US3580595A

US3580595A - Toe stop mounting for street roller skates

Info

Publication number: US3580595A
Application number: US830351A
Authority: US
Inventors: Gordon K Ware
Original assignee: CHICAGO ROLLER SKATE Co
Current assignee: CHICAGO ROLLER SKATE Co
Priority date: 1969-06-04
Filing date: 1969-06-04
Publication date: 1971-05-25
Anticipated expiration: 1988-05-25

Abstract

A toe stop mounting for the type of street roller skates that contain a channel-shaped soleplate, a flat toeplate attached to the top of the soleplate, a toe clamp assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate, and a front roller truck assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate. The toe stop mounting includes an elongated strap of rigid material which is attached to the bottom of the channel-shaped soleplate between the side edges thereof and which is shaped to depend downwardly from the soleplate in front of the front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the front end of the toeplate. A resilient toe stop member is attached to the bottom surface of the elongated strap in the upwardly extending region thereof. The strap is approximately equal in width to the inside dimension of the channel-shaped soleplate so that it receives lateral support from the side edges of the soleplate and is shaped so as to make contact with the front portion of the front roller truck assembly and toe clamp assembly for support purposes.

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventor Gordon K. Ware St. Charles, II]. [2]] Appl. No. 830,351 [22] Filed June 4, 1969 [45] Patented May 25, 1971 [73] Assignee The Chicago Roller Skate Company Chicago, Ill.

[54] TOE STOP MOUNTING FOR STREET ROLLER SKATES 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl... 280/l1.2 [51] Int. Cl A63c 17/14 [50] Field of Search 280/1 1.2, 11.26, 11.19-1 1.28, 11.1, 7.13

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,937,031 5/1960 Hartley et al. 280/1 1.2 FOREIGN PATENTS 743,725 H1956 Great Britain 280/11.2 894,846 4/ 1962 Great Britain 280/1 1.2

Primary Examiner-Benjamin Hersh Assistant Examiner-Milton L. Smith Attorney-Olson, Trexler, \Yolters & Bushnell ABSTRACT: A toe stop mounting for the type of street roller skates that contain a channelshaped soleplate, a flat toeplate attached to the top of the soleplate, a toe clamp assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate, and a front roller truck assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate. The toe stop mounting includes an elongated strap of rigid material which is attached to the bottom of the channel-shaped soleplate between the side edges thereof and which is shaped to depend downwardly from the soleplate in front of the front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the front end of the toeplate. A resilient toe stop member is attached to the bottom surface of the elongated strap in the upwardly extending region thereof. The strap is approximately equal in width to the inside dimension of the channel-shaped soleplate so that it receives lateral support from the side edges of the soleplate and is shaped so as to make contact with the front portion of the front roller truck assembly and toe clamp assembly for support purposes.

TOE STOP MOUNTING FOR STREET ROLLER SKATES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to toe stop mounting for street-type roller skates.

