I think racers were a conservative crowd. You can't win a race that you don't finish, so they were motivated to stay with components they trusted to last through a tough day, preferably many tough days. I think that's the basis of the "stodginess" of Campy customers. Plus, I have had a surprising failure or two with some late '90s stuff, not that we can talk about it much on CR.
On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 8:05 AM, verktyg <verktyg@aol.com> wrote:
> For the sake of academics, Frank Berto in his book "The Dancing Chain"
> discusses these issues:
>
> "Tullio Campagnolo died in February 1983... Tullio's son Valentino took
> over the reins, and one of his first actions was to make a serious run at
> the mid-price market... Two new gruppos were introduced, Victory and
> Triomphe."
>
>
> What I'd heard was that Valentino was attempting to drag his following of
> loyal NR/SR customers kicking and screaming into the 1980s while at the same
> time taking a shot at Suntour and Shimano who controlled much of the mid
> priced bike market. Valentino and Gran Sport components weren't going to cut
> it.
>
> Campy's top derailleurs, cranks, seatpost, pedals and other components
> hadn't changed much appearance wise since the 50s or 60s. Meanwhile the
> Japanese competition were bringing out new products on what seemed like a
> monthly basis.
>
> The Triomphe gruppo was aimed at replacing all of the sub Nuovo Record
> components while the Victory components were supposed to take over the aging
> NR gruppo itself.
>
> The "new" Record later renamed C-Record gruppo was aimed at the Super
> Record market.
>
> The stodginess of Campagnolo buyers combined with the cost increases of the
> new gruppos over the old stuff condemned them from the start. The new look
> Victory and Triomphe components never caught on and C-Record wasn't fully
> accepted until the late 80s when SR components were no longer available.
>
> Add to that, inexpensive Campy NR and SR gruppos were still available into
> the mid 80s, well past the intended manufacturing cut off dates.
>
>
> Personally, I never cared for the look of the rear derailleurs or some of
> the headsets. I think that the cranks offered a pleasant change from 20
> years of Campy cranks and dozens of lookalikes... "Oh no! Not another Campy
> bike!"
>
> BTW, Tullio must have hated his son to have named the Valentino derailleurs
> after him!
>
> Chas. Colerich
> Oakland, CA USA
>
>
> Steve Whitting wrote:
>
>> I seem to recall an article from somewhere (possibly Bicycling magazine?)
>> in the early 80s about Victory/Triomphe. IIRC, after the earlier Valentino,
>> this supposedly was Campy's venture into non-pro peleton components to
>> compete with the Japanese (Shimano/Suntour/Sugino) stuff.
>>
>> Steve Whitting
>> Prairieville, Louisiana USA
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
--
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA