Raleigh74

Hello all. I picked up this Colnago yesterday evening. I wasn’t in the market for another project, but it was my size and local...so of course I felt compelled to at least check it out.
I know Victories aren’t super collectible Colnagos, but like all my bikes, I was interested in a rider. It’s in pretty good shape (one owner), needs a new saddle (cracked), new cables/housing, a good cleaning/lube.

The couple I bought it from were super nice, the husband had bought it new. Lots of discussion about bikes, cycling history, and rides he had done...which to me makes the price of admission all the more worth it.

It included the original Ambrosio extra elite wheels and Maillard freewheel, along with a new set of unmounted Michelin Lithion tires, and a couple of jerseys.

Any thoughts on bar tape? I was thinking white or black and a new Turbo saddle to replace the Vetta.

Raleigh74

One more thing. I’ve never seen a super recessed bolt on a stem before, was this factory with an additional cap? You can’t tell from the pic, but the Allen bolt is way down there.

Miele Man

Shimano 600AX and Dura Ace AX also had deeply recessed stem and handlebar binder bolts. They had a screw on stem cap that screwed onto the top of the stem.

Cheers

Chombi1 

Lots of stems from the second half of the 80's and later, had recessed bolts like that on them and usually had a plastic garnish cap (usually with the stem's brand on it) friction fitted over the hole or into the Allen bolt socket below it, to finish it off.
The caps usually end up getting lost by it's owner, and you end up with a recessed.bolt look like you have on yours. A quick fix would be to buy a few washers of the right size that you could stack under the bolt head to bring it flush or close to flush to the top surface if the stem. Most mounting bolts should be long enough to accommodate the washers, but it will be good if you check that you have enough thread engagement with the stem's wedge below. The washers would be a bit unusual size-wise, but most stems do have a washer under their mounting bolts. So maybe a good bike shop can provide you a few.

Highmass

Congrats on the new bike. I´ve never heard of a Colnago Victory model before. Is it Campagnolo Victory, and is that the reason for the name?.
Under all circumstances, that frame is almost perfect in my opinion. A little chrome on the chainstays and seatstays, and it would have been just like a like a Colnago should be. But still, the right color, and none of the visually horrible profiled tubes. What tubing is it btw?
If the new saddle you plan on mounting is white, then I´d go for white bar tape. But personally I´d be tempted to get a yellow saddle, with matching cable housing and bar tape. The yellow should of course match the yellow filling in the pantos. I would also get some more classic tires, the red ones look out of place in my opinion.
Finally I would personally try to find a stem that is not black. An aluminum coloured one, would look so much more right to my eyes. But that might jusy be me, I detest black anodizing.
I think this bike has the potential to become an absolutely beautiful bike, with very little work, and at a quite modest cost.

SurferRosa

A beauty.

Love Campy Victory (and Triomphe). But be careful with those self extracting crank arm bolts.

T-Mar

The stem is likely a 3TTT AR84N, which was a common spec on mid-1980s Colnago. While the bolt is recessed more than a traditional stem, I have seen them recessed much deeper. It's a simple trick to save a few grams of weight with no other penalty. The deeper you recess the bolt into the quill, the more weight you save, as the bolt becomes shorter and being steel, it is relatively heavy. A typical, full length, recessed head, expander bolt weights 40-45g. You can easily eliminate up to around half of that by shortening the bolt.

crank_addict

Very nice find.

The mentioning in lack of chrome is subjective and ACCORDING to Ernesto, he claimed it deters from frame tube qualities and brittleness, and that's why he went to foil decals on the chain stay.

Some call it cheapening and yet chrome is greatly used on other Colnago's, especially forks.


As for the 3ttt stem, it should have a plastic cap with tiny setscrew. This to help prevent water or sweat sitting in the cavity.

SJX426 

@Crank addict - interesting statement from Ernesto. I was wondering why there was a foil decal. The rear DO is chrome so I assumed the chrome went pretty far on the stays. The chips appear to support chome under the foil.

P7140976, on Flickr

T-Mar

The Victory was introduced for 1985 and was a Super frameset shod with Campagnolo Victory. Early marketing copy even shows it with a chromed drive side chainstay. However, since it was near the bottom of the totem pole the chrome chainstay was probably eliminated as a cost concession. Chrome plating can cause hydrogen imbrittlement if it is not carefully baked, so there is some truth in what Colnago stated but it isn't an issue with proper process control. As stated, higher models had at least chromed chainstays and often more extensive chrome. Furthermore, the bicycles supplied to the 1985 Del Tongo - Colnago and Kwantum pro teams had a chromed chainstay and fully chromed forks. It seems to me that id there was a risk, you wouldn't want to chance a failure in a high visibility pro road race where it could quickly ruin a reputation. Consequently, the Colnago rationale seems to be a simple excuse to justify cost cutting and possibly to distinguish it from a standard Super frame.

Raleigh74

Mine has a fully chromed drive side chain stay with Colnago pantograph in yellow. I can take a pic tomorrow.

Raleigh74

Drillium Dude 

The foil decal was certainly a cost-cutting deal. Colnago was chroming dropouts, stays, fork crowns, and head lugs long before the attributed "brittleness" remark he is claimed to have been made. There's a recent thread on the 1980 Bicycling Colnago Super review in which the brittleness "quote" is used, but it's the only place I've ever seen it.

Regarding the bike, as T-Mar states, it's basically a Super with Victory components. For a time, Colnago was selling a number of built-up bikes, using the basic Super frame and a variety of gruppos. In addition to the Victory and Super, there was one called International as well.

This one is in fine shape is a great find. Enjoy!

DD