Katie Compton's Cross Bike

The other day I was looking through cyclingnews.com and came a cross an article about Katie Compton's new Stevens cyclocross bike. While the article was mostly about the bike's new design and features something in the photos really caught my eye. The details.






Now a lot of those details are cool little things that her sponsors do for her special. Things like the custom paint job (she's the US champion) on her Stevens frame. The red, white and blue decals on her Zipp wheels as well as on the anodized hubs. The really neat KfC (her nickname) printing on her Dugast tubulars (drooling here), her wheels and her shifter levers. The custom Wick Werks 44 tooth chain ring to fit the Zipp VumaQuad crank she runs.

But then there are the personal touches. The custom gripped (with sand and supper glue) egg beater pedals. The beautiful cabling job on the bike. Stuff like having all the lettering facing out but also the really slick job with the shrink wrap on the cable ends as well as were they enter the cable housing. The silver and red chain.

Only out of love and respect for her and the machine would all that be done. And I don't think it's by chance that her husband is also her mechanic. Care and attention like that really make me step back and pause. I'm sure there are a lot of mechanics out there (pro and otherwise) that do just as much for their people's bikes but you don't see it to often. And it was really nice to see.

I've got another cross race this weekend. Its the PIR Cross Crusades. So I'll have a full report on that as well as (hopefully) some pictures on Monday. Until then....

Rubber side down,

Big E