GB2093419A - Motorcycle and bicycle safety controls - Google Patents

Abstract

A controllable leg assembly used for a single-track wheeled vehicle to prevent the vehicle from tilting over in an emergency, or to maintain the vehicle erect when stationary or when moving at a very slow speed, comprises a mechanism box 1, a pair of extendable and retractable legs 18 on both sides of the box, control pedals 2, 3, 4, 5 mounted on two different shafts 7, 8 which are laterally and concentrically protruded from the box, the pedal 2 being for lowering and extending the leg, and pedals 3, 5 being for retracting and upholding the leg. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Motorcycle and bicycle safety controls Cognate application of 8032344 and 8114552 This is an improvement of applicant's former British patent pending applications of 8032344 and 8114552, in which a few more improvements have been made as stated in the object below: Firstly; An object of the improvements is to provide operational means to operate controllable support legs for single-track wheeled vehicle, said means will lower and extend the legs accompanying with wheel brake action when using right hand side pedal for emergency braking of the vehicle, and has no accompanying wheel brake action when using left hand side pedal to lower and extend the legs for preventing the vehicle from tilting over at starting or slow motion of the vehicle.

Secondly; Another object of the improvement is to provide a finger operational means in addition to the first said object means for adding safety in case of a slippery occurence on the pedals when making an emergency braking of the vehicle.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Owing to a number of new additional parts in the drawing, therefore the numeral reference marks can not be fully met with the original drawings in the pending applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Figure 1 is a perspective view of the invention embodying the improved mechanisms.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in Figure 1 assuming the mechanism box 1 is a transparent box for easier illustrating the relationship between the original mechanisms and the improved additional mechanisms, in which control rods of pedals 2 and 4 are mounted on hollowed shafts 7 and 8 while control rods of pedals 3 and 5 are mounted on a same solid shaft 6 for operation of the controllable legs. Said hollowed shafts 7 and 8 are engaged each other by protrusions 9 and 10 at their engagement end of the shafts, in such a manner that the rotation of shaft 7 will rotate the shaft 8 because of said protrusion 10 is driven by the protrusion 9. On the contrary, said protrusion 9 can not be driven by the protrusion 10, as a result the rotation of shaft 8 will have no affect to the shaft 7.A crank arm 11 being formed integrally on the shaft 8 and a cam 20 being formed integrally on the other end of the shaft 7. A series of motion transmitting elements such as two extendable and retractable rods 12, 13, a lateral rod 14, push-pull rods 15, 16 and gears 1 7, 1 7a are interconnected with the crank arm 11 and the controllable legs in the same manner as stated in the pending application 8114552. Therefore, a depression on pedal 2 will rotate the legs to down locked and extended position accompanying with the wheel brake action by said cam 20 which will depress on wheel brake control levers 21 and 22. The contour of the cam is made in such a manner that there will be a slight braking action to reduce the speed of the vehicle, and the brake will then be completely applied after the legs are down locked and extended.A depression on pedal 4 will rotate the legs to down locked and extended position but it will have no accompanying wheel brake action.

It is obvious that in the pending application 8114552 although the legs will remain in down locked and extended position by a rechet arm 32 against the rechet surface 31 for starting or slow motion of the vehicle if no further depression on the pedal 3 after the wheel brake and the pedal 2 are release. However, in this improvement said pedal 4 will have a positive way to keep the legs in down locked and extended position when slowly driving on a rough road surface. Furthermore, a bevel gear ring 23 formed integraliy on the periphery of the shaft 7 being engaged with a bevel gear drive 24, said bevel gear drive having a center hollow square bore stem in which a shaft 25 having a square portion is inserted and traveled axially.The other end of the shaft 25 is protruded through a hole 26 on the rear wall of the mechanism box, a rubber cone wheel 27 being tightly mounted on the end of the shaft which will be slipperily rotated around the shaft if the driving force is excessive. A crank arm 29 having one end linked with the shaft 25 at collar 28, the other end connected to a control stick 33 which is located on the vehicle hand bar 34 by a flexible cable 30. Thus, a depression on the control stick 33 by fingers will move the shaft 25 toward the aft wheel making the rubber cone wheel contact with running tire of the wheel to rotate the bevel gear drive 24 and bevel gear 23, in turn, rotates the shaft 7. The rotation of the shaft 7 will have same result as of depression on the pedal 2 as described above.The said bevel gear 23 and its associated mechanisms may be replaced by a pulley wheel 23, a small pulley driving wheel 38, a rocking arm 30, and a pulley belt 40 as shown dotted lines in the drawing, they are also controllable by the said crank arm 29 to move said small wheel 38 to contact the running tire of the aft wheel 35 and rotate the pulley wheel 23 and the shaft 7. As for the pedals 3 and 5 are fixedly mounted on the said solid shaft 6, which having two crank arms 41,42 protruded from slot openings 43, 44 on the hollowed shaft 7 and 8 respectively, are mechanically connected to the controllable legs for retraction of the legs in the same structure and principle as described in the pending application of 8114552.

