WO1995003731A1

WO1995003731A1 - Apparatus for a bike and a two wheel vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO1995003731A1
Application number: PCT/US1994/008664
Authority: WO
Inventors: Zvi Rosenberg
Original assignee: Mor, Moshe; Friedman, Mark, M.
Priority date: 1993-08-01
Filing date: 1994-07-29
Publication date: 1995-02-09
Also published as: IL106546A0

Abstract

A bicycle parking device which is connectible to an anchoring body such as the ground or a wall (16), which includes a U-shaped channel (10), a mechanism (20) for directly or indirectly connecting the channel to the anchoring body, and a pair of opposing biasing mechanisms (26), preferably each including an inwardly biased spring (30) and a freely rollable ball (34) mounted on the sidewalls of the U-shaped channel for retaining a wheel (36) of the bicycle.

Description

APPARATUS FOR A BIKE AND A TWO WHEEL VEHICLE

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to devices for facilitating the parking

of two-wheeled vehicles, such as bicycles and motorcycles.

The parking of two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles or

motorcycles (hereinafter, for convenience, referred to singularly and

collectively throughout the specification and claims as "bicycle") requires

the use of at least one additional point of contact or stabilizing element,

beyond the two wheels of the bicycle. Most bicycles are provided with

kickstands which serve as the third point and which make it possible to

park a bicycle on its wheels, albeit not without a very significant tilt

toward the side of the kickstand.

This tilt is undesirable for at least three reasons. First, a bicycle

which is parked in a tilted position takes up more room than one parked

in a fully upright position. Second, the tilt makes the bicycle less stable,

making it more susceptible to tipping over in response to even a small

disturbance force. Finally, it is often necessary to lock the parked bicycle

to an immovable object. The kickstand, being an integral part of the

bicycle is not such an immovable object so that the user must additionally

seek and find a suitable immovable object to which the bicycle can be

locked. Various solutions have been offered. One of the most popular is the conventional bicycle rack which is typically a substantially right triangular metal frame having a series of evenly spaced parallel rods forming

substantially a 45° angle with the ground. The spacing of the rods is

designed to accommodate a typical front tire of a bicycle. To park a

bicycle, a user simply inserts a portion of the front tire of the bicycle

between a pair of adjoining rods. The user may optionally use the rods or adjoining rods to lock the tire to the rack, as through the use of a locking

chain.

The above-described solution suffers from a number of

disadvantages. First, the rack is a bulky device which takes up

considerable amount of real estate. Second, because of the presence of the

relatively closely spaced rods, the portion of the sidewalk or other surface

on which the rack is installed is very difficult to clean and often leads to

the accumulation various unsightly debris. Finally, the separation distance

between the adjoining rods is often improper for a specific bicycle since

it is difficult to accommodate with a single spacing the various bicycle tire

widths and inflation levels which are normally encountered.

The consequence of this limitation is that the rod spacing is too

narrow for some bicycles, making the rack completely useless for these

bicycles or compelling the user to forcefully insert the bicycle wheel into

the rack thereby risking possibly damaging the tire and/or the spokes. At the same time, for other bicycles the rod spacing may be too large which

results in the bicycles tilting to one side or the other which could lead to

their falling away from the rack and which could additionally or

alternatively lead to undesirable lateral bending of the wheel.

There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly

advantageous to have, a bicycle parking device which would allow a

bicycle to be parked quickly and readily, which device would take up very

little room and would effectively accommodate a wide variety of bicycle

tire sizes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is provided a bicycle

parking device connectible to an anchoring body, comprising: (a) a U-

shaped channel having a base portion and a pair of opposing sidewalls; (b)

means for directly or indirectly connecting the channel to the anchoring

body; and (c) a pair of opposing biasing mechanisms mounted on the

sidewalls for retaining a wheel of the bicycle.

According to further features in preferred embodiments of the

invention described below, the biasing mechanisms each includes an

inwardly biased spring and a contacting body which is preferably spherical

and freely rollable. According to still further features in the described preferred

embodiments, the means for directly or indirectly connecting the channel

to an anchoring body includes at least one hole in the base portion or in

one of the sidewalls of the U-shaped channel.

The present invention successfully addresses the shortcomings of the

presently known configurations by providing a bicycle parking device

which is compact, is easy to install and use and which can readily

accommodate various bicycle wheel widths.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with

reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a pair of bicycle parking devices according to the

present invention separately installed on a wall;

FIG. 2 shows three bicycle parking devices according to the present

invention connected to each other;

FIG. 3 is a partial cutaway view of a bicycle parking device

according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a is a partial cutaway view of a bicycle parking device

according to the present invention further showing a bicycle wheel. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The principles and operation of a bicycle parking device according

to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the

drawings and the accompanying description.

Referring now to the drawings, Figures 1 -4 illustrate bicycle parking

devices according to the present invention. The device includes a U-

shaped channel 10 which is made up of a base portion 12 and a pair of

opposing sidewalls 14, each of which is connected at one of its edges to,

or is preferably integrally formed with, base portion 12. Channel 10 can

be made of any suitable material, such as an appropriate plastic but is

preferably metal.

The device further includes means for directly or indirectly

connecting channel 10 to an anchoring body. Preferably, base portion 12

and/or one or both of sidewalls 14 include perforations which

accommodate a connecting member which can be used to anchor the

device or connect it to adjoining devices which may, in turn, be connected

to other devices and/or anchored to an immovable anchoring member.

