jamesdak 

So as I posted in another thread I picked this up a couple of weeks ago. Victory components and a 10 footer paint job on it. First ride not too impressed but better wheels and some nice Veloflex Master's in 700 x 27 really changed things. It's feeling so smooth and fast now! So the potential is there but I need to address a few things. Bear in mind I've not really done any maintenance to it yet.

Now the brakes suck like really bad. I filed some material off the old pads but that did nothing. I do have new Kool Stop pads coming but they got stuck in shipment back east. If they fix things that's something but if not then I'll definitely want to move on to different components. The other thing letting me down is the rear shifting. I've got a lot of other bikes setup for friction shifting that work well, good feel, crisp shifts, accurate. That's not the case on this one. Slow to shift and when it does it over-shifts and I have to trim back. And I really feel nothing in the shifter at all. It's all just a bit vague. I wonder if that's just the Victory parts or could it be something else in terms of adjustment?

If I upgrade I'm considering several options. I'd love to find a newer Campagnolo silver 11 speed groupset but they seem pretty hard to find now and crazy money. But that would allow me to keep running those wheels which have a Shimano freehub on them.

Or....I have a fairly decent silver 9 speed groupset on hand. I could use that I guess and then either source some nice silver wheels or maybe grab the ones off my Serotta Nova Special. I've been considering putting some Zonda's on the Serotta anyway.

Or... I have two mint Dura Ace 7400 series 8 speed setup I could use. They'd look great and I'm not normally a purist but on this bike that just seems wrong.

Or... maybe just try throwing the Chorus 9 speed RD on it with the Victory shifters and see if the shifting improves. I've got an old Orbea running a modern RD with old 5 speed DT shifters and it's the best shifting friction setup I have.

Or...a modern black Campagnolo 11 speed which will be easier to find and then keep on these matching wheels. I'm just not feeling the black parts on this but it would be light. Right now it's 20 lbs 4 ozs as in the pic below.

Anyway, I'd welcome any opinions. Normally my vision is clear on my bikes but I'm going back and forth on this one. I just want to be able to ride 'er fast without fighting the bike. Let it live as it's supposed to.



Oh and cosmetically, I'm going to swap out the bottle cages for either white or maybe red metallic if I can find some. I have the reds on the similar color Basso Gap and they look sharp! White Keo pedals will balance this out also.

I should also say I'm trying to keep things as cheap as possible. Got a little crazy with the bike budget this year. Bought this, the Serotta Nova Special, a Miyata 914SE and my grail Team Z Lemond. Gotta get some restraint going on the expenditures, LOL!

Spaghetti Legs 

I’ve never ridden a Victory group. My De Rosa came with that group, original owner rode it for years, so that’s something. Aesthetics didn’t appeal to me for the De Rosa so I moved it on and put C Record, then Record 8 on the bike. When it came out Victory was the next level down from C Record, although I guess you could argue Super Record was still in the hierarchy between the two.

Regarding shifting, what chain are you using? I generally use SRAM or KMC 8 speed chains with good results on my 6 and 7 speed friction set ups. Regarding brakes, AFAIK the Victory brakes are the same basic design as the slightly older Record so I would hold out with tweaks in setup and new pads before giving up on them.

devinfan

Beautiful bike! Before giving up on the Victory, I’d take apart the shifters and clean them, also make sure someone didn’t service them and put the washers back in the wrong order. Switch to new cables and housing and put an 8 speed chain on there. When it’s properly set up it shifts as well as anything else of the era so I’d try that first! A lot cheaper than buying a new group and personally I think Victory is a nice looking group and suits the frame.

plonz 

No purist here either but the one Colnago frameset I have would get Campy if I were to ever build it. I’m with OP in thinking it just seems right.

I’m not a fan of the wheels on that bike but if budget leaves them on, I’d go the way of the black Campy 11 speed group mentioned.

Casting budget restraints aside, I’d go with a silver wheelset and a silver Campy group. Given it’s a repaint, I’d modernize with a 9-11 spd brifter group.

Sir_Name 

If considering budget I’d just give everything a refresh. Start there. New cables and lined housings as mentioned. Pads are on their way.

