Patent ID: 9505458
Filing Date: 2016-11-29
CPC Classification: B62J,B62K

Claim Text:
1. A link mechanism protection structure for a saddle vehicle comprising: a body frame; a swing arm having a front end portion pivotally supported in an upwardly and downwardly swingable manner by a pivot shaft disposed at a lower portion of the body frame, the swing arm being adapted to support a rear wheel in a rotatable manner on a rear end portion thereof; a shock absorber unit adapted to restrict an amount of swinging of the swing arm relative to the body frame, the shock absorber unit having an upper end portion connected to the body frame; and a link mechanism connected to a lower end portion of the shock absorber unit, to the swing arm and to the body frame, a link guard being disposed under the link mechanism; wherein the link mechanism includes: the link guard is disposed to cover at least an area ranging from a front end portion of the shock absorber rod to the front end portion of the shock absorber arm on a lower side of the area in such a manner to spread over the pair of left and right rod portions, and is fixed at least to the pair of left and right rod portions, wherein the front end portion of the shock absorber rod includes left and right large-diameter portions each provided with a bearing inside thereof, and a small-diameter portion provided integrally between the left and right large-diameter portions that is smaller than the large-diameter portions in outside diameter, and wherein a front end portion of the link guard is bent in cross section wherein a central portion thereof, with respect to a vehicle width direction, projects toward a radially inner side of the small-diameter portion, in such a manner to be along the shape of the front end portion of the shock absorber rod.