Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-20
2002-04-02
Hurley, Kevin (Department: 3619)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
C280S278000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06364335
ABSTRACT:
The invention concerns bicycles.
There are several well known brands of folding bicycles on the market.
These brands are roughly speaking folded by dividing their rigid and more bulky parts such as the frame, forks and handlebar into one or more units which are then superimposed by means of articulations.
This method however includes a number of drawbacks.
The bicycle so folded is always too bulky, the operations of folding it for transport and opening it out for use are complex and the ultimate effect causes wear on basic parts such as the frame, forks and handlebar.
The prior reference EP 0 565 760 discloses a collapsible bicycle in which the rear wheel is supported by a three-fork triangular structure, rotatable on the axis of the pedal unit and fixed, when ready for use, to the top of the frame comprising two sharply arched longitudinal tubes.
When said rotatable structure is detached from the frame, the rear wheel can be placed underneath in contact with the frame.
It is thus clear that the bulk of the folded bicycle remains considerable and in practice does not solve the problems that such a bulk creates.
The prior reference U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,717 makes it possible to superimpose the two wheels, chosen for their limited size, making use of a substantially square frame, there being double joints at the four corners so that the four sections of the frame can be placed over one wheel and the second wheel over that one.
When the bicycle is ready for use the frame is kept rigid by a set of tie rods.
Clearly, reducing the bulk to substantially that of the two superimposed wheels is a complex operation and also means that the structure of the bicycle consists of a large number of parts.
In conclusion, this bicycle is very expensive and its conversion from the form for transport to that of use is necessarily a complex matter.
The above invention discloses a method for quickly folding the essential components in a bulk equivalent to that of the wheels laid side by side so that the bicycle in this compact form can be stowed in the boot of a car and opened up for use when required as will be explained below.
Subject of the invention is a bicycle that can be folded for transport so as to occupy approximately the bulk of its wheels laid side by side.
Here follows a description of the main characteristics needed to obtain this result.
At the upper end of the rear fork is an articulation, corresponding to the lower ends of the frame, with its axis parallel to that of the rear wheel, that enables the rear wheel to be brought up to the top of the frame.
The pedal unit with gear is supported above by a tubular bar at whose upper end is an articulation, on one lower end of the frame, the axis of which is parallel to that of the pedal unit, permitting the gear to be brought up to the top of the frame.
The bar of the pedal unit can be associated to the rear fork by a hand-operated locking device placed at the top of a sort of locking triangle formed of the conjunction of two short bars, at an angle one from another, that depart from the upper and lower sides of the pedal unit ensuring stability of the rear fork and of the pedal unit when the bicycle is opened out for use.
The handlebar, shaped like an upward-facing U, is fixed to a rod that can be joined to the front fork, by means of a manually-operated locking device, permitting the handlebar to rotate on an axis orthogonal to said rod, the handgrips then facing downward roughly coplanar with said rod.
The front fork is supported by an upper rod freely turning inside a tube fixed to the forward end of the frame.
The handlebar rod slides inside a steering column at whose upper end is a hand-operated locking device fixed to the fork of the front wheel, above it by means of a lateral hinge lying on a geometrical plane transversal to the upper rotation rod of said fork and lying at approximately 45° to the longitudinal plane of symmetry of the front wheel, and sideways by means of a locking device placed at the top of said fork's upper rod.
The tube supporting the front fork's upper rod is fixed by a bracket to the front of the bicycle frame, by means of a joint, whose axis is substantially orthogonal to the rear wheel, and of a hand-operated locking device.
The saddle is supported by a rod that slides inside a tube, joined at the lower end of the frame by an articulation parallel to the rear wheel close to the articulation of the fork.
By means of a hand-operated articulation and locking device at the top of the tube, joined by a tie rod that slides inside a tubular extension of the frame, both saddle rod and tie rod can be locked in the desired position.
The pin of the left pedal is supported by a hand-operated locking device, at the end of the pedal crank, to permit rotation of said pin on an axis orthogonal to the pedal crank so that, when packed for transport, said crank is substantially parallel to the back wheel.
By releasing, in succession, the locking devices on the bicycle ready for riding, it can be prepared for transport by moving both gear and rear wheel to the upper part of the frame, turning down the handlebar, pressing the handlebar rod into its steering column, turning the column 45° round the hinge at the bottom against the front wheel, rotating the group comprising front wheel, front fork, handlebar column and handlebar itself against the back wheel and pedal unit, pushing the saddle rod into its tube and the saddle's tie rod inside the tubular extension of the frame then rotating said column towards the frame, turning the left pedal pin so that it is beside said group, by doing all this the bulk of the bicycle can be reduced to practically that of the two wheels when placed side by side.
In a preferred type of execution the frame is formed of a tube bent into a longitudinal fork, symmetrical in relation to the bicycle's vertical geometrical plane of symmetry and inclined towards the front wheel with a curved front section and two arms, the left arm extending downward to bend at about 90° inside the bicycle, and the right arm completed by an external lateral extension bent at about 90° towards the rear fork until the ends of said arms reach a coplanar position with a joining bridge lying on the bicycle's longitudinal geometrical plane, both slightly diverging.
Rear fork and pedal unit articulations are placed respectively at the ends of said left and right arms.
On the left arm of the rear wheel's fork there is preferably a triangular extension substantially fixed to the upper and lower ends of the fork, said extension facing inside the bicycle, with a U-bolt on the downward facing end, amplitude corresponding to the lower bar of the locking triangle that comprises the pedal unit.
The locking device of the pedal unit and rear fork consists of a pin mounted orthogonally in the top of said locking triangle, that penetrates inside the rear fork, and of a lug having in it a recess made at the connecting point of an extension of the rear fork facing away from the bicycle, in which recess said threaded pin can be pressed and locked by a wing nut after insertion of the lower bar of the locking triangle inside said U-bolt.
The locking device for the handlebar consists of two half-bearings, one facing upward forming a semi-cylindrical slot equal to the diameter of the central crosspiece of the handlebar, fixed to the rod of said handlebar, and the other substantially the same, facing towards the first, both connected by screws through holes and fixed by wing nuts.
The locking device of the handlebar rod in the steering column consists of a halfring, fixed to said column, that can be tightened as required by a clamp comprising a transversal screw and a wing nut.
The locking device between the steering column and the rod of the front fork consists of a tongue fixed to the steering column at a certain distance from the lower hinge, that can be connected to a square fixed to the upper rod of said front fork by a screw and wing nut.
The locking and articulation device to fix the bracket of the front wheel f
Hurley Kevin
Striker Michael J.
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