Judging from what I can see of the wheels I would have assumed a cassette, but can only count maybe six sprockets from my phone screen...how many speeds and how many miles on it? Shaped cogs like hyperglide? A fresh unit should help if whatever is there now is tired. New 9sp quality chain even if running 6/7 in back.

Clean and rebuild the shift levers with fresh grease. Maybe a bit of triflow in loop of housing to the RD if you don’t replace it with something lined. Give the RD a good cleaning while you’re at it, maybe rebuild that as well...same up front...

mackgoo

There seems to be some good information here.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...eformance.html

SurferRosa

Using Victory rear mechs on two bikes, both with new Sunrace chromed 7-speed freewheels, Campy doubles and newish 8-speed chains. One uses Triomphe shifters, the other, Shimano 600. Everything has been overhauled. They're both smooth and quiet when the chain is clean.

repechage

Make sure the derailleur hanger is aligned
new pads are a must
if you don’t like the stopping then Chorus monoplaners

I admit I am a plain spoke guy.
I would leave the bottle cages too
puts me in the restrained camp
only one bike with one contrasting cage.

droppedandlost 

Since you have it, put the 9 speed RD on and see if it makes a difference. That should help give you a direction.

jamesdak 

Thanks all, some good suggestions here. I finished sorting out the Nova Special today so now I can concentrate on this one......or the knocking crank on the 914SE. There's always something, LOL!

jamesdak 

Short update, the Kool Stop pads arrived yesterday finally. Ordered these from Porkchop BMX who had them in stock and shipped them quickly. They just got held up in GA by USPS for some reason. Went out to changed these out after working fully expecting to have to struggle to get the old pads out. Nope, super easy. First one pushed right out with just my fingers. The other three were tighter, a little PB blaster and then they too slipped out with minimal effort. Cleaned up the calipers, pad holders and hardware and then used a little down to install the new pads. The went on with a lot more effort than the old ones came off with. But.... dumb me forgot to put the bolt back in the first holder before sliding in the first Kool Stop pad, doh! Now that one was a bit of an effort to get back off. Wound up using a block of wood to press that new pad out. Once I finished the pad change I went out for a short test of the new brakes. Yeah, I can stop now! The front is super strong the rear grabs inconsistently but that may be a rim/adjustment issue. I threw the old wheels on this to keep the red ones clean while I degrease and service this old beast. The old rear rim is much narrower than the front one.

I've also got a better respect for these Victory brakes now. After spending time on my friends old Miyata 312 with Dia Compe brakes you can certainly tell these Campagnolo brakes are in a whole other class of quality. Looking forward now to attacking that RD. Current plan is to full service the drivetrain, throw a new 8 speed cassette on the good wheels, new 8 speed chain, and then see how good I can dial in the friction shifting. If I get it working well I stick to the parts on it and just address the handlebar/lever setup. Right now those levers are way too far down on bars for my taste, not comfortable at all. Oh and the bolts for the bottle cage on the downtube are totally seized right now. Gave them a healthy dose of PB blaster when I finished tonight and hopefully can get them free tomorrow. I did find some nice red anodized bottle cages and want to swap them for the old ones as long as I can get those bolts free.

3alarmer 

I can't speak to where youi find the levers most comfortable, but you can probably address your overshift and slow shifting issues by replacing that rear cable housing in your photo with something more like a plastic lined standard brake cable housing, or if you want very immediate response, some index longitudinally stranded housing. The brake cable housing is a little more flexible, so easier to use, but either will work if you do it right. And it looks lie the housing on there now is some of that stainless, spring wound stuff.

jamesdak 

Yeah, that's totally happening when I service the RD. Also have to readjust the limits to cover the range of the whole cassette.

The handlebars of 40cm and I prefer 42. So I may swap those out too if I need a different ramp area shape to get comfortable with these levers.

SJX426 

@jamesdak - good looking bike. I too prefer standard spokes but... Lot of effort to change.
I like the SS cages, or are they AL. If the later, yeah replace.
I think the black pedals complement the black post, stem and rims. Not to mention finding white Keo's.

You might try rotating the bars up to get an idea of where you want the levers. They are definitely violating the location law! Old bars make it difficult to ride on the hoods and have the levers in a reasonable location. It is always a compromise. Now that I look at the bars.... maybe it won't be so bad as mine.

