GB2125746A

GB2125746A - Motorcycle stabilizing legs

Info

Publication number: GB2125746A
Application number: GB08214353A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Yin-Lung Yang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-07-02
Filing date: 1982-05-17
Publication date: 1984-03-14
Also published as: GB2125746B

Abstract

An apparatus adapted to be mounted on a single track vehicle for stabilizing the vehicle comprises a box unit 1 having stabilizing legs 5,6 extendably and retractably mounted on both side walls of the box unit wherein, operational means in the unit for lowering the legs to up hold the vehicle cooperate with the operation of a wheel brake which is responsive thereto. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Motorcycle and bicycle safety controls The invention relates to the construction of controllable legs on both sides of a singletrack wheeled vehicle to support and prevent the vehicle from tilting over in emergency, slow moving, stopping, or parking in co-operation with the wheel brake.

This is a fresh application on the improvement of the invention. Numerous improvements have been made herein this application in comparison with the applicant's earlier filed applications 8114552 and 8120403.

A search Form 9/77 and fee are also enclosed herein together-with Form 1/77 and fee. The fees if shorted because of raise will be payable upon receiving your notice.

The feature of the improvements will be stated in the object below: Firstly; An object of the improvements is to provide individual shaft for the front pedals as well as for the rear Pedals separately to increase their control efficiency and reduce the size of their mounting box.

Secondly; Another object of the improvements is to provide a single U shape lateral lever for transmission the action of the said shafts to their relative mechanisms.

Thirdly; Another object of the improvements is to provide the mention of the crank in opposite direction with the leg, therefore a flat top of the mounting box may be achieved.

Forthly; Another object of the improvement is to provide a simpler sequence device for operating the leg and its lock device.

Fifthly; Still another object of the improvements is to provide a simpler means for applying or releasing the aft wheel brake like the wheel brake on the conventional motorcycles, but in emergency or stopping the vehicle, wheel brake may be applied together with the legs to prevent the vehicle from tilting over, said brake and the legs may be quick released when necessary.

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

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a perspective view of the invention, with top cover removed, embodying the improved features.

Figure 2 is a right side view of the Fig. 1 showing the leg is extended (solid line) and retracted (dotted line).

Figure 3 is a section on line 1-1 of the Fig.

1 showing the position of gears and gear strips in the mounting box.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing motion relationship between the gears and gear strips.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram indicating the AFT shaft may be recovered by the front shaft through transmission means.

Figure 6 is a top sectional view on line 2-2 of Fig. 1 showing the construction of the right leg, the sequence device, and the lock device.

Figure 7 is an enlarged top plan view of the sequence device and the lock device.

Figure 8 is an enlarged top plan view of the AFT shaft and its transmission mechanisms which may be driven by the AFT wheel.

Figure 9 is a perspective view of the relationship between the gears and gear strips of modified construction.

Figure 10 is a top plan view showing a modified construction on finger control for operating the left hollowed shaft instead of the right hollowed shaft.

Figure 11 is a top plan view showing another modified construction on finger control for operating the controllable legs up or down by the proceeding force of the aft wheel of the vehicle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODI MENT As shown in Fig. 1 is an oblong mounting box 1 in trapezoid cross section which may be mounted at any appropriate location underneath a single-track wheeled vehicle by bolts and nuts through perforated holes 2 on the bottom of the mounting box and on the top cover (not shown) of the box.

Said mounting box embodies all operational mechanisms as a complete unit which may be actuated by either one of pedal 3 or pedal 4 to operate two controllable legs 5 and 6 to stretch and support the vehicle whenever they are in need, such as in a slow moving, stopping, parking, or emergency braking of the vehicle.

The legs may be retracted to up and locked position by either one of pedals 7 and 8 when they are no longer needed for support.

