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