold your foot in such a way it rubs when you’re descending?

Don't think so, will check but I'm pretty sure my feet are at 3/9 o'clock when freewheeling anyway (and so out of tyre line)

'Red crayon' - could be 'carbon paper' or just a dab of oily poster paint 😉

Passing terriers?

Passing terriers?

Don't see them locally, it's all 'Doodles' round here.

Water bottle in cage?

it is catching the front mech? or the cable from the mech?

Bottle cage? Or someone f$$cking with you?

it is catching the front mech? or the cable from the mech?

None drive side foot.

Bottle Cage 

I'll check, using plastic elite jobs so pretty low profile and shouldn't be causing that sort of damage.

I reckon that must be tyre buzz when uncliping

Could electric tape over that bit of shoe, crayon the leccy tape in red then see if leaves any marks. Smaller than a whole crayon.

I'd go with tyre buzz too.

That said, the blob of paint/crayon idea will tell you for certain and won't harm anything.👍

go-pro attached on seat post looking down, go for a ride.

Could electric tape over that bit of shoe, crayon the leccy tape in red then see if leaves any marks. Smaller than a whole crayon.

Certainly going to give that a go when I'm out next.  May try chalk first as the white should show easily.

If it is unclipping I'm going to have to re-tune my brain.

I can’t believe that’s be unclipping, unless you unclip hundreds of time each ride, and even then...
That is constant rubbing somewhere when you ride, be that tyre, frame, crank, whatever.
Has it happened on any other shoe/bike combo? And if not, could you try another pair of shoes on that bike?
Do you lead with that foot when freewheeling? If so, could it be chainring or chain damage ?

<Am disappointed >

"wee in his shoes" - see which bit of the bike smells of piss.

</I'm sure 'we' could of worked it in>

-Must be a tyre buzz to do that much damage quickly -

Looking at the other scuffs by the hole i'd say it was tyre buzz.

Get someone to ride behind you, I bet you do it when you don't realise, climbing, attacking rolling hills etc.

Tape some sandpaper over the hole in the shoe, it should pretty quickly show up where you're rubbing your shiny new looking bike

^^ Evil sod.lol😆

Tyre buzz I can imagine, but not when unclipping - who unclips by twisting the heel inwards??!!

Clip your shoe into the pedal without your foot in it and turn the cranks round and push the heel of your shoe in and see what it can touch.
Then look in those areas when you ride.

Tyre buzz I can imagine, but not when unclipping – who unclips by twisting the heel inwards??!!

I do!

I've come back to this post 3 times already!! I can't wait to find out what's happening, c'mon don't keep us in suspense....

Looking at the wear pattern it doesn't look like it's caused by rubbing the frame, crank or tyre. More like two things rubbing together when in a bag, how do you store or transport your shoes if driving to the start point of a ride? Could even have happened in one journy or has the wear become larger over a number of weeks?

Mice. The bike is fine, no rubbing at all but when you store your shoes for the night, the mice nibble that one.
Just that one.

😉

Right, update.  Just got back from an Mtb ride and had a quick look at the road bike when in the shed. A tell tale rubbing on the tyre logo, so double rum rations to those who called it.

Now just to figure out when I’m actually coming into contact with it to see what I have to try to get out of the habit of doing before I use the current damage to justify a nice new pair of shoes.

No red crayon required and glad I didn’t try sandpaper as I’d end up covered in Stans!

Hurrah! The suspense was killing me.

I can sleep soundly tonight now.😁

But the main question is still to be answered...do people REALLY unclip by moving their heels INWARDS? Really?
It’s never even occurred to me to try...surely your heel would end up really close to the bike and...oh! 😉

But the main question is still to be answered…do people REALLY unclip by moving their heels INWARDS? Really?
It’s never even occurred to me to try…surely your heel would end up really close to the bike and…oh! 😉

Yes, yes, me! (See above)
Hasn’t caused me any problems in the past 135,000 miles so I can’t really see the issue.

I didn’t consciously know that I unclipped inwards, but yes it sounds like indeed I may be one of those wierdos (I ride flats on the Mtb and am late in life to the ways of the road, perhaps unable to learn my lesson until now).

Looks like my next few rides will be spent paying more attention to my feet at junctions and lights.  There’s always the reward of reform and new shoes to look forward to.

Also means the pedal spacers I ordered from Amazon today are going straight into the spare box (or on my Mtb).

To be fair thats probably actually only a few bursts of tyre rub it might not even be unclipping. Do you twist your feet when you look behind you?

Now just to figure out when I’m actually coming into contact with it to see what I have to try to get out of the habit of doing before I use the current damage to justify a nice new pair of shoes.

Descending left handers?? outside leg straight at 6 O'Clock, inside leg bent at 12 O'Clock and your foot twisted in a bit?

Yeah good shout carlos.

When you unclip unless you do ot really really early the tyre shoild be pretty slow i am basically stopped before i unclip.

Which probably why its not an issue for people who unclip inwards

My first reaction was mice (just based on the edges of the plastic and that the little ****s eat anything)

If it is tire buzz I’m amazed you haven’t noticed anything and can only imagine its something to do with descending because to doing so much damage up hill or on the flat you would definitely notice the resistance.

When you unclip unless you do ot really really early the tyre shoild be pretty slow i am basically stopped before i unclip.

Not to mention you don't unclip that often, even if it does hit the tyre it shouldn't be often enough to cause that kind of damage.

Hasn’t caused me any problems in the past 135,000 miles so I can’t really see the issue.

Beginners always get it wrong.

😁

All good advice thanks,  will pay attention next ride starting with getting my shoe to the position where the rub is.  I’ll also note the crank position when I unclip, I suspect it is at the bottom of the stroke which may put the foot out of the way of the tyre.  The descending idea sounds plausible in which case a pedal spacer could help a touch.  Would swapping from a yellow to a blue cleat help here too?

i think I’ll put some tape over the wear and keep an eye on it over the course of a ride to help pin it down.

I don't understand the mechanics of it rubbing on the tyre and I don't believe you could do that without realising. You'd have to be freewheeling (i.e. presumably downhill) and you'd notice the buzzing through your foot!

It's also significantly worn - you'd have to spend hours freewheeling with your leg cocked in a weird position to achieve that. Similarly as others have mentioned it can't be due to whatever weird unclipping habits you have, either.

So I still think your foot is rubbing on the chain stay. Maybe the crank end.

Blue cleats may help but addressing your wonky pedalling is probably a better start. Or rotating the yellow cleats slightly to angle your foot slightly (In fact, are the cleats at the correct angle to start with?).

In response to the above, I'm definitely not rubbing the chainstay, it's carbon and the paint is unmarked, no rub whatsoever.  I have a touch of rub on my drive side crank and that shoe is fine, no rub on the nds crank but the shoe has significant wear from something causing major friction.  The tyre logo is obviously scuffed from rubbing on something as it turns, it is not the inside of the frame as again this is unmarked.  I have never felt my shoe catching at all or any vibration.  Cleats seem set up fine, I did adjust slightly when I thought it maybe rub on the chainstay. I have two other bikes, no issues with any rub at all on either (spds on gravel bike, flats on mtb), my feet are only size 8.  I'll only find out the issue once I am back on the bike.

Other theories mentioned earlier are not the problem (shoes stored in drawer under bed and we don't have mice, I use these shoes riding direct from the front door so nothing to rub on during transport etc).

All this unclipping... Does no-one trackstand any more? 😉

I don’t understand the mechanics of it rubbing on the tyre and I don’t believe you could do that without realising.

Exactly the same here. I'm struggling to understand how you would actually manage to rub a heel against a tyre. Assuming you can, I can't see how you could cause that sort of damage without noticing the noise and feeling the drag.

You haven't had a crash while wearing those shoes and scraped them along the road?

I don’t understand the mechanics of it rubbing on the tyre and I don’t believe you could do that without realising. You’d have to be freewheeling (i.e. presumably downhill) and you’d notice the buzzing through your foot!

It’s also significantly worn – you’d have to spend hours freewheeling with your leg cocked in a weird position to achieve that. Similarly as others have mentioned it can’t be due to whatever weird unclipping habits you have, either.

You'd get serious shoe-destroying heat very quickly on a tyre spinning fast. I would't fancy holding the back of my hand against a tyre spinning at 40mph, even for a second. And there'd already be loads of buzz in your shoes via the pedals, cranks, frame, tyre, so it's very plausible you wouldn't notice an extra bit. And even more plausible when all the evidence points to it being tyre rub, and him not noticing!

I don’t understand the mechanics of it rubbing on the tyre and I don’t believe you could do that without realising.

Exactly the same here. I’m struggling to understand how you would actually manage to rub a heel against a tyre.

Failure of imagination, then! 🙂

I've just sat on my road bike, right leg straight/locked, so crank's forward of vertical, left foot unweighted, ankle relaxed, crank back from vertical. Left heel quite naturally touches the tyre, I didn't have to force it at all.