For example, the anchoring body may be a wall 16 (Figure 1). Base

portion 12 preferably includes at least a pair of base portion holes 18 (only

the upper of which is shown in Figures 2 and 3) which can accommodate

a suitable bolt 20 (Figure 1) which can penetrate wall 16 and secure the

device at the proper height. The anchoring body may alternatively be a pole of proper height

(not shown) which is firmly installed in, or placed with a suitable relatively

immovable base (not shown) on, the ground or sidewalk and which may

be connected to the device through base portion holes 18.

Alternatively or additionally, a number of devices can be connected

together with two or more of the devices being additionally anchored to a

wall or to the ground. One possible connection between adjoining devices

is shown in Figure 2, where a number of devices are connected with the

help of a pair of horizontal poles 22 which run through opposing sidewall

holes 24 (Figure 1) in sidewalls 14. Horizontal poles 22 may be straight

or may, for example, be curved to form a pair of circles or near-circles so

as to provide for bicycle parking around a tree and the like. The

arrangement of Figure 2 can be used to slide the individual devices so that

they are properly located relative to each other to provide suitable space

between devices, as desired by the user. In some applications it may be

desirable, once the proper spacing has been determined, to immobilize the

individual devices, as by welding, so as to prevent the individual devices

from sliding along poles 22.

Most importantly, a device according to the present invention

includes a pair of opposing biasing mechanisms 26 mounted on sidewalls

14 for retaining a wheel 28 (Figure 4) of the bicycle. Biasing mechanisms

26 are oriented so as to be biased inwardly, i.e., toward each other. The presence of biasing mechanisms 26 makes it possible for a U-shaped

channel 10 of a given size to efficiently accommodate tires of somewhat

different widths and inflation levels.

Preferably, each of biasing mechanisms 26 includes an inwardly

biased spring 30 (Figures 3 and 4) which is contained in a housing 32

connected to, or integrally formed with, one of sidewalls 14 and which is

preferably substantially cylindrical.

Located at or near the inner end of spring 30 and inwardly biased

by it is a contacting body 34 which is the member which makes contact

with wheel 28 of the bicycle during operation of the device. When no

force is applied to it, contacting body 34 protrudes inwardly from the inner

face of sidewalls 14 into the cavity formed by channel 10. Preferably,

contacting body 34 is blunt. Most preferably, contacting body 34 is a ball,

i.e., substantially spherical, so as to minimize or eliminate any damage

which might otherwise result when a tire 36 (Figure 4) of wheel 28 is

forced past contacting body 34 when wheel 28 is inserted into, or is

removed from, the device.

Most preferably, contacting body 34 is a freely reliable ball which

is able to roll relative to spring 30. Thus when tire 36 is forced past

contacting body 34, contacting body 34 is able to roll at least partly along

with tire 36 so as to minimize or eliminate any friction which might

damage, as by scratching, tire 36. In practice, a device which has been suitably permanently anchored

as described above, operates as follows. The user approaches the device

with the bicycle, typically leading with the front wheel. Wheel 28 is then

pushed into channel 10. As tire 36 moves forward toward base member

12 it temporarily pushes contacting bodies 34 outwardly, partly

compressing spring 30. Once tire 36 moves past biasing mechanisms 26,

contacting bodies 34, responsive to the biasing force exerted by spring 30,

move inwardly toward each other and constrain wheel 28, typically resting

against the inner surface of the rim 38 of wheel 28. To remove the

bicycle, wheel 28 is pulled in the direction away from base portion 12 and

the process described above is repeated in reverse.

Preferably, a device according to the present invention further

includes means (not shown) for locking wheel 28 to the device. Various

such means may be envisioned. For example, sidewalls 14 could feature

an additional pair of opposing holes similar to sidewall holes 24 but

located closer to the open edges of sidewalls 14. After wheel 28 has been

fully inserted into the device, a peg (not shown) may be inserted through

the pair of locking holes. A ring at the end of the peg could then be

locked, as by using a padlock and the like, to connect the ring with a

suitably located complementary ring (not shown) which is permanently

connected to, or integrally formed with, the device. While the invention has been described with respect to a limited

number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations,

modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A bicycle parking device connectible to an anchoring body,

comprising:

(a) a U-shaped channel having a base portion and a pair of

opposing sidewalls;

(b) means for directly or indirectly connecting said channel to

the anchoring body; and

(c) a pair of opposing biasing mechanisms mounted on said sidewalls for retaining a wheel of the bicycle.

2. The parking device of claim 1, wherein said biasing

mechanisms each includes an inwardly biased spring.

3. The parking device of claim 2, wherein said biasing

mechanism includes a contacting body which is inwardly biased by said

spring for making contact with the wheel of the bicycle.

4. The parking device of claim 3, wherein said contacting body

is substantially spherical.

5. The parking device of claim 4, wherein said substantially

spherical contacting body is rollable.

6. The parking device of claim 2, wherein each of said inwardly

biased spring is housed in a substantially cylindrical housing which is

connected to, or is integrally formed with, one of said opposing sidewalls.

7. The parking device of claim 1, wherein said means for

directly or indirectly connecting said channel to the anchoring body

includes at least one hole in said base portion of said U-shaped channel.

8. The parking device of claim 1, wherein said means for

directly or indirectly connecting said channel to the anchoring body

includes at least one hole in at least one of said sidewalls of said U-shaped

channel.