A solid shaft 9 is provided to connect with pedals 7, 8 by connecting arms 10, 11 and connecting rods 12, 13, 14. Another solid shaft 1 5 is provided to receive two concentri- cal hollowed shafts 1 6 and 1 7 which may be engaged or disengaged each other by protrusions 1 8,1 9 at the match end of the shafts (better seen in Fig. 6 and 8). The pedal 3 is connected with said shaft 1 6 by a connecting arm 20 and by connecting rods 21, 22 while pedal 4 is connected with said shaft 1 7 by a connecting arm 23 and by connecting rods 24, 25.

In such arrangement that a depression on pedal 3 will rotate the shaft 16, also rotate the shaft 1 7 because of said protrusions 1 8 and 1 9 are engaged. On the contrary, a depression on pedal 4 will rotate the shaft 1 7 alone, because said protrusions 1 8 and 1 9 are disengaged.

Since the mechanism in the mounting box is nearly symmetrical, the description is now made on the right side of Fig. 1 as follows: a crank 26 which is formed integrally with the shaft 9 is connected inboardly with an U shape lateral lever 27 by an extendable and retractable linking rod assembly 28. Another crank 29 which is formed integrally with the shaft 1 7 is connected outboardly with the same lever 27 by another extendable and retractable linking rod assembly 30, thus, depression on either one of said pedals 3 or 4 and pedals 7 or 8 will rotate the shafts and move the U shape lateral lever 27 forward or backward longitudinally. The forward movement of the U shape lateral lever 27 will actuate a group of sequence mechanisms to retract the lock device 31 and drop the post 32 of the leg 5.Meantime said leg will be extended by a crank 33 until roller 34 touches the ground and the lock locks the post again. A catch block 35 in the leg 5 will catch the ratchet surface of the post 32 to prevent the leg from retract accidentally. In a reverse operation of the sequence mechanisms will release said catch 35 by the crank 33, linking rod 36, and elbow 37 with assistant of spring S.

The group of said sequence mechanism consist of a pair of hollowed gear strips 38, 39, in which a pair of lock releasing rods 40, 41 protrude (see Fig. 7). One end of the lock releasing rods having keys 42, 43 in triangle protrusions underneath are ridding on the lock 31. The other end of the lock releasing rods 44, 45 are freely protruding through the holes 46, 47 on U shape lateral lever with head nuts 48, 49 thereon the rods respectively.

Shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 3, a gear 50 is ridding on the gear strip 39 having its central shaft 51 fixedly connected with the post 32 of the leg 5; another gear 52 which is freely mounted on the same shaft 51 is ridding on the gear strip 38 for transmitting the motion of gear strip 38 to a gear 53, the central shaft 54 of the gear 53 is firmly connected with the said crank 33. Therefore, said crank will move in an opposite direction with the leg as the arrows shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4.

As shown in Fig. 1 and 2, there is a wheel brake control pin 55 fixedly mounted on the connecting rod 22, said pin closes by the pedal 3 and rides on the wheel brake elbow 56 which is pivotally mounted on a fixed pin 57. A gap 58 is provided between the said protrusions 1 8 and 1 9 on the end of the shafts 1 6 and 1 7 (better seen in Fig. 8).

Therefore, whenever the shaft 1 6 is rotated by the pedal 3 will actuate the wheel brake before driving the shaft 1 7 because of the gap. Thus, the leg will not stretch accidentally during the ordinary brake applying action unless the pedal 3 is further depressed with greater foot power. Meantime the brake is fully applied and locked by the curve of the elbow 56 which is acting against the control pin 55. Said wheel brake elbow 56 may be connected to hand brake A also.

A chain 59 and gears 60, 61 are provided on the shafts 9 and 1 7 (see Fig. 1 and 5) for recovery of the shafts 1 6 and 1 7 after the brake had been fully applied and locked.

Because depression on either pedal 7 or 8 will rotate the shaft 9, so the shafts 1 7 and 1 6 will be driven and recovered by the shaft 9 through said chain and said gears 60, 61, thus the pedal 7 or 8 will release the brake also retract the leg. The control pin 55 may be made in a cam configuration.