Can't say I've ever done it on the road, but everyone's different, and there's probably plenty of people who don't have a bruise on their inside thigh from the saddle from sidehopping...

Does no-one trackstand any more?

Only when the risk is low.

You haven’t had a crash while wearing those shoes and scraped them along the road?

Fortunately not.  It is wear which has got progressively worse over 18 months, but accelerated recently as done far more road miles post Covid.

It only takes a light touch at high speed we're not talking jamming your foot it until it stops. It gets hot and melts tyres are designed to be wear resistant and heat resistant and provide grip.

A grippy thing spinning at high speed with a lump if weight to keep momentumn up just brushing the side of the shoe would be more than up to it. Look what a squint wheel can do to a chainstay over a very shirt time.

It only takes a light touch at high speed we’re not talking jamming your foot it until it stops. It gets hot and melts tyres are designed to be wear resistant and heat resistant and provide grip.

You’d get serious shoe-destroying heat very quickly on a tyre spinning fast. I would’t fancy holding the back of my hand against a tyre spinning at 40mph, even for a second

Easy way to find out- get the bike off the ground and spin the wheel up to speed. Then hold your untouched right shoe to the tyre and see if it causes any damage similar to the left.

Except without barrowing down a hill the shoe will probably just slow the wheel. Same way a wheel stops dead in the stand with light breaking.

To give you an idea of forces involved....

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bet-that-brought-a-year-to-the-eye/#post-11020339

Ok, OP can still turn the wheel and lightly contact the tyre with the shoe.

So a bit of a thread resurrection and final outcome.  Not been on the road bike for a couple of weeks due to light evenings (mtb time), bad weather (zwift time) and a drivechain replacement.

Managed to get out for an hour today and so stuck some electicians tape over the rub point.

Test #1 - Just freewheeling, there is no way that my heel can contact the wheel/tyre whilst freewheeling without unclipping.

Test #2 - Just unclip, of course it seems I have got myself into the strange habit of unclipping inwards and bingo, shoe contacts tyre in the exact place!

Pretty conclusive then!

Spent the next hour trying to retrain my brain.  Fortunately unclipping is usually thought about in advance, so I can stop myself and do it 'correctly'. Only managed to do it inwards once and that was when I had to do it suddenly and old habits kicked in.  Tape untouched for the rest of the ride.

I've adjusted my cleats slightly so the heel is more inward now as a start, I think I moved them the other way to move out from the bike when I thought it may be crank rub, this I think had made it a more pronounced outward movement to unclip which has actually led me to unclip inwards more!

Thanks all.  Now off to ponder what new road shoe with carbon sole and Boa as near to £100 as possible to replace the damaged ones.

If its just the scuffing i'd keep withem until you actually are surd you have kicked it.

Yeah, I'll be doing that Josh, I'd also rather try on shoes before buying as road shoe fit seems a bit of a dark art, and it's difficult getting into a shop with a good range at the moment anyway.  At least I know the issue is 'fixable'.

Good result op. I honestly never knew that anyone unclipped inwards?😳

Well there's at least 2 of us on STW alone, though I hope to leave 'imnotverygood' to his own strange inwards unclipping technique before too long!

If they were my shoes, I'd get some 'Black Witch' - it's like liquid rubber - and patch them. Even if you buy a new pair for days when you can't afford to look scruffy you'll have a spare pair for days when conditions are a bit more dubious.

Well there’s at least 2 of us on STW alone, though I hope to leave ‘imnotverygood’ to his own strange inwards unclipping

It just defies logic- you’re unclipping presumably to put your foot down. Wouldn’t it be natural to move your heel out as that’s the way your foot needs to go?

Been following this mystery and glad that it's been solved.

Posting to add my name to the list of inward unclippers. I've always done it - feels much easier on the knee for me. Never tyre rubbed (to my knowledge) when unclipping.

FB-ATB - voting Trump defies logic, but he’s still president of the USA!

I can’t say why I do it that way, I just do.  I’m wondering if it was how I had my cleats set up to avoid crank rub which wasn’t happening putting my feet in a position whereby it was easier to unclog inwards.  Hopefully I can train myself out of the habit.

An evil badger?

I’m guessing you also unclip early so you’re still moving at a good pace, having confidence to unclip late, as close to stationary as possible, would also help I’d guess as the wheel won’t be rotating as quickly.

If things do not improve maybe try flats.

Yeah, or tennis or something.