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New SIDI Dragon Carbon
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Eons ago, when I tired of spending hours trying to resole the ol'
SIDI MTB Shoes, I managed a super price thru a dealer on a pair of new SIDI's. Retail price on those was way out of my price-range, but I could justify the reduced sum thru riding buddy connections. Of course, they had to be in the large range... 47 mega (wide) and the MTB cleat version. Thus SIDI Dragon Carbon MTB Mega entered the closet.
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Worn "Yellow" soles
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The Dragons were light, durable and great fitting. After a few years of rando riding, I replaced the worn "yellow traction pads" with a set I ordered in. These lasted a few years,but with more gravel/off-road riding they took additional abuse. After researching a bit, I acquired a set of "red" pads that would fit the Dragons. These were a harder compound than the stock "yellow" pads and should wear longer. Normally an easy switch, this turned into a PROJECT.
While unscrewing one toe pad bolt, it just kept turning. Using long nosed pliers and screwdrivers, I managed to get it out, but the embedded T-nut remained loose. Have to lock that nut into the carbon mid-sole again. Instead of cutting/hacking out the inner leather piece under the insole, I decided to try an external fix. Out came the Dremel Tool and 2-Ton Epoxy!
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T-Nut repair complete
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I first slightly widened the space around the T-nut collar with the Dremet, using a small drill bit and then the burr-bit. This slightly exposed the T-nut plate,which was originally bonded into the carbon mid-sole. Next up was lubing the bolt and threading it into the moveable T-nut. I then injected some epoxy around the T-nut base and pulled it up tight, using the bolt. After waiting 24 hrs... it was time to use the Dremel tools to smooth out the repair area and then bolt on the new red soles. The stock bolts that came with the new red pads were already blue Loctite coated.
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"Red" soles installed
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After a few months of use, the new pads show minimal signs of wear. The outside lugs on the heel plate seemed to work slightly loose from the base studs on both shoes. Super-Glue doesn't hold well... but the Epoxy sure does! I had this same problem with the various pairs of "yellow" replacement pads over the years too. This is definitely a SIDI quality control problem. For what you pay for the replacement soles ($40), this shouldn't be an issue at all.
Next SIDI project should be to replace my old SIDI Dominator MTB shoes (with non-replaceable pads) with a pair of new red traction pads. This will require a whole lot of planning and thus embedding the T-Nuts inside the soles.
SIDI T-Nut Repair Video
- randorides
