FR2871132A1 - RETRACTABLE STAND FOR TWO-WHEEL VEHICLE AND VEHICLE THUS EQUIPPED - Google Patents

Abstract

Device comprising at least one or two arms equipped with casters and movable from a high position to a low position under the action of a spring, means for holding in the high position can be retracted using a cable flexible controlled by a handle mounted on the handlebars of the cycle. This device is particularly suitable for being mounted on a bicycle. The invention also includes a vehicle equipped with such a device.

Description

"Retractable kickstand for two-wheeled vehicle and thus equipped vehicle"

  The present invention relates to a crutch device for stabilizing a vehicle comprising at least two in-line wheels, in particular a bicycle. The term "two-wheelers" will be used hereinafter to designate such a vehicle, without this being limiting, the invention being particularly applicable to vehicles comprising more than two in-line wheels.

  The object of the invention is to provide a device for two-wheeled pilots to stop without having to put the foot or feet on the ground, to maintain balance, intervening before the complete stop of the vehicle. It is also to propose a device for having a central stand on wheels, usable especially when the user of the vehicle is not on the vehicle.

  According to the invention, such a two-wheel vehicle stand device comprises at least one arm movable in rotation about a crutch axis, said arm comprising a wheel at an end remote from the crutch axis, said arm being movable from a high position to a low position under the action of resilient means, retractable means for holding the arm in the up position and means for retracting said arm holding means in its up position, and is characterized in the retraction means comprise handlebar control means and means for transmitting a movement from the control means to the means for holding the arm in its upper position. the holding means may comprise a striker movable between a holding position and a retracted position under the action of the retraction means and movable between the retracted position and the holding position under the action of a spring. In an adventurous manner, the control means are accessible by the fingers of a hand positioned on the handlebars of the vehicle. In addition, the movement transmitting means from the control means to the arm holding means in its upper position comprises a flexible cable, and the control means comprises a handle of the bicycle brake handle type.

  Means for restoring the arm to its upper position include a handle connected in motion with the arm and extending upward substantially parallel to the frame of the vehicle and accessible to the hand of a user of the cycle. Advantageously, the handle is connected in motion with the arm by a deformable quadrilateral so that the angular displacement of the arm between its upper position and its lower position, is greater than the angular deflection of the handle between two corresponding positions, which limits the amplitude the movement to be performed by the user and also limits the size of the device.

  Alternatively, the recovery means comprise stop means connected in movement with the arm and in that the device further comprises bearing means on the abutment linked in movement with the pedal. The device advantageously comprises retraction means so that it is possible to pedal with the arm in the low position without the support means meeting the abutment means. In addition, activation means for the stop means, when the arm is in the low position, allow during the following passage support means, in the movement of the pedal, to bear against the abutment means, causing the arm in its high position. The retraction of the stop means may be automatic when the arm reaches its upper position. Advantageously, the activation means for the abutment comprise a flexible cable and / or a handle of the brake handle type for a bicycle.

  Preferably a device according to the invention comprises two arms each comprising a wheel, the arms extending on either side of a longitudinal plane of symmetry of the vehicle. Such a device is particularly adapted to be mounted on a bicycle, behind the crank axle and in front of the rear wheel, one of the arms being disposed beyond the fork relative to a mounted gear wheel on the pedal and the other arm being disposed between two branches of said fork, - 3 - which allows the latter arm to escape the bulk of the pinion and the chain. The arms can then be provided to rise rearward, so that in the high position, the wheels are on either side of the rear wheel of the vehicle.

  A lock can be provided in the low position, which allows to ride in traffic jams to sneak with few inches on one side and the other and without the risk of hanging mirrors or other objects objects.

  The transverse size of the device according to the invention can be provided less than that of the pedal, which makes it possible to sneak without more difficulty with a bicycle equipped than non-equipped with the device. The balance is more precarious but it can be easily compensated by a movement of the body of the pilot, usual for a cyclist, but the complement of equilibrium thus brought by the device makes it possible to compensate for the decrease of balance due to a decrease of speed.

  In the case of slopes, locking the rear brake when the vehicle is stationary can also be provided.

  Such a device may comprise mounting means on an existing vehicle.

  The invention also extends to a vehicle comprising a crutch device according to the invention.

  This device differs from the previous ones, in particular, by two facts summed up thus: - the pilot no longer has to put his device in working position, but to trigger it by a short gesture of the foot or the hand, the movement having just to be finalized, eventually, at the end of positioning. One of the essential differences between setting up and tripping is that hands and feet, in the case of tripping, once the tripping is done, remain available, as in the case of a two-wheeled vehicle not equipped with this device. The trigger has an immediate result.