Many different types of toe stop mountings have been provided in the prior art for the rink-type of roller skate, i.e. the relatively expensive type of roller skate that is adapted to be mounted on a roller skating boot and used in an indoor roller skating rink. But although these prior-art toe stop mountings have proven successful in rink-type roller skates, they have presented several serious drawbackswith respect to the less expensive street type of roller skate which is adapted to be clamped onto the bottom of an ordinary pair of shoes and used on sidewalks. In the first place, the basic supporting structure of a street-type roller skate differs radically from the rink-type roller skate. Whereas the rink-type roller skate has a fixed soleplate member that provides an unbroken support base extending from the toe end of the skate to the heel end thereof, the street-type roller skate must be adjustable in length so as to fit different sizes of shoes, and hence the street roller skate is divided into two joined sections which can be slid toward and away from each other. Moreover, the front end of the street-type roller skate has to be fitted with a pair of toe clamps for clamping the sides of a shoe, and this toe clamp extends downwardly'in the space that is normally occupied by the toe stop mounting member in a rink-type roller skate. Accordingly, serious difficulties are encountered in finding a suitable place to attach the toe stop member to a street-type roller skate and equally serious difficulties are encountered in making the attachment sturdy enough to withstand the forces that are developed by the toe stop in use. In addition, since the market price range for street-type roller skates is quite low compared to the price range of rink-type roller skates, it is necessary for the above-noted difficulties to be surmounted in a manner which does not significantly affect the price of the skates. Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide a simple, sturdy, inexpensive toe stop mounting that can be used in connection with the existing types of street roller skates to provide a secure mounting for a toe stop member without adding appreciably to the cost of the roller skate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, the above-noted objects are achieved by means of an elongated strap member which is shaped to fit inside of the channel-shaped soleplate of a standard type of street roller skate and to be attached to the soleplate by the same stud that is used to attach the toeplate thereto. The strap is approximately as wide as the interior width of the channel member, so that it will receive lateral support from the lateral side edges thereof, and it is shaped to depend downwardly in front of the front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the end of the toeplate. A resilient toe stop member is attached to the end of the strap, and the strap is further shaped so as to contact the front roller truck assembly and to permit the stud of the toe stop assembly to contact the bottom of the toe clamp assembly to provide additional support for the braking forces that are developed when the toe stop is pressed against the sidewalk. The strap member itself is a simple stamped steel strap and does not appreciably add to the cost of the skate. Moreover, it does not require any change in the design of the skate and can be added to a standard skate assembly without appreciably increasing the cost of the assembly operation. Other advantages of the invention will be better understood from the following description of one specific embodiment thereof as is illustrated in the attached drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is an elevation view of a typical street roller skate utilizing one illustrative toe stop mounting of this invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the front of the skate structure shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of the skate structure shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the toe stop mounting strap and toe stop member shown in FIGS. 1 through 3.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the plane 5-5 of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 shows one illustrative toe mounting structure of this invention used in combination with a standard type of street roller skate. The street roller skate structure includes a toeplate 10 which is attached to and supported by a front roller truck assembly 12, and a heelplate 14 which is attached to and supported by a rear roller truck assembly 16. Toeplate l0 and heelplate 14 are joined together by a channel-shaped soleplate 18 to which both are attached by means of threaded studs that extend through openings in the soleplate.

Heelplate 14 is attached to soleplate 18 by means of a threaded stud 20 which is welded to heelplate l4 and projects downwardly through a slot in the top of soleplate l8 and is secured thereto by a nut 22. By loosening nut 22, heelplate 14 can be slid back and forth along the soleplate 18 to increase or decrease the length of the skate as a means of adjustment for different-sized shoes. Toeplate 10 is attached to soleplate 18 by means of a similar stud 24 which is welded to soleplate I0 and projects downwardly through matching bore in soleplate l8 and in the toe stop mounting of this invention to receive a nut 26.

At the front end of the toeplate 10, a toe clamp assembly 28 is mounted for clamping the skate structure to the toe portion of the wearers shoe. As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, toe clamp assembly 28 is supported by a stud 30 which is attached to the front end of toeplate 10 and depends downwardly therefrom. As thus far described, the skate structure comprises a standard type of street skate design such as is normally used without toe stops. It is the principal purpose of this invention to provide a toe stop mounting structure which can be used in connection with such a standard design to provide a simple, sturdy toe stop mount which is capable of supporting the stresses involved in toe stop braking but which will not add appreciably to the cost of manufacturing the skate. The toe stop mounting structure of this invention includes an elongated strap 32 which fits into the interior of the channelshaped soleplate 18, as best shown in FIG. 6, and is attached thereto by the threaded stud 24 and nut 26 which are provided in the standard street roller skate structure to secure toeplate -10 to soleplate 18. As can be seen in FIG. 6, the strap 32 receives lateral support from contact with the sidewalls of the channel-shaped soleplate l8.

Mounting strap 32 is bent downwardly as best shown in FIG. 2 so that it will extend downwardly in front of the front roller truck assembly 12 and then extend upwardly towards the end of toeplate 10 to support a resilient toe stop member 34 which is attached to strap 32 by means of a bolt 36 and nut 38. The strap 32 is shaped so that it will contact the front end of front roller truck 12 and also so that the end of bolt 38 will contact the downwardly projecting toe clamp stud 30 in order to provide additional support for" the braking forces that are developed when the toe stop member 34 is pressed against the sidewalk. Referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, three

bores

40, 42, and 44 are formed in strap member 32. Bore 40 is positioned to receive threaded stud 24, bore 44 is positioned to receive bolt 36, and bore 42 is positioned to provide clearance for a connecting pin 46 which projects forwardly from the front truck roller assembly 12.