OPERATION PROCEDURES 1. Apply aft wheel brake by hand brake A or depress pedal 2 slightly for speed reducing of the vehicle.

2. Further apply hand brake A or harder depression on pedal 2 to lower and extend the legs accompanying fully brake applying for normal stop, parking, or emergency brake applying.

3. A slight depression on either pedal 3 or 5 or make a depression on pedal 4 to release the brake and remain the legs in down locked and extended position for supporting when making start or slow motion of the vehicle.

4 Harder depression on either pedal 3 or 5 to retract the legs in up and locked position for continued forward motion of the vehicle.

5. In emergency, harder depress pedal 2 and hand stick 33 at the same time to brake the wheel brake and extend the legs to prevent the vehicle from tilting over.

Claims (5)

1. An extendable and retractabie leg assembly used on singletrack wheeled vehicle for up holding the vehicle in emergency, in ordinary stop, parking, or at a very slow speed moving comprising a mechanism box, a pair of extendable and retractable legs capable rotating aft and upward or lowering downward around a lateral axle of the box, said legs are operated by either one of the pedals and control rods on one side of the box, said control rods being fixedly mounted on two different shafts which are concentrically and laterally protruded from the box.

2. An extendable and retractable leg assembly according claim 1, in which said control rods being fixedly mounted on two different shafts which are concentrically and laterally protruded from the mechanism box, one of the shafts concentrically encircles the other one shaft named as first hollowed shaft which is fixedly connected to one of the control rods for retracting the legs, while the other one shaft in the center named as central shaft which is fixedly connected to the other one control rod for extending the legs, said first hollowed shaft is again encircled by a hollowed shaft named as second hollowed shaft which is connected to the legs by means of several associated members, means for transmitting the action of said central shaft to the second hollowed shaft to lower and extend the legs, said second hollowed shaft may be locked in position by a locking device whenever the legs are in their extended position, said lock may be unlocked in the retracting operation.

3. An extendable and retractable leg assembly, according to claim 2, in which said means for transmitting the action of said central shaft to the second hollowed shaft comprising a tongue-like actuating member formed integrally thereon the central shaft, said actuating member protrudes from openings on said first and second hollowed shaft, a lip-like member formed integrally on the second hollowed shaft opposite to the tongue-like member, a v-shaped spring is mounted therebetween the tongue-like and lip-like members for transmitting the action of the central shaft to drive said second hollowed shaft whenever the pedal for extending the legs is depressed, further depress the pedal will compress the v-shaped spring and depress aft wheel brake to brake the aft wheel, therefore releasing said pedal will release aft wheel brake but the legs are held in their extended position because of the said locking device therein the mechanism box, unless another pedal is depressed to release said lock and retract the legs.

4. An extendable and retractable leg assembly according to claim 2, in which said first hollowed shaft which is fixedly connected to one of the centrol rods for retracting the legs having means provided thereon the shaft for releasing the locking device to let go free of said secondly hollowed shaft, and further driving said secondly hollowed shaft in the same direction of rotation as the first hollowed shaft rotated to retract the legs to the up and locked position.

5. An extendable and retractable leg assembly according to claim 1, in which said extendable and retractable legs capable rotating around a lateral axle of the box in the lowering downward operation is governed by a miniature crank on the same axle and a linking rod traveling in a particular curved track to assure the legs are lowered to their vertical position before they extend.