taguy4

I finally found time to complete the paint job on my Boeris and reassemble it:

Now I'm trying to figure out more about the bike - specifically how old it is. I'm pretty sure I got it some time in the 1980's, but when I had the frame down to bare metal I found "79" stamped on one of the tubes. The bike was new when I got it as far as I know. My dad picked it up for me in at the Boeris shop when he was in Italy on a business trip. He worked for Fiat Agri (who owned part of Hesston Corporation at the time) and Boeris supplied the bikes for the Fiat bike racing team. This bike was my racing and training bike for many years until I had my Weigle frame built for me; after I got my Weigle frame I had this Boeris' frame custom painted Petty Blue by Peter to match my Weigle, but I never liked the way it looked after that and I regretted it and quit riding it eventually. Interestingly I thought having a made to measure frameset custom made for me would make me faster, but I was faster on this Boeris than I ever was on my Weigle even though the Weigle had Campy C-record parts on it and this bike just has Campy Gran Sport parts (which are still nice parts).

Since I ended up becoming an auto painter for a living and had the skills I needed to repaint it myself I always wanted to return this bike back to the way it was when I rode all those miles on it. It took me a long time to do this because of being busy with other things, losing interest in cycling, and having a hard time figuring out the decals and color. After much research and hard work this is close to how I remember it being when I got it and rode it.

Any ideas on how old this is? I tried contacting Boeris - who is still in business - but they never responded to my email (I even translated it to Italian). This is more to satisfy my curiosity than anything else as I plan on keeping this bike for the rest of my life and riding it often. This is like having an old friend back!

SJX426 

Good story and clad you revived an old friendship!

The Golden Boy 

A 1970s SL/SP bike bought for you by your Dad- that's awesome!

A 1970s SL/SP bike repainted by Peter Weigel- that's awesome!

Good luck!!!

Giacomo 1 

What a beautiful bike.

Ive never heard of this marque before, nor even seen one. It definitely has that Italian look to it, but the name threw me off since its not Italian.

I would go with the 79 guess since you found it stamped on the tube. It could have been a 79 leftover that your dad picked up in 80, or that might just be the date the tubes were rolled and then put together in 80. Either way, 79/80, its a real beauty.

Drillium Dude 

You should show us some more detailed pics of that beauty. We don't see many Boeris here, and the small builders turned out some exquisite frames.

Great job getting it back to "original" spec

DD

OTS 

Beautiful bike.
Good work.
Great story.
Well done.

taguy4

Thanks for all the great replies. Here's a few more pictures of the bike:

taguy4

From what little I've found online about these bikes the frames were built by Giuseppe Villata. I was never privy to the negotiations that went into my dad acquiring the bike. Knowing how thrifty my dad has always been he probably got it free from Fiat, or at least at a steep discount. He was pretty far up in the ranks of the Hesston Corporation branch of the company and worked with the Italians almost exclusively back then, so I could see him getting it for nothing or next to nothing. All I remember is asking him to look into what it would take to get a racing bike from Italy before he left on his monthly business trip there, and this is what he came up with.

AMDG

Sweet Boeris!