  - the second point may or may not be added to the first. In the case of the bike, he is present. It consists in having the wheels of the crutch 2871132 - 4 - fairly close to one another to allow the existence of a levitation polygon, but a modest width of the lift polygon giving the pilot a means of intervene on his balance by shifting the weight of his body to the right or to the left. This was not the case when the rollers described in the prior art sought the stability of the vehicle and its pilot by a large distance wheels where the movement of the weight of the body did not intervene. It was the tilt of the road that commanded, now it is the pilot who commands.

  It is therefore an intermediate device, in terms of balance, between car and two-wheelers. When placed in the running position, wheels in contact with the ground, it is located between the bike or the motorcycle having two wheels and two wheels only, on the one hand, and the car where the support polygon is comfortable and where the balance owes nothing to the position of the pilot. The idea was born from the spectacle offered by the cyclist stopped at a red light who tries, while waiting for the change to green, not to dismount by multiple contortions, which will not lead to a stable equilibrium.

  Note, important point and directly related to the spacing of the wheels, that the more they are close to one another, and therefore the median plane of the vehicle, the less it is necessary to raise them to avoid the ground when turns demanding a large inclination. Gathered in the center, no lifting would be necessary, it would be in the plane of the wheels of the vehicle. Very wide apart, they must, to avoid hitting the ground during these steep turns, be raised to a great height and therefore require a large-scale action to raise the arms, including a more important action of the driver when operates a handle.

  Advantages of these two provisions: apart from the nervous and muscular rest provided by the position of the feet on the footrest or the pedals of the vehicle during short stops, which the experience shows is important during long journeys in the city, there are has less angle to sweep by the crutch arms and thus an additional energy saving.

  Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description below, relating to non-limiting examples.

  In the accompanying drawings: - Figure 1 is a schematic left side view of a bicycle comprising a first embodiment for a device according to the invention in a low position; - Figure 2 is a schematic left side view of a bicycle 10 comprising a device according to the invention in a high position; - Figure 3 is a detail view of the device of Figures 1 and 2, in the low position; - Figure 4 is a sectional view along the direction IV of the figure, means for holding the device in the upper position and means 15 retraction; FIG. 5 is a view, along V in FIG. 4, of guide means and holding means; FIG. 6 is a view similar to that of FIG. 1 of a motorcycle comprising a second embodiment for a device according to the invention; FIG. 7 is a detail view similar to that of FIG. 3, for the embodiment of FIG. 6; and, - Figure 8 is a schematic view of means for restoring an arm in its upper position.

  The crutch device 100 of FIGS. 1 to 5 and 8 is mounted on a bicycle 1. The crutch device 200 of FIGS. 6 and mounted on a motorcycle 2. the devices each comprise two parallel crutch arms 3 only one can suffice as in FIG. the scooters, which are often no longer articulated at the wheels by an arm working in console - at their upper part, held integral with each other in their rotation by a common crutch axis X3, working in torsion , to which they are attached. These two arms are terminated at the bottom each - 6 - by a wheel 4 which ensures the vehicle-ground contact. In the low position 31, working position, the vehicle has a hyperstatic balance on four points, if the ground is flat. The length of the arms being such that there is no noticeable lifting of the vehicle during the lowering of the device or insufficient height allowing a wide swing to the right or to the left.

  The control of these arms can be done on one of them, since they are integral with one another or both.

  In the case of the motorcycle, if the spacing of the wheels is greater than for bicycles, for reasons of morphology, there may be a first notch of lifting, for example an angle half of the total angle of sweeping the arms, allowing the movements in the city where the turns are taken at low speed and therefore do not require a significant inclination, and a second notch, placing the casters in their maximum high position, a height greater than that of the existing vehicle parts not to reduce its angle of inclination predicted by the manufacturer. The fixed parts of the vehicle touch, in the most important bends, the ground before or at the same time as the rollers raised.

  In the case of the bicycle, referred to interchangeably as a bicycle in the present application, the axis of the arms is fixed by means of vertical tabs to a fixed place, from its frame 7, where the bicycle is not reduced to its median plane, that is to say at the level of a rear fork 5 extending from the vicinity and at the rear of the pedal 8, towards the rear, to carry the rear wheel 10. The attachment is made by means of two horizontal plates , a plate 6 and a plate against, clamped together on this split portion of the frame 7, located at the front of the rear wheel and the rear of the X8 axis of the pedal. On these plates, integral with the bicycle, are fixed for example by welding or bolting vertical legs 16, extending downwards. These vertical tabs are drilled, at their lower part, to pass the axis of crutch X3. - 7 -

  Note here that, given the space swept by the pedals, the small size of the place, the location of this axis is defined with the concern of not having arms too short so they do not need to a very wide angle to move from work to rest and vice versa, not too long for the wheels are sufficiently raised in their high position.