RobbieTunes

Well, if it's a 54cm, I think it's toast and you can dispose of it in my direction.
@crank_addict likes Victory stuff, seems to work well on his Bottechia and a couple of other bikes.

The key is to not have to fight it to go fast. At our age, our lungs and legs have enough to worry about.

Older Colnago's generally look nice with Campy. Just seems sort of right.
I've had to convert mine to compact, a silver Centaur UT crankset was added,
but otherwise it's "oldish-school" not old-school, with older Ergos.

Have to admit I went DA9100/9000 on my new CLX. Not sorry.
As penance, I'm converting my Cipollini from SRAM to Campy....just in case the ledger's being written....

jadocs

I just stopped in to say that is a gorgeous bike!!!

I recommend Campagnolo 11 as well. I have a feeling anything you do is going to look great on that bike. If you are going to do new wheels, I recommend going tubeless. I'm running Campag 11 on my Master with tubeless tires and the ride is incredible.

jamesdak 

Well.... I'm leaning towards leaving this as is mainly if I can get the rear sorted. Scrounged around in all my parts stashes and found pretty much everything I should need to refurbish this and try it again as is.

So last night I took off the old chain, and started cleaning the RD. Will totally degrease and relube it as well as polish what I can while it's off. Have to wait for the new pulleys and cassette (getting harder to find 8 speed road cassette) to get in before i can get it all back together. I've got new housing and cable for the RD just waiting. Going with a 12-23 8-speed cassette as long as the RD will cover it.

jamesdak 

Well, more on this and a question or two for the experts. The pulley were a mess. teeth worn, real gritty and more side to side play than I've ever seen with any pulleys to include the modern indexing ones that do have some side to side movement. For now I threw on a set of the Velo Orange ones since they had different size bushings and match the frame color, LOL! But the instructions with the pulleys didn't include this old of a RD as an option. I wound up going with the thickest bushing as those with the original dustcaps seemed to fit right so that the pulley cage went back together with the two pulley bolts flush like it was originally. Yet, it seems really wide to me now. Is that my imagination?


Does this look right?

The rest of the RD cleaned up nicely and I think is ready to go. I just need to put back on the other wheels with the new 8 speed cassette and then see if this RD will shift over the whole range. I'm trying a 12-25 8 speed cassette for now. I've got a bag full of miscellaneous ferrules but had the devil of a time finding one that would fit inside this RD to secure the housing. New housing and cable are ready.....I think.

What's the word on servicing these shifters? I've worked on newer indexing shifter but not older Campagnolo friction shifters. Don't want to get any lube where it doesn't belong but man do these feel super stiff right now after riding my Opus III yesterday with some sexy Superbe Pro DT shifters. Thanks!

jamesdak 

Well, let me close this one out with an update. Finally got back to sorting this out today. Have been messing with it here and there but mainly focusing on other bike projects. Both derailleurs were cleaned, degreased, and then all the pivot points lubed with grease or Triflow. Took off both shifters, disassembled, degreased and cleaned everything. Polished the shifters while I had them off to include the internal surfaces. Greased 'em back up and put them back together. Little grease on the DT braze-on's and put them back on. New cable housing and ferrules for the RD. Then I put the red Fulcrum Zero wheels back on with a brand new SRAM 12-23 8 speed cassette. Also cut a new KMC chain to length and installed that. Had to adjust the RD a bit but got it shifting over the whole range of the cassette just fine. I should mention that I swapped out the very worn pulleys on the RD for some red alloy ones from Velo Orange.

Cabled it all back up and took it for a test ride. What a difference! Glad I listened to those that said the Victory stuff was good. This is like a whole new bike now. The shifting action is very light and precise. No more overshifting and then adjusting back. The whole is very quiet, even the pulleys. Happy about that. This thing just shifts beautifully now and I can even run up and down the whole cassette in one pass with no drama. This is working how a Campagnolo equipped Colnago should be.

Went with the red bottle cages for now. Stole the Keo blade pedals to throw on my newly built up Duell Vienna but threw a set of Keo Carbon's on this for now.

20 lbs, 5 ozs as pictured.


Looks really good now, as long as you don't get too close to see the bad paint. LOL!

Blinging up the RD.

RobbieTunes

Approval.

jadocs

I can’t get over how beautiful that bike is. You’re a lucky man!