# Five Ten Freerider sole issue / ?'s



## atarione (Aug 24, 2018)

Hello

So I have been riding with my Five Ten Freerider shoes for sometime now over a year riding a fair bit 3x ~ times a week maybe 4~5 times in the summer even..

the uppers of said freerider's are not bad at all.. the soles aren't bad either except: a bit of edge pin wear and a sort of deep looking puncture on the left shoe.. I guess from pin(s) of my pedals or ?? whatever it is one small spot but the while not clear through (i don't think? the puncture in the sole is pretty deep.)

I'm not sure if this matches what other's experience is with these shoes they aren't "cheap" but then again they aren't that expensive (on sale at least)

It seems years ago (pre addias?) five ten sold resole kits ? which seem to be no longer made, is it possible to have a cobbler get the stealth soles / worth the effort.

for cost reasons / environmental reasons I'd like to sort these out vs buying new shoes if possible.. if it goes all the way through the sole that is going to be an "issue" certainly.

not sure if I should just get some shoegoo and put that in the spot and see how it goes?

pics:



















honestly even if the puncture went through and ended this pair I'd buy another as I quite like these shoes .. super grippy and I love the look of these shoes.. but I'd rather get more life from this pair if I can keep the issue on the sole from getting worse.


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## TwiceHorn (Jun 18, 2014)

That's a pretty fair amount of wear from the shoes. Looks like they're still good to go for a while, too.

Can probably shoe-goo the puncture to seal it and keep it from catching on a pin, to some degree at least.

I don't think a resole is a realistic option.


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## atarione (Aug 24, 2018)

TwiceHorn said:


> That's a pretty fair amount of wear from the shoes. Looks like they're still good to go for a while, too.
> 
> Can probably shoe-goo the puncture to seal it and keep it from catching on a pin, to some degree at least.
> 
> I don't think a resole is a realistic option.


hey thanx for the reply.. yeah I guess I'll try the shoe-goo for now and hope that it doesn't get worse for awhile at least.. bummer about that one spot because otherwise can't complain about how these shoes have held up to a good bit of riding so far.


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## DNW (Mar 11, 2006)

I am on my second pair of Freerider Pros. After about a season mine looked like that, maybe a little more pin wear on the soles. After two seasons the soles are a lot more torn up, with several holes like the one you have there, but still worked just fine. They also had little separation between the lower and upper where the forefoot flexes, but it never got any worse and was just cosmetic. 

I tried a pair of Ride Concept shoes, and the soles held up better but the grip did not compare and I am back on the Five Tens. I will take faster wear for more grip. 

Five Ten's are not perfect, but I have not found anything with that much grip and that is most important to me. I still have my old pair as a backup, one thing they suck at is drying out after getting wet.


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## atarione (Aug 24, 2018)

DNW said:


> I am on my second pair of Freerider Pros. After about a season mine looked like that, maybe a little more pin wear on the soles. After two seasons the soles are a lot more torn up, with several holes like the one you have there, but still worked just fine. They also had little separation between the lower and upper where the forefoot flexes, but it never got any worse and was just cosmetic.
> 
> I tried a pair of Ride Concept shoes, and the soles held up better but the grip did not compare and I am back on the Five Tens. I will take faster wear for more grip.
> 
> Five Ten's are not perfect, but I have not found anything with that much grip and that is most important to me. I still have my old pair as a backup, one thing they suck at is drying out after getting wet.


Thanx for the reply and the input on the RC shoes.. I'd looked at these in the past.. but I'll probably get another pair of Five Tens when the time comes, as the high grip is pretty awesome..and the Five Tens fit my slightly wider feet pretty well.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Mine did similar with the edge pins, but not as far out to the edge of the shoe. Part of the problem is that my pedals weren't quite wide enough to support my feet, so the outside edge of the shoe curled around the pedal. It REALLY accelerated wear in that spot, and I got some ugly holes. I still have the shoes and I would like to do a resoling so I can wear them, maybe just as casual shoes. But right now, water leaks through the holes, so they're not much use even for casual purposes in my wet climate.

