GB558387A - Improvements in or relating to resilient suspension devices for vehicle wheels - Google Patents

Abstract

558,387. Spring suspensions. AERO ENGINES, Ltd., and HALLIDAY, G. F. March 20, 1942, No. 3743. [Class 108 (ii)] [Also in Group XXXI] A resilient mounting for the rear wheel of a bicycle or like vehicle comprises a rearwardly-directed fork 29 pivoted at 27 to the frame, and torsion bar spring 47 arranged longitudinally of the vehicle and anchored at its front end, its rear end being mechanically connected to the road wheel so that the vertical movements of the latter subject the bar to varying torsional stress. In the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the rear wheel spindle 24 is mounted on a fork 29 pivoted on or near the axis of the driving shaft 27, and the fork arms are connected by links 35, 36 to arms 37, 38 on the rear ends of torsion bar springs 47 the forward ends of which are anchored to the frame. The torsion bars are enclosed in frame tubes 17, 18 and their ends are splined to collars 45, 49 connected by dog clutches to collars 40 52 on the arms 37, 38 and the frame respectively. In the modification shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the front ends of the torsion bars 47, instead of being fixed to the frame, are coupled together so that each supplies the reaction for the other, arms 55, 57 on the bars being coupled by a turnbuckle 58 which may be adjusted to vary the springing. The rear ends of the bars may be connected to the road wheel by bell crank levers 29 having arms 60 pivoted at 61 to nuts 63 engaging with screw threads formed on the rear ends 46 of the bars. Thus, the nuts 63 are reciprocated as the road wheel rises and falls, and the rear ends of the bars 47 are correspondingly rotated. One of the bars is formed with a right-hand screw and the other with a lefthand screw, so that they are rotated in opposite directions.