Furthermore, a bevel gear 62 is fixedly mounted on the shaft 1 6 to match with another bevel gear 63 on the inside wall of the mounting box as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig.

8. Said bevel gear 63 having a threaded shaft 64 covered by a threaded cap 65, tighten the cap 65 will compress a strong spring 66 on the back side of lining plate 67 to increase the friction between the plate and the bottom surface of the shaft 64. A finger control 68 is provided to push or pull a slidable shaft 69 of gear 70 through a cable 71 and a pivotal crank 72. Said plate 67 being firmly connected with gear wheel 73 which may be driven by gear 70 and a chain 74 when the slidable shaft 69 is pushed backward making cone end 75 of the shaft 69 contact with the proceeding wheel 76. So the bevel gear 63 may be driven by the friction force of the lining plate 67 to drive bevel gear 62, in turn, rotates the shafts 1 6 and 1 7 to apply the wheel brake and operate the leg in the same manner as operated by the pedal 3.Therefore, the finger control is a supplementary control in emergency. At the end of operation the wheel will be stopped by the wheel brake and no longer friction force will produce. If not, the wheel force will be greater than the friction force, the plate 67 will slip automatically to prevent the structure from damage.

The operation order of the legs and the lock device is governed by the so called sequence device because of the length of the gear strips 38, 39 and the length of lock releasing rods 40, 41, also by the distance between the shoulders 77, 78, 79, 80 to the ends of the gear strips and the head nuts 48, 49 to the U shape lateral lever 27 to pull or push against one to another during the operation.

Since the mounting box is in trapezoid cross section and the gears and gear strips are in inclined plane alongside the inclined side wall of the mounting box (see Fig. 3), therefore, the legs at both sides of the box willstretch down in a trapezoid position and retract up in a parallel position.

A lock device 31 is retractable by the lock releasing rods 42, 43, said lock will return to lock the supporting post 32 of the leg 5 either in up or in down position by a spring 81. The leg 5 is swingable up or down together with the supporting post and is slideable along the post to stretch by the force of the crank 33, linking rod 36, elbow 37 which are acting on a protrusion 82 on the leg. Said leg also is slideable along the post to retract after the catch block 35 is released from the ratchet surface of the post by assistance of spring S thereon. During the retraction and swinging backward up the leg is rotating around the connecting joints of the linking rod and the elbow in opposite direction from the crank, thus a flat top of the mounting box is achieved.

Shown in Fig. 9 is a modifed construction on the location of the gears and gear strips.

The shaft of gear 83 which is protruded from the hollowed shaft of gear 84 is firmly connected with the crank 85, and the hollowed shaft of the gear 84 is firmly connected with the supporting post 86 of the leg. Said gear 83 may be driven by the gear strip 87 while the gear 84 may be driven by the gear strip 88 independently. Therefore, the crank 85 will rotate in the same direction with the supporting post 86 when the U shape lateral lever 89 is actuating.

Shown in Fig. 10 is a modified construction on finger control for operating the left hollowed shaft 1 7 instead of the right hollowed shaft 1 6 by the proceeding force of the aft wheel, in this construction the said bevel gear 62 is mounted on the hollowed shaft 1 7 instead of the aforesaid mounted on the hollowed shaft 16, thus the finger control will introduce the proceeding force of the aft wheel to rotate the hollowed shaft 1 7 and stretch the legs before the wheel brake is applied by a control cable E.

Shown in Fig. 11 is another modified construction on finger control for operating either one of the shaft 9 and the hollowed shaft 1 7 by the proceeding force of the aft wheel, that is a shiftable gear assembly C being mounted on the rear side wall of the mounting box, a driving gear plate 90 fixedly mounted on the wheel shaft of the aft wheel D, a twin bevel gear 91 of the shiftable gear assembly may be driven by the driving gear plate 90 depend upon a chain 92, a twin bevel gear 93 being shiftable by a Y shape control rod 94 which is connected with the finger control B on the handbar by cables 95, 96.Shifting said finger control B will shift the bevel gear 93 to make contact of either one bevel gear with the bevel gear 91, thus driving either one shaft 9 or 1 7 to stretch down the legs or to retract up the legs respectively by the proceeding force of the aft wheel of the vehicle. The bevel gears will keep in neutral positions when the finger control B is in neutral as shown in Fig. 11.