When the resilient toe stop member 34 is pressed against the sidewalk to develop a braking force, the upward and rearward thrust of the force is transmitted to the soleplate 10 at three points: (I) By contact between the end of bolt 36 and the bottom of the toe clamp support stud 30; (2) by contact between the downwardly projecting portion of strap 32 and the front roller truck assembly 12; and (3) by contact between strap 32 and stud 24. The lateral forces are transmitted through the sidewalls of the channel-shaped soleplate 18 to the front roller truck assembly 12 and from there to soleplate 10. It will be clear, therefore, that the toe stop mounting an rangement of this invention provides a balanced distribution of the braking force and effectively transmits such force to the toeplate without unduly concentrating the force in any one place. In addition, it will be seen that the toe stop mounting arrangement of this invention is extremely inexpensive to manufacture and can be easily fitted onto a standard skate structure without any alteration in the skate structure or any precision adjustments. Accordingly, it will be clear that the toe stop mounting arrangement of this invention provides a simple, sturdy toestop mounting which can be used in connection with standard street-type roller skates without significantly increasing the cost of the skate. And although this invention has been described in connection with one specific embodiment thereof, it should be understood that many modifications can be made in the disclosed structure without departing from the basic principal of this invention, and that this invention includes all such modifications which fall within the scope of the following claims.

1 claim:

1. In a roller skate structure including a channel-shaped soleplate having a substantially flat top and a pair of substantially parallel side edges depending downwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to the upper surface of said soleplate, a toe clamp assembly mounted to the bottom of said toeplate and projecting downwardly, and a front roller truck assembly attached to said soleplate and extending downwardly therefrom, the improvement comprising an elongate strap of rigid material attached to the bottom of said soleplate between said side edges thereof and depending downwardly from said soleplate in front of said front roller truck assembly and then extending upwardly toward the front end of said toeplate, and a resilient toe stop member attached to the bottom surface of said elongate strap in the upwardly extending region thereof, said elongate strap being shaped to make contact with the front of said front roller truck assembly and with the bottom of said toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressed against a surface over which the skate is moving.

2. The improvement defined in claim I wherein said resilient toe stop member is attached to said elongated strap by means of a threaded stud which projects from said resilient toe stop member and extends through a bore in said elongated strap, and wherein said strap is shaped to provide contact between the end of said threaded stud and the bottom of said toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressed against a surface over which it is moving.

3. The improvement defined in claim 2 wherein the width of said elongated strap is approximately equal to the inside width of said channel-shaped soleplate whereby said strap will receive lateral support from the sidewalls of said channelshaped soleplate.

4. The improvement defined in claim 3 wherein said toeplate, soleplate, and elongated strap are connected together by means of a threaded stud attached to said toeplate and extending downwardly therefrom through bores in said soleplate and elongated strap, and a nut attached to the end of said threaded stud.

5. In a roller skate structure including a channel-shaped soleplate having a substantially flat top and a pair of substantially parallel side edges depending downwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to the upper surface of said soleplate, and a front roller truck assembly attached to said soleplate and extending downwardly therefrom, the improvement comprising an elongate strap of rigid material attached to the bottom of said soleplate between said side edges thereof, said elongate strap being shaped to depend downwardly from said soleplate in front of and adjacent to said front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the front end of said toeplate, and a resilient toe stop member attached to the bottom surface of said elongate strap in the upwardly extending region thereof, said elongate strap being resilient whereby when said stop member is pressed against a surface, said elongate strap may flex to insure engagement with said roller truck assembly thereby to gain support from said engagement.

Claims

2. The improvement defined in claim 1 wherein said resilient toe stop member is attached to said elongated strap by means of a threaded stud which projects from said resilient toe stop member and extends through a bore in said elongated strap, and wherein said strap is shaped to provide contact between the end of said threaded stud and the bottom of said toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressed against a surface over which it is moving.

3. The improvement defined in claim 2 wherein the width of said elongated strap is approximately equal to the inside width of said channel-shaped soleplate whereby said strap will receive lateral support from the sidewalls of said channel-shaped soleplate.