Is it gross by used mtb shoes?

[itself]

I have the opportunity to get a screaming deal on a pair of specialized carbon soled shoes, she has used them for eight months...is it gross to buy a pair used this long?

Lisa

[Cataboo]

Generally when I buy used shoes, it's usually someone wore 'em once or twice & they didn't fit right or something... at least that's what they claim!

But if my mom or sister or best friend doesn't want a pair of shoes that they've worn a while - I have no problem wearing their old shoes, so I guess it's similar to that just that I've seen their feet a lot and know they don't have any wierd fungal diseases or something.

Wear socks, maybe put foot powder or something like that in there to disinfect.

I don't know what happens to carbon fiber mountain bike shoe soles in 9 months of use - that could potentially weaken the carbon fiber (but I know nothing about how those shoes are made)

[Bike Chick]

I don't think so. I would replace the insoles and everyone I know wears socks with their shoes. Of course I am saying this because I happen to have an awesome pair of Specialized carbon road shoes for sale. Only used 4 months and I shower every day--sometimes twice a day

[badger]

I'm sure you'd rather get "hell, used shoes are just as good as new, go for it!" rather than "last time I got used shoes, (she said they were only worn a couple of times), I got plantar's wart on my foot after wearing them".

If you feel comfortable getting used shoes, then go for it. But you're obviously having doubts if you're asking people, so I'd say buyer beware; sometimes you get more than you bargained for.

[itself]

This is interesting, and I suppose I could wipe the inside of the shoes with them:

Bleach
Bleach is far a more powerful anti-microbial agent than alcohol. Drug treatment clinics regularly advise addicts to immerse their syringes in a thinned down bleach solution. However, they are starting to move away from this because the bleach kits often don't kill Hepatitis, and sometimes don't even kill the relatively fragile AIDS virus.

Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing alcohol will disinfect and to some extent sterilize. However, most of the microbes we worry about (things like Hepatitis) aren't going to be killed using rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol might be a marginally acceptable way to clean your own supplies, but if these supplies have been handled by or used on anyone else, alcohol isn't going to cut it. That means that if you use a pair of clamps to pierce a friend, that alcohol isn't going to get rid of their germs


Might work, but I think I will alas, abandon, this idea, unless I go back to wearing socks riding. I get such bad hot spots, I have gone without socks since I moved to AZ. Even the thinest sock didn't work, just plain barefoot.

Lisa

[OakLeaf]

You're not going to get hepatitis or HIV or swine flu through your shoes.

You've basically only got two things to worry about, wart viruses and athlete's foot fungi.

Here's what the CDC says generally about disinfection. (Note that alcohol is not effective against non-enveloped viruses like HPV; soaking for 10 minutes in a 1% bleach solution is broadest spectrum but probably hardest on the shoes; 3% peroxide is good against viruses and "fair" against fungi.)

But it's not all that easy to re-infect yourself with either plantar warts or athlete's foot from your own shoes, so I doubt if someone else's shoes would be different. If it were me and the shoes appeared clean, I'd give them a wipe with a weak bleach solution, maybe replace the insoles, and wouldn't worry about it any more.

[shootingstar]

If it's a shoe to protect one's feet but not for walking around much and worn only a couple of times previously, sounds okay.

Where I draw the line for myself, is to look at the whole undersole/heel of the shoes and see how it's worn down. I cannot bring myself to wear and walk around other people's shoes, particularily worn down even abit because my gait and weight pressure on how shoes get worn down will not match to another person's gait and how shoe is worn down.

I wear customized orthotics even in cycling shoes...hence, have no intention of undermining its great corrective benefits to my feet, and posture by wearing shoes that aren't worn down at the heel/sole in same way as my feet.

Sounds picky, but customized orthotics are hundreds of $$ --more than cycling shoes.

[Kiwi Stoker]

Spray disinfectant (eg Dettol) can be used in shoes (says so on the can). I'm a bit wary of bleach as you could end up with white (or other coloured) spotted socks.

And chuck out the insoles.

[itself]

What is Dettol, never heard of it. And yes, I have custom insoles so no problem there!

Lisa

[Kiwi Stoker]

Sorry! I kind of figured this British product had taken over the world as it's really big in NZ/Australia and Asian countries. Here's a link.

http://www.dettol.co.uk/home.shtml

<aside> I have fond memories of dettol and it's smell- everytime I fell over and grazed something as a child, mum would bathe the wound in Dettol. Hydrogen Peroxide and Iodine were not really big in NZ then.