The construction of the friction gear wheels 97, 98 are the same as stated in the gears 73 and 63 which is believed need not further describe.

OPERATION PROCEDURES 1. For ordinary brake applying (speed reduc ing); use hand brake A or slightly depress on pedal 3, the legs will not stretch down.

2. For slow moving; depress on pedal 4 to stretch down the legs for support, but no brake will be applied by the pedal 4.

3. For stopping or emergency brake apply ing; fully depress on pedal 3 (or on both pedals 3 and 4) to apply the brake and stretch the legs simultaneously.

4. For parking; fully depress on pedal 3 to lock the brake and the legs in the down stretched position.

5. For proceeding; depress either one of the pedal 7 or 8 to release the brake and retract the legs.

6. For stretching the legs prior to brake applying; depress pedal 4 prior to depres sion on pedal 3, or depress finger control B on the modified constructions.

Claims

1. An apparatus of the character described comprising an oblong mounting box in trapezoid cross section, said box embodying operational means as a complete unit may be mounted at appropriate location underneath a single-track wheeled vehicle, a pair of controllable legs mounted on both inclined side walls of the box, each leg having an operating crank and a supporting post is swingablely connected with and controlled by the said operational means in the box, said operational means in co-operation with the aft wheel brake of the vehicle may be actuated either by a front foot control means thereon or by a finger control means on the handlebar of the vehicle, said means will release the legs to stretch down in a trapezoid position for up holding the vehicle in emergency brake applying, very slow moving, stopping or parking of the vehicle, said operational means also may be actuated in a reverse direction by a rear foot control means to retract the legs in up locked and paralleled position ready for proceeding of the vehicle.

2. An apparatus of the character described according to claim 1, where in an oblong mounting box is trapezoid cross section, said box embodying operational means as a complete unit may be mounted at appropriate location underneath a single-track wheeled vehicle, a pair of controllable legs mounted on both inclined side walls of the box, each leg having an operating crank and a supporting post is swingablely connected with and controlled by the operational means in the box, said operational means comprising two groups of sequence device and a series of operating mechanisms are mounted alongside both interior inclined side walls of the box, said operational means may be operated either by said foot control means or by finger control means to move the said operating mecha nisms and sequence device, causing the legs being stretch down in trapezoid and retract up in paralleled and locked positions.

3. An apparatus of the character described according to claim 2, where in said operational means comprising two groups of sequence device and a series of operating mechanisms mounted alongside both interior inclined side walls of the box, said operating mechanisms having an U shape lateral lever in between a pair of paralleled operating shafts, said shafts may be actuated by either one of said foot control means and finger control means to rotate in opposite directions, a pair of extendable and retractable rod assembly being connected with the U shape lateral lever inboardly, another pair of extendable and retractable rod assembly being connected with the U shape lateral lever outboardly in opposite side of the lever, said two pairs of the extendable and retractable rod assembly transmit the action of the shafts to push said U shape lateral lever in either directions and move the sequence device and operate the legs at predetermined sequence.

4. An apparatus of the character described according to claim 3, where in said operating mechanisms comprising an U shape lateral, lever in between a pair of paralleled operating shafts, one of the shaft near by the front edge of the box having both ends protruded from both inclined side walls of the box being connected and operatable by either one of two rear foot pedals, the other one of said shaft near by the rear edge of the box having two concentrical hollowed shafts mounted in line thereon, one of the hollowed shaft on the left being connected and operatable by a front left foot pedal, the other one hollowed shaft on the right being connected and operatable by a front right foot pedal, said two hollowed shafts having a protrusion on match end of each shaft for engagement, in such a manner that the left hollowed shaft may be driven by the right hollowed shaft when the front right pedal is depressed to stretch the legs, meantime the wheel brake is applied also, because a brake control means is provided thereon the rod of the right front pedal, the left hollowed shaft can not move the right hollowed shaft because said protrusions are disengaged in the reverse rotation of the hollowed shafts, therefore no wheel brake may be applied by the front left pedal, a chain and two gears are provided on the front shaft on and the rear shaft to recover the rear shaft by the rotation of the front shaft.

