Geometrical instruments – Distance measuring – Single contact with a work engaging support
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-11
2002-10-29
Gutierrez, Diego (Department: 2859)
Geometrical instruments
Distance measuring
Single contact with a work engaging support
C033S470000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06470591
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a measuring device for measuring and setting various parameters related to a cyclist's riding position on a bicycle.
To a performance cyclist, the fit of a bicycle, like the fit of a runner's shoes, is very important. Changes as small as one centimeter to the relative positions of the saddle, handlebars, or pedals can have a dramatic affect on the rider's performance, comfort, enjoyment and risk of injury. The more advanced and highly trained the rider, the more important precise fit becomes. Accordingly, a great deal of effort is expended achieving proper fit.
Ironically, after a particular bike has been adjusted to a particular rider, whether by painstaking trial-and-error or, as the product of a fitting session, it is not easy to replicate that riding position on another bike. Instead, riders and bike mechanics make adjustments by eye or feel, or use an unwieldy collection of levels, rulers, strings and straightedges, or a combination thereof. These efforts are at best time-consuming and demand substantial skill in order to achieve acceptable results, and are often imprecise and fruitless.
Individually these tools are easy to use. However, adjusting the fit of a bicycle frequently requires two or more dimensions to be tracked simultaneously. For example, although no generally agreed upon coordinate system for bicycles exists, the following four measures are common: vertical height of the saddle above the bottom bracket called “saddle height,” the vertical distance between the saddle and handlebars, called “drop,” the distance of the saddle's nose behind the bottom bracket, called “setback,” the horizontal distance between the saddle and handlebars, called “nose to bars.” However, since the saddle is raised and lowered by sliding the post to which it's attached in or out of a non-vertical seat tube, moving the seat post in or out changes both the x and y components of its location, i.e., moving the seat “up” also moves the seat back, and vice versa. Referring back to the earlier defined measurements it's clear that adjusting “seat height” also changes the values of “nose to bars,” “drop,” and “setback”.
In 1956, prolific bicycle industry innovator Tullio Campagnolo developed a jig-like device for setting saddle position. A photo of this can be seen on page 136 of Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling (ISBN 0-399-13229-5). The device is largely unknown in America, perhaps because in 1956 the American market for high-end bikes was virtually non-existent.
Examination of the picture shows that its object was to simultaneously integrate the vertical height of the saddle, the horizontal position of the saddle with respect to the bottom bracket, and the angle of the saddle with respect to the horizontal. These features if nothing else would simplify adjustments, because repositioning a saddle to align with a jig is clearly easier than repositioning a saddle by manually re-measuring between each approximation. However, along with these advantages, examination of the photo reveals limitations that would prevent its use on many modern bicycles, and shortcomings, which if overcome, would improve its usefulness on any bicycle.
First, said device was attached to the bike by means of a rigid clamping structure adapted to clamp to the top tube, and was held perpendicular to the top tube. Since all top tubes at the time were level, round and exactly 1⅛″ in diameter, this arrangement would have been somewhat satisfactory. However, many if not most modern racing bicycles are made with top tubes whose diameters are larger than 1⅛″, and/or whose cross-sections are complexly non-circular, and/or whose cross-sections vary complexly along the tube's length, and/or which are not level, i.e., the device could not be attached to many of today's bicycles at all.
Second, it appears that the device doesn't incorporate its own consistent measuring system. As earlier mentioned, it was apparently more jig than measuring device.
A further consequence of not providing a measuring system and indexing off the top tube is that when moving the device to different bikes, even those of the day, the jig itself would usually need to be readjusted and calibrated before the bike could be adjusted.
Additional study of the problems involved in bike fitting show that changing the length of a bicycle's cranks changes the “reach” of a rider's legs to touch the pedals, as does changing to different cycling shoes and/or different pedal systems. The combined impact of these differences can range from zero to an inch or more, the latter figure being one that all but the most position-insensitive cyclists would find objectionable if not painful and possibly injurious. Typically, when changing to components with different vertical dimension components, cyclists adjust the numeric value used to describe their correct position rather than changing the point from which they measure. Thus, typical measuring equipment and techniques fail to adequately deal with riding position quantification as a function of the rider's anatomy.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device which may be used to measure the riding position on any bicycle, and which may be adjusted so as to act as a jig to accurately guide the adjustment of a bicycle to a desired riding position.
It is another object of the present invention that all dimensions be measured in relation to a coordinate system incorporated in said invention, rather than in relation to the repositionable components themselves.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and means whereby said device factors out variations in crank length, shoe sole thickness, or pedal system height, so that a measured riding position “height” remains the same for that rider regardless of variations in these components.
Moreover, it is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and means whereby said device may be rapidly and easily attached to and aligned with and used on a bicycle without necessitating disassembly of said bicycle.
In addition, it is another specific object of the present invention that the device be alignable with a bicycle's bottom bracket without removal of the crank or crank fixing bolts of the bicycle.
Further, it is yet another object of the present invention that said method and means of attachment and alignment not be affected by the size, shape, cross-section, or angular relationship of a bicycle's tubes.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The device of the present invention measures position height, saddle setback, saddle angle, reach, and bar angle in relation to a vertical reference line extending upwardly from the center of the bottom bracket, and parallel to the vertical, horizontal, and longitudinal planes of the bike.
“Position Height” is the vertical distance from the insole of the rider's shoe to the intersection of the vertical reference line and a line extended across the top of the saddle (the “saddle line”).
“Saddle Setback” is the distance from the intersection of the vertical reference line and the saddle line (the “intersection point”) to the back of the saddle measured along the saddle line. Other arbitrary reference points on the saddle could be used instead of the back.
“Saddle Angle” is the angle between the vertical reference line and the saddle line.
“Reach” is the distance from the intersection point to the top center of the handlebar's tubular cross section at a point along the handlebar's width where said handlebars are approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal plane of the bike when the front wheel is pointing straight ahead. Other arbitrary reference points on the handlebar could be used instead of the top center.
“Bar angle” is the angle between the vertical reference line and a line extended from the intersection point to the top center of the handlebar.
A key element of the present invention is that said device can mea
Courson Tania
Gutierrez Diego
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