WO2010137038A2

WO2010137038A2 - Body cover for a motorcycle

Info

Publication number: WO2010137038A2
Application number: PCT/IN2010/000352
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ravisankar Rajamani; Balaguru Sridhar; Amit Rajwade; Gunalan Thanikachalam; Arul Dass Paul Christu Dass
Original assignee: Tvs Motor Company Limited
Priority date: 2009-05-25
Filing date: 2010-05-24
Publication date: 2010-12-02
Also published as: WO2010137038A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a body cover for a motorcycle particularly improved body cover mounting for motorcycle in which sub assemblies are integrated as left and right half members and mounted together onto the frame. This assembly provides no sequencing problem during assembly resulting in ease of assembly, better fit, finish and reduction in assembly time and decrease in cost of assembling.

Description

BODY COVER FOR A MOTORCYCLE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a body cover for a motorcycle particularly improved body cover mounting for motorcycle.

DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART

JP publication under no. 2007008276 proposes mounting structure of the vehicle body cover of the motor cycle with a front cover which covers a front part of a vehicle body frame and has a pair of left and right openings and a lower main body which has a pair of left and right lower facing the openings of the front cover and is fixed to the vehicle body frame side. The front cover is supported by the lower main body by inserting a mounting boss protruded from a rear face into a boss-mounting hole formed in the lower main body.

In the prior art a motorcycle is comprised of a front fork attached to a front section of a chassis frame in such a way it can be steered, a front wheel, a handle fixed to the upper part of the front fork, a leg shield integrally fixed to the front section and the upper section of the chassis frame, a power unit composed of an engine and a transmission installed at the central section of the chassis frame, a rear wheel driven by the power unit and a seat fixed to the rear and upper part of the chassis frame.

In the case of the aforesaid motorcycle, the frame is covered by cover main pipe upper, cover main pipe lower. The leg shield is integrally fixed to the front section of the frame is subdivided into leg shield upper and leg shield lower and inner leg shield. Further, turn signal lamp, leg shield upper and cover frame head are integrally mounted. These assemblies of body cover are independently mounted onto the frame at different locations. This type of independent mountings of assemblies of body cover on to the frame results in gaps between mating parts, increase in cost of the assembling, and complication of rework during assembly for reducing gaps takes more time for reassembly, which results in productivity losses.

Further, assemblies mounted independently onto the frame with more exposed fasteners leads to poor fit and finish with gaps between mating parts.

Ih view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a body cover for a motorcycle in which assemblies of body cover are integrally mounted onto the frame with no sequencing problem, during assembly, resulting in ease of assembly, better fit and finish and reduction in assembly time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a body cover for a motorcycle in which body cover assemblies are integrated as left and right half members and mounted together onto the frame. This assembly provides no sequencing problem during assembly resulting in ease of assembly, better fit and finish and reduction in assembly time.

The present invention also relates to a motorcycle wherein the main pipe is extended from a head pipe in a rearward direction and a cover main pipe upper and a cover main pipe lower to cover an upper and lower parts of the main pipe and a leg shield upper and a leg shield lower cover side parts of the main pipe and also covers front sections of the both legs of a rider. The body covers comprising left and right half body cover members arranged at the right side and the left side of the main pipe. These right and left half members are integrally mounted onto the frame.

Thus, the present invention provides a motorcycle with left and right body cover members preassembled separately and then integrally mounted onto the frame, resulting reduced assembly time and better fit and finish and also resulting in decrease in cost of assembling. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 illustrates the prior art motorcycle;

Fig. 2 illustrates the left side view of the body covers including rear cover; Fig. 3 illustrates the left side view of cover L/R side 2 and cover L/R side 3;

Fig. 4 illustrates the inner view of cover L/R side 2 and cover L/R side 3;

Fig. 5 illustrates the left side view of cover L/R side 2 and cover L/R side 3 without grille

3 and with grille 5;

Fig. 6 illustrates the outer view of cover L/R side 2; Fig. 7 illustrates the inner view of cover L/R side 2;

Fig. 8 illustrates the view showing frame and body covers;

Fig. 9 illustrates the side view of the covers including the cover main pipe upper;

Fig. 10 illustrates the lower grille;

Fig. 11 illustrates the upper grille; Fig. 12 illustrates the turn signal indicator; and :

