Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-09
2002-09-24
Hurley, Kevin (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
C280S259000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06454287
ABSTRACT:
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
The present application claims priority to Japanese Application No. P10-165108 filed Jun. 12, 1998, which application is incorporated herein by reference to the extent permitted by law.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a bicycle having a rotating force transmitting mechanism with an oscillating fulcrum point. More particularly, the invention relates to the bicycle wherein a crank lever is arranged between a sprocket and a pedal lever to transmit force applied to the pedal lever to the sprocket, and the oscillating fulcrum point of the pedal lever is slidable.
2. Related Art
The conventional bicycle is operated such that the crank-like pedals fixed at both sides of a shaft of the sprocket with a phase difference of 180° are stepped on by a rider. The pedal lever is rotated around the shaft of the sprocket to attain rotating force of the sprocket and this rotating force of the sprocket is transmitted to the rear wheel through the chain.
However, in recent development of the bicycle, there has been proposed to provide a bicycle having a driving force generating device with an oscillating fulcrum point, whereby the rider is less fatigued with a riding as compared with the conventional bicycle, and desired propulsion force can be attained.
FIG. 1
schematically shows a configuration of the related art bicycle having the driving force generating device with an oscillating fulcrum point. In
FIG. 1
, a bicycle
60
having the rotating force transmitting mechanism with the oscillating fulcrum point is constructed such that respective a front wheel
61
and a rear wheel
62
acting as moving wheel are attached to a pair of delta-shaped frames
63
,
64
, a handle
65
is attached to a front frame
63
and a saddle
66
is fixed to a rear frame
64
. These members are constructed in the same manner as the conventional bicycle.
A wheel shaft
61
a
of the front wheel
61
is rotatably attached to the extremity ends of a fork section
67
a
formed at the lower part of a handle frame
67
. Connecting portion
63
a
constituting the front frame
63
is extended longitudinally in a reverse direction which the bicycle is headed, from a holding part
63
c
holding the handle frame
67
rotatably. Connecting portion
63
b
also constituting the front frame
63
is extended in a rearward and downwardly slanting direction from the holding part
63
c
. The extremity ends of these connecting portions
63
a
,
63
b
are connected to a saddle frame
64
c
. The saddle frame
64
c
constitutes the rear frame
64
and is substantially in parallel with the handle frame
67
. The saddle
66
is fixed to this saddle frame
64
c.
Respective connecting portions
64
a
and
64
b
constituting the rear frame
64
are extended from the connecting portions
63
a
and
63
b
. The extremity ends of these connecting portions
64
a
,
64
b
are connected to each other to hold the wheel shaft
62
a
of the rear wheel
62
horizontally. Respective gears
75
R and
75
L (not shown) are attached and fixed to both ends of the wheel shaft
62
a
.
FIG. 1
illustrates the configuration of the bicycle in which only the gear
75
R at the right side toward a direction which a bicycle is headed, is shown.
The gear
75
R is engaged with a gear train, not shown, and the crank
76
R is fixed for transmitting its rotating force to the gear
75
R through the gear train. A crank pin
77
R is fixed to a position displaced in respect to a shaft
78
R of the crank
76
R. A right side pedal lever
72
R holds rotatably the crank pin
77
R so that the crank
76
R may be rotated with the crank pin
77
R.
The right side pedal lever
72
R attaches a right side pedal
71
R rotatably at a front end thereof. The pedal lever
72
R attaches a roller
73
R pivotally at a rear end thereof. The roller
73
R is freely slid in a guiding groove
74
R formed near the wheel shaft
62
a.
The pedal lever
72
R acts as a lever oscillating up and down with the roller
73
R pivoted at the pedal lever
72
R being applied as a fulcrum point.
When the rider steps on the pedal
71
R acting as a force applying point, the pedal
71
R is moved in a counter-clockwise direction along a locus S approximating to a flat ellipse shape. At the same time, the pedal lever
72
R is moved up and down in a predetermined angle with the roller
73
R being applied as a fulcrum point.
This motion allows the crank
76
R to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around the shaft
78
R through the crank pin
77
R acting as a lever force applying point of the pedal lever
72
a
. At this time, the roller
73
R acting as a fulcrum point for the pedal lever
72
R is slid (moved) laterally within the guiding groove
74
R. That is, the roller
73
R acts as an oscillating fulcrum point for the pedal lever
72
R.
While the crank
76
R is rotated, the rotating force of the crank
76
R is transmitted to the gear
75
R through the gear train. A clockwise directional rotation of the gear
75
R causes the wheel shaft
62
a
of the rear wheel
62
to rotate for obtaining propulsion force of the bicycle
60
. The propulsion force enables the bicycle
60
to run.
Since a left-side pedal lever
72
L (not shown) is provided with the same driving force transmitting mechanism as that of the right side pedal lever
72
R described above, a rider steps on the pedals
71
R and
71
L (not shown) alternatively by his (her) right and left feet to obtain propulsion force for the bicycle
60
. Thereby, the bicycle
60
may run.
The configuration of the aforesaid bicycle
60
, however, requires that the rotating force transmitting mechanisms for use in rotating the rear wheel
62
such as the crank
76
R, the gear
75
R and the guiding groove
74
R constituting the driving force inputting device with an oscillating fulcrum point, are arranged specially at both sides of the frames
63
,
64
. Due to this fact, such the bicycle has a problem that the number of component parts constituting the bicycle has been increased so that the manufacture of the bicycle has cost up and the body weight of the bicycle
60
is increased.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a less-expensive and light weight bicycle in which the configuration of the rotating force transmitting mechanism is made simple and the number of component parts is reduced, and further a smooth locus Q of motion of the pedal can be assured and at the same time rotating force of the sprocket is transmitted efficiently when an oscillating range of the pedal lever is reduced.
In carrying out the invention in one preferred mode, we provide a bicycle comprising a frame constituting a chassis, a pair of moving wheels rotatably arranged at a front side and a rear side of the frame, a sprocket arranged near a bottom bracket point in the frame, driving force transmitting means for transmitting rotating force of the sprocket to the rear wheel, a pair of pedal levers having a phase difference of 180° with respect to each other to oscillate alternatively up and down, a crank lever arranged between the sprocket and the one pedal lever so as to transmit force of the pedal lever to the sprocket, and a sliding part for acting as an oscillating fulcrum point of the pedal lever.
A sliding pin arranged at one end of the pedal lever is slid within the sliding part while the pedal lever is oscillated. The force accompanied by the oscillation of the pedal lever is transmitted to the rear wheel through the sprocket.
In the present invention, force applied to the pedal by the rider is transmitted to the rear wheel under utilization of the crank lever, the sprocket and the chain. Namely, the force of the pedal lever is transmitted to the sprocket through the crank lever. The oscillating fulcrum point of the pedal lever is moved, not fixed, laterally in the sliding part.
With such an arrangement, the configuration of the driving force transmitting mechanism for the rear wheel is simplified. This causes the bicycle according to the invention to be light in its weight, and
Fujiwara Nobuhiro
Mamiya Atsushi
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