Newly re-crowned US National Cyclocross Champion Katie Compton won her eleventh title this month in Austin on a bike she helped develop over the course of her two-year relationship with Trek.
Continuing our annual tradition of looking at Compton's winning bike, we grabbed an exclusive look at her 2015 Trek Boone 9 disc brake bike, fresh off her victory in Austin, with a half lap of the Zilker Park course's mud still coating the tires and pedals (no recycled photos here, see her Trek Boone from 2014 Nationals and Trek Crockett from 2013 Nationals for past bike photos).
We also chatted with husband Mark Legg-Compton about Compton's setup including pedal choices and the chain drop issues she face earlier in the season. See more of our ever-growing 2015 National Championship bike profiles here.
Compton, like Trek and Shimano-sponsored Sven Nys, had some notable chain drop issues this season. We asked Legg-Compton about the root of these problems, and got two explanations, one specific and one quite vague. “It was a combination of [front derailleur trim adjustments and] a component that was failing on us that we swapped out that was working fine but decided not to work, so we swapped that out,” Legg-Compton revealed.
As for the derailleur trim issues, Legg-Compton was surprised by the solution. “We got some extra info from Shimano, and managed to update the front derailleurs…the firmware and [now] I can adjust the trim with them without a laptop. Who knew you could that for the front? It’s not on anywhere on any manual on anything.”
As for Nys’ issues, Legg-Compton revealed to Cyclocross Magazine that it was part setup and adjustment, and part situational. “Trek’s Matt [Shriver] flew over to Belgium to get the bikes sorted out,” he said, as apparently Nys’ own mechanics didn’t have everything perfectly adjusted.
He also said that Nys “had a couple of issues of the chain coming off while he was running.” The belief is that he accidentally hit the shifters while running, and that combined with a bit of back pedaling while running or while remounting, would drop the chain.
At Koksijde, Legg-Compton learned how to customize the trim of the 9070 Dura-Ace front derailleur to reduce chain drops. Katie Compton’s 2015 National Championship-winning Trek Boone cyclocross bike. © Cyclocross Magazine
