CN1235919A - bike - Google Patents

Abstract

A bicycle convertible between a standard bicycle configuration for normal travel and an exercise type configuration in which the bicycle is propelled forward by alternating seat and pedal strokes, the seat stroke comprising the rider pressing weight against the seat causing it to descend driving the crankshaft and two in-phase pedals to rise, the pedal stroke comprising pressing both pedals down and re-ascending the seat. In the exercise type structure, the bicycle is prevented from stalling by the fact that when the pedals are in the bottom dead center, the weight of the saddle acts on the cranks at an angle to the vertical to maintain forward thrust, and when the saddle is in the bottom dead center, the pedals are just in front of the top dead center to maintain forward thrust.

Description

bike

The invention relates to a bicycle, in particular to a bicycle in which a driving wheel can be alternately driven by forces acting on a pedal and a vehicle seat to rotate.

A bicycle of the above type is described in the inventor's former UK patent application (Application No. 2111924). The bike has the nature of an exercise bike, allowing the rider's muscles and joints to be exercised differently than on a conventional bike, while still allowing for the enjoyment of riding outdoors.

The aforementioned bicycles are adapted to exercise different muscles and joints than conventional bicycles, and for this reason, if a person wishes to exercise both muscles and joints, he must purchase and keep two different types of bicycles.

The above-mentioned bicycle will slow down to a standstill when, for example, climbing a hill. The rider pushes the pedals down from the top center of stagnation to the bottom center of stagnation and pushes the saddle up to the highest position. The momentum of the pedal should move the pedal past the bottom dead center position. However, when the rider continues to push down on the pedals for too long at a certain moment or when the rider puts almost his whole body weight on the saddle, leaving only the weight of the feet on the pedals, often the momentum of the pedals is not enough to make the It stagnates in the center position through the bottom. Once the pedals have lost momentum, the rider's weight acting vertically on the saddle is not enough to push the pedals through the bottom to a stagnant center position.

A further disadvantage of the bicycle described above is that if a rider places the saddle near and behind the center of top stagnation and the pedals near and in front of the center of bottom stagnation, the result will be that the weight of the rider will drive the bike The seat moves down, causing the pedals to rotate up and suddenly hit the rider's lower legs. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a bicycle which is suitable for both types of exercise and which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved bicycle of the above type which overcomes many of the disadvantages of the prior art and provides an efficient and practical exercise bicycle.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide a bicycle which can be driven in an exercise-type configuration where the seat and pedals are connected to each other by a crankshaft out of phase so that the bicycle can be driven in the same manner as previously described, and in a conventional configuration where the seat is connected to the frame and The two pedals are coupled out of phase by the crankshaft so that the bicycle can be driven in a conventional manner to switch between these two configurations. The cyclist can use it in the exercise configuration for exercise, use the bicycle in the regular configuration for transportation purposes, or switch from one configuration to another when required while traveling.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a bicycle in which the rotation of the drive wheel is achieved by alternating forces acting on the pedals and the saddle, wherein the saddle and the pedals are connected to the crankshaft in such a structure that when the pedal crank With the pedals in the bottom dead center position, the transmission between the saddle and the saddle crank is at an angle to the saddle crank so that the rider's weight is on the saddle crank and has the mechanical advantage of propelling the bike forward. Similar stalling is also reduced when the pedals are in the center of bottom end stagnation.

Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide a bicycle in which the rotation of the drive wheel is achieved by alternating forces on the pedals and the saddle, wherein the saddle and the pedals are connected to the crankshaft in such a structure that when With the saddle at the bottom dead center, the pedal crank and pedals are just ahead of the top dead center. This type of stalling is reduced when the saddle is in the center of bottom end stagnation.

Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a bicycle in which rotation of the drive wheel is achieved by alternating forces acting on the pedals and saddle, wherein the crank mechanism includes a mechanism that restricts the rotation of the wheel to only forward rotation so that when When the cyclist is on the bike with the seat positioned near the center of the top stagnation, the cyclist will not be bumped against the lower legs by the pedals that rise as the seat descends.

Whether to use the above-mentioned limiting mechanism can be selected by the rider. Therefore, a very skilled cyclist can not use the above-mentioned limiting mechanism, allow the pedal to rotate forward and reverse, and push the bicycle forward through the up and down movement of the seat and the pedal. The saddle and pedals are always on the same side of the top and bottom centers of stagnation, without passing through the top or bottom centers of stagnation, and a less skilled cyclist who does not want to risk hitting his lower leg may choose the above A limiting mechanism allows the wheels to turn only forward.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be seen in detail in the following examples.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a left side view of a bicycle in an exercise configuration;

Figure 2 is a left side view of the bicycle in a conventional configuration;

Figure 3 is an enlarged right side view of the transmission from the saddle to the crank of the saddle;

Figures 4a, 4b and 4c are left side views of an example of a mechanism for preventing pedal inversion.

The bicycle comprises a rigid bicycle frame 1, a front wheel 2, a rear drive wheel 3, a right side pedal 4a and a left side pedal 4b, a vehicle seat 5, a crankshaft 6 and a driving transmission chain 7 on the right side of the bicycle.