Wider pedals helped with the problem, but I also replaced the regular Freeriders with Freerider Contacts (stiffer sole) and I've managed a few years of use out of those. I will probably need to replace the soles on the Contacts next year, if I can find a place that'll do the work.

I'm also bummed that 5.10 stopped selling the resole kits, so I'm not sure what I'll end up with even if I find someone willing to do the work. I also find it wasteful to just toss shoes with perfectly intact uppers.


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

Rocky Mountain Resole will stick stealth soles on sandals or whatever. So they might? I'm not sure how well it hold up under bike usage, since the forces from pins are unlike what you'd encounter hiking around. Not cheap, but might be worth a call if you want to recycle what you have.

https://rmresole.com/product/5-10-aqua-stealth-boot-resole/


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## atarione (Aug 24, 2018)

Harryman said:


> Rocky Mountain Resole will stick stealth soles on sandals or whatever. So they might? I'm not sure how well it hold up under bike usage, since the forces from pins are unlike what you'd encounter hiking around. Not cheap, but might be worth a call if you want to recycle what you have.
> 
> https://rmresole.com/product/5-10-aqua-stealth-boot-resole/


oh boy.. the pricing on that looks more than a new pair (on sale) I can get a new pair for $64~ish right now on a closeout colorway (not my 1st choice color but not horrible)..

damn throwaway culture is frustrating... there are places that can fix stuff.. but since their skills / time / materials it seems frequently cheaper to buy new stuff oh well..

still good to know that at least some folks can, next time my wife needs a pair of her (100s no joke good god) shoes repaired I may tag along to the shoe repair place around here and ask them what if anything they could do...

it would be kewl if you could just buy a new size 10.5 (for obvious reasons?) stealth Freerider sole and have a cobbler remove the old sole (you can see where it is bonded on at the factory and put a new one on.. shoe would in theory (if competent person did the job) like new essentially?? the uppers seem to be more or less indestructible, would be awesome from a waste stream perspective to keep 90+% of these shoes out of the waste stream and just put a new sole on.

but for the price of a new pair with ??? functionality I'm not sure I'm that earth friendly or not ...


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## TwiceHorn (Jun 18, 2014)

I haven't torn apart Freeriders, but I think the outsole is a "cup" unit that's glued and stitched to the upper. There's not enough there to cut off the old outsole and replace it.

I think about the best you could do is glue a new layer of tread over the old, maybe with some grinding to the old to flatten the surface and rough it up. Not sure how well that would hold up, as noted here. But adhesives do some remarkable stuff, particularly if it's an application where the adhesive can "melt" the two surfaces for bonding as would seem to be the case here.


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## norton05 (Sep 20, 2005)

So I consider myself a pro when it comes to making shoes last as long as possible. For whatever reason, I can absolutely destroy most shoe soles in only a few weeks- skateboarding, MTB, whatever, I kill them quickly. Not about to drop +$100 on shoes every month so I had to learn. My advice:

Shoe Goo! #1 best fix. Buy it, use it, love it. You want the clear stuff in the red tube. Skip the colored versions, they don't work as well plus nobody will see the soles of your shoes anyway.

Before you try to apply, your sole needs to be *clean*. Get a stiff bristle brush and go at the soles with very hot water and dish soap or degreaser. Once clean, be sure nothing touches the sole until you're done, not even your hands. 

Once clean (and dry!), to fix holes you place the nozzle of the Goo tube flat against the hole and squeeze hard. The goal is to force Goo into the hole instead of covering the top of it. Once you think it's full, get a scrap of cardboard with a straight edge and scrape the Goo flat with the dots. Set it to dry with the sole facing up, level with the ground.

As it dries it will sink into the hole, so time to do it again. If you didn't touch it, no need to wash again. Repeat adding Goo, scraping flat, then letting dry a bit until the hole is level with the rest of the tread. If it dries too much successive applications will build up layers that will separate over time, you want it fresh enough for the next apply to mix in with the previous so it's all one. I usually wait 30min to 1hr between rounds, just long enough for it to skin over.