Fig. 13 illustrates the inside perspective view of the all the body covers assembled together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Any known motorcycle, as illustrated in fig. 1, can be divided into three major portions, the front portion F, the middle portion M and the rear/tail portion R. The front portion F comprises of the steering, front wheel with necessary brakes, front suspension and fender, the middle portion M comprises of the step through portion, rider seat, foot rest for both the rider and the pillion member, engine, gear shift lever stand etc and the rear/tail portion R comprises of petrol tank, swinging arm, back wheel and suspension and rear fender. In assembling such a motorcycle, especially the body cover, there are many sub assemblies and these are independently mounted onto the frame at different locations. This type of independent mountings of sub assemblies of body cover on to the frame results in gaps between mating parts, increase in cost of the assembling, and complication of rework during assembly for reducing gaps which takes more time for reassembly and results in productivity losses.

This invention will now be described with reference to the embodiments in Figs. 2 to 12. Fig. 2 illustrates the left side view of the body cover assembly not including the rear cover. The body cover assembly A, as shown in Fig. 2, comprises of three independent covers, marked by reference numerals 4, 6 and 7 and will be referred as cover L/R side 1/ the leg shield upper 4, cover L/R side 2 / the leg shield lower 6, and cover L/R side 3 also known as the cover main pipe lower 7 respectively.. A mounting point 1 to frame 23 (referred as mounting point Fl) is provided in cover 6 and mounting point F2 referred by numeral 2 is provided in leg shield upper 4. The Cover L/R side 1 (4) is substantially rhombus shaped, Cover L/R side 2 (6) is trapezoidal in shape, and Cover L/R side 3 (T) is substantially triangular in shape. There are two grilles, referred to as grille upper and grille lower and indicated by reference numeral 3 and 5 respectively, of which grille lower 5 is snap fit into the covers 4 and 6 respectively. Further it includes a turn signal indicator 3A, (see Fig. 12) comprising lamp housing 24 for housing the necessary lamp including a transparent lens and five mounting means 25a. 25b, 25c, 25d and 25e to enable connection to cover main pipe upper 22, cover frame head (not shown in drawing) and leg shield upper 4 of the motorcycle on either sides.

The cover L/R side 2 (ref. numeral 6) is connected to the cover L/R side 1 (ref. Numeral 4) through the mounting holes 10 and 11 provided on cover 6, as can be seen in Fig. 3. The cover L/R side 2 also has two openings 20 and 21 to give an aesthetic look to the cover. Locating slots 16 and 17 on the cover L/R side 2 (ref. Numeral 6) also help to fit the covers 4 and 6. Grille 5 will be snap fit in the gap created by the assembly of the three covers through lugs 18 and 19 provided on the grille. Mounting hole 12 provided on 6 helps to mount grille 5. Another mounting hole 13 helps to fit the rear cover (not shown in drawings), located below the rider's seat to the cover L/R side 2/cover main pipe lower (T). Replaceable grille lower 5, illustrated in Fig. 10, for both left and right front cover structure comprises of a louvered structure in which longitudinal or cross-sectional grills are formed, the structure being provided with locating lugs 18 & 19 and extra mounting openings 26 & 27 and so as to enable snap fitting of the said grille on to the side covers of the motorcycle.

The grille upper 3, illustrated in Fig. 11, comprises of L-shaped grill arms 28 & 29 along with an extended arm 30 placed at the joint/center of the arms, said arms being provided with four mounting locations, two locations being placed at each of the L-shaped arm ends 31 and 32, one at the joint of the L-shaped arms 33, and one at the extended arm 34.

In the motorcycle of the present invention a main pipe F is extended from a head pipe 21A in a rearward direction (Fig 8) and a cover main pipe upper 22 (Fig. 9) and a cover main pipe lower 7 to cover an upper and lower parts of the main pipe F and a leg shield upper 4 and a leg shield lower 6 to cover side parts of the main pipe F and also cover front sections of the both legs of a rider. The body covers comprising left and right half body cover members arranged at the right side and the left side of the main pipe. These right and left half members are integrally mounted onto the frame 23 (Fig. 8).

In one aspect, the body cover sub assemblies are assembled on to each other by fasteners and are located using locating slots 16 and 17 and lugs 18 and 19 at each other mating edges. The parts are assembled on jig to ensure uniform gap between parts and the colors are matching to each other. This method eliminates need of handling too many loose parts and sequencing them in order onto the frame. Pre assembling the right and left side needs lesser time and lesser number of fastening locations thereby reducing time for assembly and handling of lesser number of parts.

