Land vehicles: wheels and axles – Wheel – Rim
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-27
2001-07-10
Stormer, Russell D. (Department: 3617)
Land vehicles: wheels and axles
Wheel
Rim
C301S058000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06257677
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bicycle wheel rim, more particularly to a bicycle wheel rim which has an enhanced resistance to buckling and which is capable of retaining spoke fasteners fittingly thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, a conventional bicycle wheel rim
1
is shown to include spaced left and right tire retaining walls
12
and a spoke mounting wall
11
interconnecting inner edges of the tire retaining walls
12
. The spoke mounting wall
11
is formed with a plurality of spoke fastening holes
10
that are slightly staggered and that are arranged generally along a central portion of the spoke mounting wall
11
for mounting of spoke fasteners
2
thereon (see FIGS.
2
and
3
). A plurality of spokes
31
are fastened to the spoke fasteners
2
for mounting the bicycle wheel rim
1
on two opposite ends of a hub
3
.
Some of the drawbacks of the conventional bicycle wheel rim
1
are as follows:
1. As shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, since the spoke fastening holes
10
are arranged along the central portion of the spoke mounting wall
11
with a distance (a) between adjacent pairs of the spoke fastening holes
10
, the central portion of the spoke mounting wall
11
is susceptible to deformation due to the tension force applied thereto by the spokes
31
when the bicycle wheel rim
1
is in use.
2. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the spoke fastener
2
typically has a shank portion
20
and an enlarged head portion
21
with a tapering neck
212
connected to the shank portion
20
. The spoke fastener
2
is loosely retained on the spoke mounting wall
11
since the spoke mounting wall
11
is not provided with retaining means for retaining fittingly the spoke fastener
2
thereon. This results in difficulties during assembly of the bicycle wheel rim
1
on the hub
3
to form a bicycle wheel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a bicycle wheel rim which has an enhanced resistance to buckling and which is capable of retaining spoke fasteners fittingly thereon.
Accordingly, the bicycle wheel rim of the present invention is used for mounting a plurality of spokes thereon, and includes spaced left and right annular tire retaining walls adapted for retaining a bicycle tire therebetween, and an annular spoke mounting wall. Each of the tire retaining walls has an inner edge proximate to a central point of the wheel rim, and an outer edge distal to the central point of the wheel rim. The spoke mounting wall interconnects the inner edges of the tire retaining walls, and has a central bridging portion with left and right terminating edges, a left corner block which interconnects the inner edge of the left tire retaining wall and the left terminating edge of the bridging portion and which is formed with a set of left spoke fastening holes, and a right corner block which interconnects the inner edge of the right tire retaining wall and the right terminating edge of the bridging portion and which is formed with a set of right spoke fastening holes that are staggered with respect to the left spoke fastening holes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 486146 (1892-11-01), Westwood et al.
patent: 5470133 (1995-11-01), Kuo et al.
patent: 5499864 (1996-03-01), Klein et al.
patent: 5931544 (1999-08-01), Dietrich
patent: 6145936 (2000-11-01), Alberti et al.
patent: 238249 (1945-06-01), None
patent: 687059 (1953-02-01), None
patent: 720304 (1954-12-01), None
patent: 1098032 (1968-01-01), None
patent: 12315 (1985-01-01), None
patent: 94801 (1985-05-01), None
Alex Machine Industrial Co., Ltd.
Stormer Russell D.
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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