Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Patent
1991-11-15
1992-06-30
Marmor, Charles A.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
280287, B62K 1500
Patent
active
051256789
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a bicycle with a folding frame.
Background Art
A bicycle is disclosed in German Publication 18 10 445 with a main frame having front and seat pipes. A saddle carried saddle pipe is telescoped to slide in the seat pipe. A pedal drive bearing is arranged in the vicinity of the joint between the front pipe and seat pipe. Further, the removable rear wheel, is held on the main frame by a rear wheel pivot arm in a pivoting bearing coaxial with the pedal drive bearing. This rear wheel pivot arm can be locked in place in its joint beneath the inserted saddle pipe so that the saddle pipe engages the rear wheel pivot arm by means of a latch mechanism on its side. For folding the bicycle the saddle pipe is moved upwardly in the receptacle pipe, so that a lock joint between the saddle pipe and the rear wheel pivot can be released. The rear wheel pivot arm after removal of the rear wheel can then be snapped counter-clockwise in the direction of the saddle pipe.
Satisfactory riding stability while moving straight ahead or while moving in a curve and a satisfactory riding comfort cannot be attained with such construction of a folding bicycle. Heretofore it would be necessary to have a solid joint between the seat pipe and the saddle pipe as well as between the saddle pipe and the rear wheel pivot. Besides, a great effort necessary to pull out the middle pipe from the seat pipe for folding this bicycle. More than that, it is disadvantageous because of the structure requiring high weight as well as the consequential bulkiness of the folding bicycle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,729 a foldable bicycle is disclosed whose frame has two parts. The front frame part includes the forks for the front wheel with two parallel fork pipes and also two spaced from each other upper frame pipes and two spaced from each other lower frame pipes. The rear frame part includes the saddle pipe on whose lower end is positioned the bearing for pedalling, onto which in turn is fastened the rear wheel mount in turn connected with the upper frame at the saddle pipe to hold the rear wheel braces in place. The rear end of the lower frame tubing adjoining the front wheel part is removably fastened to pivot about the axis of the pedal drive bearing while the upper frame tubing is removably fastened to the upper end of the saddle pipe.
In order to take apart the bicycle, the coupling between the upper frame pipes and the saddle pipe is loosened. Furthermore the saddle is removed from the saddle pipe. When unlocked the rear frame piece can be pivoted clockwise about the pedal bearing axis, so that the rear wheel can be tucked into the spacing between the upper and lower frames. In order for this interengagement to be possible, the front frame must have a wider double frame made so that when ridden by the bicycle rider the inner sides of his thighs and also the knees cannot make contact with the upper frame pipes.
Besides the frame for breaking into parts in the prior art is undesirable for the forward movement in a straight line and about curves. The frame by means of the use of the double pipes withstands little force and can only be made sufficiently stiff and unbreakable by use of high strength materials as well as added braces. One further weakness is the connection of the lower frame pipes to the pedal drive bearing. Here also this connection is a pivotable one, which must be absolutely solid so that unstable running conditions are avoided.
Furthermore, this special construction of a folding bicycle is relatively heavy, has high manufacturing cost and necessarily always is relatively bulky requiring too large a storage space for transport in a trunk.
In the British Patent 415,843 a bicycle frame is shown, which can be folded together for facilitating transport from a producer to the bicycle manufacturer. This frame however cannot be made into a folding bicycle, since the single part of this frame can only disassembled with special tools and besides the place at which these special tools were located for
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patent: 599978 (1898-03-01), Tanner
patent: 2283671 (1942-05-01), Finlay et al.
patent: 3814462 (1974-06-01), Kelly
patent: 4022485 (1977-05-01), Cox
patent: 4417745 (1983-11-01), Shomo
patent: 4421337 (1983-12-01), Pratt
patent: 4441729 (1984-04-01), Underwood
Graysay Tamara L.
Marmor Charles A.
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