The left and right body cover half members are located and assembled on the mounting point by placing cover main pipe upper 22 over it using suitable fasteners. The top portion of cover main pipe upper 22which may or may not house the music system has three mounting holes 22A, 22B (Fig. 9) and 22C (not shown in figure) to join with the leg shield upper 4.

Further, left and right body cover half members are assembled by assembling subassemblies sequentially as integrated parts.

In another aspect, the grille upper 3 is mounted to leg shield upper 4 with three screws. Further it is also mounted to the assembled bracket projected out from the cover main pipe upper 22 to support whole leg shield assembly.

The said leg shield upper 4 is screw mounted to leg shield lower 6. Grille 5 is located in leg shield lower 6 and is snap fitted in between leg shield upper 4 and leg shield lower 6. Leg shield lower 6 is screw fitted with cover main pipe lower 7. This sequential mounting completes either the left or right side body cover assembly. In another aspect, the left and right side body cover members are assembled on to the frame 23 by locating at one place, where Left and right members locate and sit one over the other. About three fourth of the overlap is formed by cover main pipe lower 7 and one fourth is covered by leg shield upper 4. Lugs are located on the leg shield upper 4 (Ll, L2 and L3, Fig. 8) and corresponding locating slots (not shown in the drawings) are provided on the cover main pipe upper 22 and assembled with a screw combining body cover assembly L and R. Two more fasteners (not shown in the drawings) are assembled connecting L and R body cover assemblies to steel bracket (not shown in the drawings) projected from inner cover main pipe upper 22 at grille upper 3. Cover frame head (not shown in figures) and cover main pipe upper 22 are assembled by two screws. Cover frame head is fastened on to frame using two more screws. Left and right turn signal lamps are fastened to cover main pipe upper 22 using four more screws. The left and right body cover members are mounted at bottom one on either side to frame 23 on engine by bracket mounting. Lastly, these two half members are connected using one more screw. In another aspect, the said motorcycle is a step through vehicle.

Thus, the present invention provides a motorcycle with left and right body cover members assembled separately and then integrally mounted onto the frame, resulting in reduced assembly time and better fit and finish and also resulting in decrease of cost of assembling.

Claims

Claims:

1. A body cover assembly comprising a preassembled set of parts of left and right side assembled on either side of the vehicle frame 23.

2. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the preassembled set of parts comprises of turn signal indicator 3 A, leg shield upper 4, grille upper 3, the leg shield lower 6, replaceable grille lower 5 and the cover main pipe lower 7 assembled in sequence.

3. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the turn signal indicator comprises of a lamp housing 24 for housing the necessary lamp including a transparent lens and five mounting means 25a, 25b, 25c, 25d and 25e to enable connection to cover main pipe upper, cover frame head & leg shield upper of the motorcycle on either sides

4. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the leg shield upper 4 is substantially rhombus shaped, and is provided with mounting point F2 so as to mount it to the frame.

5. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the leg shield lower 6 is trapezoidal in shape and is provided with a mounting point Fl to connect to the frame, along with two mounting holes 10 and 11 provided on leg shield lower 6 and locating slots 16 and 17 provided on leg shield lower 6 to enable connection with leg shield upper 4.

6. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the cover main pipe lower 7 is substantially triangular in shape, and is provided with a hole 13 to fit the rear cover located below the rider seat to the cover main pipe lower 7.

7. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein the grille upper comprising L-shaped grill arms 28 and 29 along with an extended arm 30 placed at the joint/center of the arms, said arms being provided with four mounting locations, two locations being placed at each of the L-shaped arm ends 31 and 32, one at the joint of the L-shaped arms 33, and one at the extended arm 34.

8. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein replaceable grille lower for both left and right front cover structure comprising a louvered structure in which longitudinal or cross-sectional grills are formed, the structure being provided with locating lugs 18 & 19 and so as to enable snap fitting of the said grille on to the side covers of the motorcycle.

9. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said parts are made of polymer.

10. The body cover assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said parts are joined to one another by means of fasteners.

11. A step through motorcycle comprising a body cover assembly having a preassembled set of parts of left and right side assembled on either side of the vehicle frame 23.