In 1910 Lorenzo Boeris founded a bicycle spare parts business in Torino, Italy. In 1927 he started to produce bikes under the Ciclosport brand. By 1957 the company was also producing high quality racing bikes under the Boeris brand. At its peak the company produced 16,000 bikes per year. Today there is still a bicycle business called Boeris in Torino and members of the Boeris family are still active in it. It produces top-end custom bikes.

For our story, the key figure is Lorenzo's son Angelo, who immediately after the second world war, took out two patents. One was for a quick release and the other for a rod operated gear system. Both were in the tradition of Tullio Campagnolo's offerings of the time. There are some grounds for considering the Boeris system to be more composed than that of Campagnolo. A later Boeris gear system, developed from the one featured in the patent, incorporated a front derailleur.

It is not clear if the Boeris gear systems ever progressed beyond the prototype stage, but photos show a highly developed and well finished device. Whether or not they were ever produced in volume, they certainly look ready for production.

My thanks to Andre from London for supplying the information for this story.