5. An apparatus of the character described according to claim 2, where in said sequence device comprising a pair of hollowed gear strips and a pair of lock releasing rods which are mounted alongside both interior inclined side walls of the box, said lock releasing rods having different size in sections served as shoulders for sequence purpose being partially free protruding through the hollowed gear strips and through the perforated holes on the U shape lateral lever, said gear strips and said lock releasing rods may be pushed and pulled by the U shape lateral lever acting on their shoulders one against the other, therefore the length of the gear strips and the length of lock releasing rods and, the distance between the shoulders of the lock releasing rods to the ends of the gear strips are the factors for the operation sequence of the lock and the legs

6.An apparatus of the character described according to claim 1 and 5, where in said controllable legs being swingabiely mounted on both inclined side walls of the box, each leg is controllable by a crank which is firmly connected with a gear shaft, said gear being indirectly driven by one of the said gear strips, said leg being slideablely supported on a post which is fixedly mounted on another gear shaft and driven by the other one of the gear strip, thus said crank moves in opposite direction with the post, a roller being rotatablely mounted on the lower end of the leg, said leg having an internal catch block which is connected with said crank by an elbow and a linking rod, said leg may be controlled to extend by said crank and the linking rod, meantime drawing said catch block to match with the ratchet surface of the post to prevent the leg from accidentally retracted, said catch block may be released to retract the leg by the crank and assistance of a spring thereon, said leg will then follow the post to swing backward up by rotating around the joints of said linking rod and said elbow, however on the modified construction said crank is firmly connected with a gear shaft, said gear is directly driven by the gear strip, thus the crank will move in same direction with supporting post of the leg.

7. An apparatus of the character described according to claims 1 and 4 where in said finger control means comprising a bevel gear formed integrally on the right hollowed shaft, said shaft may be driven by the proceeding force of the aft wheel through gears and chain transmission means, said means having a spring loaded lining plate within a threaded shaft which may be tightened by a threaded cap to produce friction for transmission of the wheel proceeding force, a slideable shaft may be pushed to contact said means with the wheel by said finger control, thus said shaft may be driven by said wheel proceeding force to apply the wheel brake and stretch the legs in the same manner as operated by the front right foot pedal.

8. An apparatus of the character described according to claim 7, where in said finger control means may be modified by forming said bevel gear on the left hollowed shaft instead of on the right hollowed shaft, said bevel gear having the same transmission means as claimed in claim 7, thus said left hollowed shaft may be driven by the wheel proceeding force to stretch down the legs prior to applying the wheel brake when the finger control mean is depressed.

9. An apparatus of the character described according to claims 7 and 8, where in said finger control means may be modified again for operating the legs both retracting up and stretching down by the wheel proceeding force when shifting the finger control in either position, in this modified construction said finger control means comprising a shiftable gear assembly mounted on the rear side wall of the box, a gear plate being fixedly mounted on the aft wheel shaft, said shiftable gear assembly comprising a twin bevel gear which may be driven by said gear plate, another one twin bevel gear which is matchable one to the other with first said twin bevel gear being shiftable by a pivotal Y shape control rod, said control rod is controllable by said finger control to shift said second twin bevel gear in either left or right position for transmitting the wheel proceeding force to either one of the front shaft and the left hollowed shaft and operating the legs, said second twin bevel gear each having a threaded shaft, a threaded cap, lining plate and a spring thereon in same construction as claimed in the claim 7.