Once the hole is filled it needs to cure. Let sit somewhere warm and dry for 48hrs before touching it. Ventilation is a good idea as the fumes are mean. When fully cured it will feel harder than you expect, but pedal pins will sink in just fine. If anything, repaired areas are *more* grippy then before!

You can repeat this several times until the entire sole needs attention. At that point you start applying a line of Goo across the entire midsole area and forcing it between the 5.10 dots with your flat edge, basically turning your Freerider into a Contact. It won't look pretty but by doing this you can get a lot more miles from your shoes.

IME resoles are not a thing. If you can get someone to do it, it costs too much and the quality is not there. They will offer Vibram instead of Stealth and when they see an MTB shoe instead of a climbing shoe, out come the excuses. Don't bother. Even when 5.10 sold resole kits, it never worked very well.

Hopefully this is helpful, apologies for the long post.**damn that's a long post, sorry! Wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything.


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## GlazedHam (Jan 14, 2004)

What size are your's? I'll trade you for any of these, all of which are still in circulation. I've pitched a few that were worse.

From left to right:
1) FreeRider Contact
2) FreeRider Contact
3) FreeRider Pro
4) FreeRider ??? Danny MacAskill model
5) FreeRider


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## norton05 (Sep 20, 2005)

Oh hell yeah that's a great picture, you straight killed those things, I love it!  Glad to see someone else murdering 5.10s like that. I bet the uppers have plenty of life left? The grey ones look really good besides the holes, mine did the same thing- not quite as grippy as regular Stealth but much better overall longevity. You know, except for the holes 

I just grabbed 2 new pairs of Sleuth DLXs from Zappos with a 20% off coupon, $55 each. Looks like a slightly fancier Freerider. Should be OK for urban riding and looking somewhat respectable at the office.


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## JaxMustang50 (Jun 26, 2017)

Glazed lol, that's how mine look after 6 months or so. 
Shoe goo is the savior as Notron describes. I've bought myself many more miles on them with it.

When I first started reading this thread, I thought damn I must be doing something wrong with mine. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only five ten shredder.


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## rmac (Oct 26, 2004)

JaxMustang50 said:


> Glazed lol, that's how mine look after 6 months or so.
> Shoe goo is the savior as Notron describes. I've bought myself many more miles on them with it.
> 
> When I first started reading this thread, I thought damn I must be doing something wrong with mine. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only five ten shredder.


This thread is making me feel a little better too (need to work on the shoe goo solution). These are about 1 year of 3/4 rides/week:







These are after 6 months of 3/4 rides/week.







It's still frustratingly expensive compared to getting 6-7 years out of spd shoes before.

I wore my running shoes on one ride (by mistake) - they were so much more comfortable than the no-cushion bike shoes. I was worried about tearing them up but didn't appear to do any damage from just the one ride. Has anyone found cheaper (than 510s) running shoes that have worked OK for them? I think I would be willing to give up some of the 'power' of no cushion for some comfort and $ savings.


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## krackgoat20 (Sep 9, 2019)

rmac said:


> This thread is making me feel a little better too (need to work on the shoe goo solution). These are about 1 year of 3/4 rides/week:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


haha yeah I had similar moments, i have run Nike lunarglide as flats somedays, but in a crash or rock hit my foot is gonna get destroyed. you can buy D30 insoles or vans ultracush insoles for comfort if they fit.


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## amerikalars (May 7, 2013)

Hi guys! I have a problem with both pairs of my Impact low (one pair is the Sam Hill version), and have not found anyone talking about this issue on-line. These are very solid shoes, with no problem with the upper or the soles, but the mid-sole (which is like a foam) seems to be the weak link, separating from both the upper and the stealth sole. Any advise on how to fix these otherwise good shoes would be very much appreciated, such as what kind of glue might be compatible with this foam mid-sole.


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## JaxMustang50 (Jun 26, 2017)

Shoe Goo.
Works wonders. I use it to fill the holes in the soles and extend the life of these highly consumable, way too expensive, work too damn good to give up shoes.


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## amerikalars (May 7, 2013)

Thanks for your input. So it is Shoe Goo to the rescue. It's because I like them, the sole and the uppers are in good shape, that I want to try extend their life a bit. It's a shame with this foam material, oh well....


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