  Note also, as we have stated above, that it is possible to fix this axis only one side as is currently often the case for the rear wheels of scooters, but that for reasons of rigidity there is It is better to add a second leg which is located not far from the median plane, between the two branches of the fork. Indeed, the right side of the fork is encumbered by one or more drive gears (trays) and the transmission chain. The axis is thus maintained at two points not symmetrical with respect to the medium but sufficiently spaced from one another to allow a high rigidity.

  A handle 9 forming a control arm, is constituted, in the case of the bicycle of Figure 1, by a flat rod moving angularly in a plane parallel to the median plane, close to it to avoid telescoping or rubbing legs and knees with this lever, retained when the arms 3 are in the high position, by a lock 1 1 (see Figures 2, 4 and 5. This lock can be retracted by means of a flexible cable 12 actuated by a handle (not shown The cable and the handle may be of the type used for the bicycle brakes, the lock is thus removed at the request of the pilot to allow the control arm 9 to turn, under the effect of the gravity and a spring or more springs, acting in the same direction, it is the trigger At the other end of the angular stroke of the control lever a stop 14 prohibits the return to the high position without intervention of the pilot, so we are on four wheels, as shown in Figure 1, in the position of rolling gently, in balance, or parking.

  Note that the control lever 9, consisting of a plate, has a certain lateral flexibility which allows it to slide along a guide 17 fixed to the frame 7. in the direction of the decent arm 3, the lever moves elastically laterally along a ramp 171 to escape the stop 14. In the opposite direction, it is a voluntary action of the driver that allows the lever to escape this stop 14. The stop can be a small metal piece of the type found on the cabinet doors and it must be mounted or raised to open the door not locked.

  All of this angular movement is guided by a metal plate 17 and the substantially horizontal bar of the frame, when it exists. It is a guide 17. This guidance allows the cyclist to do the maneuver without having to look. It triggers and eventually finalizes the movement of the lever down and can be raised after having released by a slight bending outwardly of the control arm of the stop device. The control lever is thus placed in the upper part at the front of the bike, behind the lug. Everything is done against the outer rail, between him and the horizontal bar.

  The pilot is thus brought, from the locked up position to act on the handle on the handlebar to obtain the trigger and if this is made necessary by the relief of the road to finalize the movement by a short intervention of the left hand driving the lever to its extreme position, at the rear of the stop 14.

  The control arm that we sometimes call here handle or lever is not, in the example, the direct extension of the crutch arm. The connection between the two control lever and the stand arm is done by an articulated quadrilateral 18, thus deformable, allowing the control arm a scan angle lower than the angular sweep of the stand arm. Principle of the simple machine.

  Note also that in all cases, one can provide in the upper part of the control arm a fixed lock to use the vehicle without the help of the stand which makes the use of it optional.

  In the case of the bicycle, a small angular play can be allowed between the control arm and the crutch arms. It is intended, if one is on a hump, to let the casters back down in a stable position without the cyclist having to intervene. - 9 -

  When raising up or rearming, the gravity and the springs, as they are arranged, help put the casters in the low position. The friction of the wheels on the ground during the restart, on the other hand, tends to raise the stand in the up or potential position. This movement is accompanied by the hand in the case of the bicycle so that the high position is regained without having to rely exclusively on this friction which only serves to start the movement.

  The lower position can be locked, too, by a cleat actuated from another handle also on the handlebar, connected to the lock by a cable running inside a sheath. In this case, there is a pressure on a handle to release the low lock, the handle for triggering, and a second handle to be activated at the time of restart so that the movement of the rollers is initiated by their friction on the ground as it is said above, the rearming handle. Precision: We named handle levers such as those that operate the brakes on a bike and on a motorcycle and the clutch on a motorcycle.

  As particularly illustrated in the upper part of Figure 8, the high position reset 32, from the lower position 31 can then be done by the cyclist during the first passage of the crank 81 of the left pedal at a plate 21 fixed on the control bar 9, constituting abutment means 21 for support means 22 constituted by a rod extending perpendicularly to this crank, long enough to be in contact with the wafer and not too much to touch, when crank rotations as this wafer. The axis of the pedal and the axis of the control lever being separate from each other and distant from each other by a few centimeters, there is a position and a platelet dimension such that it can escape from the pedal rod as soon as the high position is reached by the control bar. The desired contact between rod and wafer therefore takes place only when the rollers are in the low position and during the time of reassembly.

  The latter device calls for a release of the control lever at the end of the stroke to the low position and is obtained by pulling a cable through a flexible sheath, actuated by the second handle on the handlebar, as described. upper.