The bicycle shown in Fig. 1 is in the state of exercising type structure, and the saddle support rod 8a constitutes a part of the rigid triangular small frame that is made up of 8a, 8b, 8c and rotates around the pivot base 9 on the bicycle frame 1, the support rod 8a is connected with the connecting rod 10, and then connected with the crankshaft 6 through the connecting rod 10. Pedals 4a, 4b are mounted on cranks 6a, 6b in phase with each other and out of phase with saddle 5 (pedals 4a and crank 6a are not visible in Figure 1 because they are located just behind pedals 4b and crankshaft 6b). As a result, the bicycle is pushed forward by the pedaling impact generated by the pedaling force acting on the pedals 4a, 4b, and the downward pedaling of the pedals 4a, 4b causes the crankshaft 6, the chain 7 and the rotation of the driving wheel 3, and also makes the bicycle The seat support rod 8a and the vehicle seat 5 are upwardly raised, and then the vehicle seat support rod 8a and the vehicle seat 5 are produced under the action of the rider's body weight to descend, releasing the pressure of the pedal, causing the crankshaft 6, Drive transmission chain 7 and the rotation of trailing wheel 3, also make pedal 4a, 4b rise again simultaneously. Propelling a bicycle in this way puts the rider's body up and down in a very strenuous motion that exercises many different muscles.

Conventional structure as shown in Figure 2, the left side pedal 4b is reset and thus out of phase with the pedal 4a, the connecting rod 10 is removed from the seat support rod 8a and the fixed assembly point 11 on the rigid frame 1 , and remove it from the bicycle. The seat support bar 8 a is directly connected to the fixed mounting point 11 . In order to facilitate the resetting of the pedals 4b and the assembly and disassembly of the connecting rod 10, these elements are attached to the bicycle by means of attachments which can be easily tightened and loosened by using a wrench or other simple hand tools. At this point the bicycle is driven forward in the normal way.

When using a bicycle according to the invention, the cyclist can make short or long distance trips as desired, and whenever using the bicycle in an exercise-type configuration becomes too tiring, the cyclist can quickly turn the bicycle into a regular configuration and Continue to ride more easily.

According to FIG. 3 , the pedal crank 6a and the pedal 4a are in the bottom stagnant center position. The saddle crank 6c is along the axis A, the transmission from the saddle 5 to the saddle crank 6c is along the axis B, and the angle between the axis A and the axis B makes the weight transmission on the saddle 5 mechanically advantageous, ensuring The seat 5 moves down, while the pedals 4a, 4b continue to rotate.

Referring to Fig. 1 now, the dot-dash line shows that the seat 5 is at the center position of the bottom end stagnation and the positions of the pedals 4a, 4b. It can be seen from the figure that the pedals 4a, 4b are just in front of the stagnation center position of the top end (the forward distance is exaggerated in the figure for the purpose of illustration). This arrangement reduces the risk of stalling by allowing the rider to apply pressure to the pedals to produce a definite forward thrust.

According to Fig. 4a, the pedal crank 6b and the pedal 4b are in the top stagnation center position. A ratchet lever 12 is pivotally movable between a disengaged position (shown in solid lines) and an engaged position (shown in dashed lines). The ratchet lever 12 is held in place by a coil compression spring 13 having a ring at one end which the rider slips over one or the other of two specially provided anchor bars 14a, 14b. In Figures 4b and 4c, the cover plate 15 is uncovered to show the ratchet wheel 16 and ratchet lever 12 engaged and disengaged states with the ratchet wheel. Ratchet mechanism 12,13,14,16 is contained in the box body 17 that is positioned at crankshaft 6 left end sides.

Instead of a ratchet mechanism, other mechanisms may be used to limit the pedal rotation to one direction only, eg a clutch arrangement may also be used. In another case (not shown), the mechanism need not be detachable, since the pedal will only ever turn in one direction.

The above structure is illustrated as an example only, and many other structures are possible within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims and according to the spirit of the invention.

Claims (6)

1. bicycle, wherein can drive wheel be rotated by the power of alternating action on pedal and vehicle seat, it is characterized in that, vehicle seat (5) and pedal (4a, structure connection that 4b) can be such maybe can be connected on the bent axle (6), make as pedal crank (6a, 6b) and pedal (4a, when 4b) being positioned at the bottom dead centre position, driving device between vehicle seat (5) and the vehicle seat crank (6c) and vehicle seat crank (6c) are at angle, so that acting on vehicle seat crank (6c), rider's weight goes up to promote bicycle forward, and when vehicle seat (5) is positioned at the bottom dead centre position, pedal crank (6a, 6b) and pedal (4a 4b) just has been positioned at top dead centre position the place ahead.

2. according to the bicycle of claim 1, it is characterized in that crank mechanism comprises and limits its mechanism that rotates forward (12).

3. according to the bicycle of claim 2, it is characterized in that described limiting mechanism is a ratchet device.

4. according to the bicycle of claim 2, it is characterized in that described limiting mechanism is a clutch mechanism.

5. according to each bicycle in the claim 2～4, it is characterized in that described limiting mechanism can be thrown off.

6. according to the bicycle of claim 1, it is characterized in that, bicycle can be at a vehicle seat (5) and pedal (4a, 4b) out of phase be connected to bent axle (6) mutually thus bicycle can be by alternating action at pedal (4a, 4b) and the structure that promotes forward of the power on the vehicle seat (5), be connected to bicycle frame (1) with a vehicle seat (5) and two pedals (4a, 4b) out of phase be connected to bent axle (6) mutually thus change between the conventional structure that bicycle drives in a usual manner.

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