installing SPD cleat in sneakers

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

Just curious. Why would one want to do this?

Ken
--
The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets
old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without
shocking the entire community. ~Ann Strong

Ken C. M. said:

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

Just curious. Why would one want to do this?

Yeah, why a pair of sneakers, when you can use a router to recess an
spd cleat into a pair of Florsheim wingtips!

I'd not bother to modify a sneaker, as there are plenty of sneaker
shaped shoes that are already spd compatible.

In article <[email hidden]>,

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

Without the recess made for the cleats, you might as well as wear proper
road cycling shoes. And given the soft sole and the risk of the cleat
pulling out and any injury that may result, this whole idea is pretty
crazy.
--

"hit by a car" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

It's not worth it.

--
Phil

Phil said:

"hit by a car" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

It's not worth it.

--
Phil

I've seen it done to flip flops purely for the humor. The recessed
feature is what makes the cycling specific shoes worth it.

"Andrew F Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Phil said:

"hit by a car" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

It's not worth it.

--
Phil

I've seen it done to flip flops purely for the humor. The recessed
feature is what makes the cycling specific shoes worth it.

Regular sandals have no support, and the pressure point on the ball of your
foot gets painful.

--
Phil

On 7 Nov 2006 08:07:02 -0800, "hit by a car" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.

Good luck.

Quoted message said:

i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

If the bottom of the sole in the cleat-location area is completely
smooth, and if you're very handy with a drill press, a metal-cutting
band saw, a file, and a brazing torch, and if the innersole of the
sneakers is thick enough to effectively shield your foot from the
irregularities that you're going to introduce into the shoe's sole,
and if you can shape a metal plate large enough that it won't rock as
the load angle changes, then you might be able to macguyver a mount
into the shoes. To me, it's not worth doing. You'll end up with
sneaks that aren't useful for walking anymore, and they probably won't
be better as riding shoes than a pair of inexpensive riding shoes.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article <[email hidden]>, rault00
@earthWEEDSlink.net says...

Quoted message said:

If the bottom of the sole in the cleat-location area is completely
smooth, and if you're very handy with a drill press, a metal-cutting
band saw, a file, and a brazing torch, and if the innersole of the
sneakers is thick enough to effectively shield your foot from the
irregularities that you're going to introduce into the shoe's sole,
and if you can shape a metal plate large enough that it won't rock as
the load angle changes, then you might be able to macguyver a mount
into the shoes.

Much easier to simply buy a pair of stainless steel insoles, they're a
standard industrial safety item used to stop nail penetrations and such,
under $20/pair. That, and a few standard T-nuts.

I've never tried this with sneakers, only with boots. (First did it
with Look cleats, before SPDs came out, when I wanted some good off-road
boots. Used aluminum Look cleats instead of plastic. Worked great.)

It's marginally easier if the sole is heavily lugged, since there's less
material you have to carve out for the cleat recess.

No need for a drill press, band saw, or torch, just a hand drill for the
cleat mounting hardware, and either a knife or a router for making the
cleat recess in the sole. I use a router, it's faster and easier.

Quoted message said:

To me, it's not worth doing. You'll end up with
sneaks that aren't useful for walking anymore, and they probably won't
be better as riding shoes than a pair of inexpensive riding shoes.

I did it with boots to get a good hiking sole on a clipless boot.

--
[email hidden] is Joshua Putnam
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/>
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html>

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this.

Well, I did it rather successfully, but for a good reason. I needed a
high top shoe with a rather wide toe box for hiking, and simply could
not find anything comfortable in a spd shoe. I sure wouldn't try this
mod without a real, real good reason based on fit or utility.

So here's the deal. First you have to find a decent quality shoe with
rather deep lugs that more or less are patterned logically around the
position of the cleat where the lugs will need to be removed down to
the sole surface. Be sure to get the position right the first time.
Next, I fashioned aluminium plates to fit between the cleat and the
sole. These plates are larger than the cleat all around, are drilled
to pass the cleat bolts tightly, and have corners bent down to bite
into the sole when the cleat is tightened. In a similar fashion, I
made oversize plates for the interior of the shoe, and drilled them to
accommodate the cleat nut-plate as flush to the upper surface as
possible. Now, you need to cinch up the cleat and inspect the whole
assembly for proper indentation inside and out. You will find that the
sole compressed to indent the cleat base plate and the interior plate.
With proper area sizing of the base and interior plates, you can
control the cleat indentation with the goal that the interior plate
compresses flush to the inner sole when the cleat is just the right
depth in relation to the lugs of the shoe. If you get this far, put the
in-sole back into the shoe and check for comfort. In my case, I wasn't
too happy, and I found that a thin aluminium sheet cut to the shape of
the in-sole positioned in the fore-foot area under the in-sole made the
difference. I has some springy 2024T3 .020 sheet that worked well for
me.

Now, go ahead and try it on your bike. If you didn't get the position
right, just discard the shoes, get another pair, and use your hardware
to try again.

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

Would these work?
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?catalogId=39&id=1218

Seemed like a crazy idea when I first saw these several years ago but
they certainly ridden to good effect. --D-y

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

hit by a car said:

i've been wanting to put an SPD cleat in a pair of regular sneakers.
i've looked for detailed instruction on this since there's no way i'm
the first person to think of this. the only instructions i've found at
all are Josh Putnam's on his cycling page. it provides some good
information, like using the steel insoles to make the sole more rigid,
but there are no pictures. and, sorry Josh, but it even seems a little
vague about mounting SPD cleats specifically. if anyone has any tips
about doing this, or pictures would be even better, please let me know.

Would these work?
http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?catalogId=39&id=1218

Seemed like a crazy idea when I first saw these several years ago but
they certainly ridden to good effect. --D-y

Works? Best thing for me since slice bread! Ask any tourist, touring
bicyclists, that is, and for winter bicycling wear see my web page.
http://www.billcotton.com/my_training.htm#Winter%20foot%20wear
Most summer rides, I don't wear any sock, however if I am riding a bike path
where there may be brush, I will wear one pair of socks.As the weather cools
I begin to add layer of socks. My wind blocking is a footie cut from a pair
of Sealskin socks. Usually it is below F40 degree when I use these. (The
Sealskin breathe, however, the full sock retail moisture from my
perspiration, the footie allow evaporation.) I ride all winter in the
Delaware Valley.

--
www.billcotton.com