  To summarize the maneuver, say that a first pressure on a handle on the handlebar frees the control lever down and another pressure exerted, it - for the case where one would choose the lift by the arm pedal - on the other handle allows the cyclist to engage his system back to the high position by the passage of the crank of the left pedal during its first passage up. In the case where we prefer manual winding, the handle located at the top of the control lever would allow and would require a gesture of very short duration.

  Alternatively, as illustrated in the lower part of Figure 8, the abutment means 21 can be fixed to the left arm 3 of the stand device.

  Note that: 1) The addition to an existing bike or the supply by the manufacturer of this device adds very little to the price and weight.

  2) It is very useful, and pleasant, when pushing your bike next to you, to be able, by a slight movement of your hand on a handle on the handlebars, to abandon it without having to lean against a wall, a tree or a pole.

  In the case of a scooter or a motorcycle, the problems to be set to create a crutch operated before stopping are two: -1) install a shaft integral with the frame around which turn 30 movable arms terminated by wheels such as when these arms are vertical, the vehicle is in balance - a hyperstatic balance; and, - 11 - -2) find a control system for these arms.

  As illustrated in FIG. 6, the crutch pin X3 can be arranged at the front of the engine block 25. In the example illustrated, the fixed points 26, 27 of the deformable quadrilateral 18 have been connected to the bumper 28 of FIG. the bike 2.

  In this new patent application, there are changes on both points. We exposed them. It remains for us to specify how the order is carried out.

  One can count, to put the stand in low position, working position, on gravity, which is sufficient when the weight of the wheels is determined for this purpose. The helical spring provided in other devices of legs of the prior art is a return spring for putting the device in the high position. Such a spring, working in the same direction can be provided here too, but with a lower force, on the one hand, and set to intervene only end of rotation of the arms 3 of crutch to cushion the arrival in low position, on the other hand. So arranged, he is unable to put the arms up and can only attend the movement back to its beginning, thus joining the effect of the friction wheels on the ground, when they are still in contact with this one.

  Since this is a trigger and not a setting requiring work, it can be done from the handlebars with a handle style clutch or brake as the bike. It can also be done by releasing a lock holding the arm at the top.

  Of course, the invention is not limited to the examples that have just been described and many adjustments can be made to these examples without departing from the scope of the invention.

  It is thus possible to provide an intermediate lift for low-angle turns without risks for the wheels hit the ground. The complete lifting remains possible at any time.

Claims (16)

- 12 - CLAIMS   1. Crutch device (100,200) for a two-wheeled vehicle (1,2) comprising at least one arm (3) movable in rotation around a crutch axis (X3), said arm comprising a wheel (4) at a remote end of the leg axis, said arm being movable from a high position (32) to a low position (33) under the action of resilient means (13), means (11) retractable to hold the arm in the high position and means (12) for retracting said means for holding the arm in its upper position, characterized in that the retraction means comprise handlebar control means and means (12) for transmitting a movement from the control means to the means for holding the arm in its upper position.   2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the holding means comprise a striker movable between a holding position and a retracted position under the action of the retraction means and movable between the retracted position and the holding position under the action of a spring.   3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the means for transmitting the movement from the control means to the means for holding the arm in its upper position comprise a flexible cable (12).   4. Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the control means are accessible by the fingers of a hand positioned on the handlebars of the vehicle.   5. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the control means comprise a handle of the brake handle type for bicycle.   - 13 - 6. Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises means (9,21,22) for restoring the arm in its upper position.   7. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the recovery means comprise a handle (9) connected in movement with the arm and extending upward substantially parallel to the frame of the vehicle and accessible to the hand of a user of the cycle.   8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that the handle is connected in motion with the arm by a deformable quadrilateral (18) so that the angular movement of the arm between its upper position and its lower position is greater than the angular deflection of the handle between two corresponding positions.   9. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the vehicle is provided with a pedal (8), in that the recovery means comprise stop means (21) connected in movement with the arm and in that the device further comprises support means (22) on the abutment linked in movement with the pedal.   10. Device according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises retraction means for the abutment means and means for activating the abutment.   11. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the activation means for the abutment comprise a flexible cable and / or a handle type brake handle for bicycle.   12. Device according to one of claims 1 to 12 characterized in that it comprises two arms each comprising a wheel.   - 14 - 13. Device according to claim 12, characterized in that the crutch pin is fixed on a rear fork (5) of a bicycle behind the crank axle (X8) and in front of the rear wheel (10). ), one arm being disposed beyond the fork relative to a drive pinion mounted on the pedal and the other arm being disposed between two branches of said fork.   14. Device according to claim 13, characterized in that in the high position, the wheels are on either side of the rear wheel of the vehicle.   15. Device according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that it comprises mounting means on an existing vehicle.   16. Two-wheeled vehicle comprising a crutch device according to one of claims 1 to 15.