The Campagnolo Victory was a tidy looking object, created to replace the legendary Campagnolo Nuovo Record with a derailleur with a more 1980s style.

But somehow it did not quite have the quality of finish required to succeed in that role. Perhaps the expectation was impossibly high - for some years the Nuovo Record had not really justified its stellar reputation - but even that doesn't excuse some of the Victory's more cynical weaknesses. The inside parallelogram plate was often poorly polished - as were the inside surfaces of the pulley cage. And then there was the over-complex system for adjusting the swing at the b-pivot. SunTour had been showing how this should be done since the 1960s - but Campagnolo had to reinvent the wheel with something just slightly worse.

This example is the first iteration of the Victory design. This model is sometimes referred to as 'Victory Corsa' as it is kind-of-labelled as such in the 1985 Campagnolo's catalogue n. 18 bis. What is unarguable is that it is given the part number 0102045 in that catalogue. Its most distinctive feature is the plastic layer embedded in the outer parallelogram plate to prevent the adjustment screws from loosening.

Some key features of this first style of Victory are:

• The 'flying quick release' logo on the outer parallelogram plate.
• An outer pulley cage plate with a curved leading edge and a relatively extravagant 'pusher plate' area around the guide pulley.
• Main Allen bolts with nothing engraved on the heads.
• Slotted, headless adjustment screws, with a plastic thread-locking layer embedded in the outer paralleogram plate.
• A distinctively shaped cable clamp nut as also seen on the Campagnolo 980.

• Derailleur brands: Campagnolo
• Categories: Campagnolo - defeat snatched from the jaws of Victory
• Country: Italy
• Date of introduction: 1984
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: 0102045
• Weight: 196g
• Maximum cog: 28 teeth (bike shop folklore, although I am not sure why!)
• Total capacity: 28 teeth (bike shop folklore, although I am not sure why!)
• Pulley centre to centre: 46mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: aluminium