AN IMPULSE-TYPE INTERMITTENT BRAKING DEVICE FOR BICYCLES AND MOTORCYCLES

Abstract: The object of the invention is to provide an intermittent impulse-type anti-lock braking device for bicycles and motorcycles, whose principal function is to prevent the front or the rear wheel from locking up when the rider actuates the brake lever. Said impulse-type intermittent device is made up of an eccentric wheel (103) placed into motion by contact with the wheel of the vehicle. The eccentric wheel (103), connected to a lever (102), which has its fulcrum in (104), transmits the necessary alternating motion to the brake pad (101). In this manner, the pad is pressed against the rim of the wheel with an intermittent action instead of the continuous pressure that is provided by the braking systems which are currently on the market.

Description: Description Anirφulse-type intermittent braking device for bicycles and motorcycles Technical field This discovery is an intermittent impulse-type braking device for bicycles and motorcycles, whose principal function is to prevent the front or rear wheel from locking up when the rider actuates the brake lever. It is known that in emergency circumstances resulting from a road surface that has been made slippery by rain or mud, or in emergency circumstances due to the unpre- dictable nature of traffic situations, the rider of a bicycle or motorcycle is often called upon to act extremely quickly to stop his vehicle in as small a space as pos¬ sible and without losing control. However, it is also known that the delicate equilibriim of two-wheeled vehicles does not always allow this goal to be reached; instead, it frequently occurs that the ri- der loses control of his vehicle even though he has rapidly taken the proper steps to actuate the braking systems at his disposal; such failure to maintain control usually occurs when one of thewheels, most often, the front wheel, locks up. To prevent this from occurring and to prevent the consequent physical harm that may occur to the passive victim of such an event ( i.e. the rider ), there is one way to solve the problem : modifying the braking system of the vehicle so that neither one of the wheels is allowed to lock up. Disclosure of invention This result can be obtained by actuatuing a device which draws off a portion of wheel rrDvement and transmits such movement through a transmission shaft to an eccentric element or cam which is connected to a small piston.This piston is in turn directly connected to a brake pad whose action has been made more efficient by the shape of tha pad itself ( hollow in the inside ).In this way the braking action is not con- tinous as in the braking systems currently on the market, but instead is intermit¬ tent as a result of the intermittent action exerted by the piston on the brake pad. The basic feature of this discovery is that the wheel of the vehicle is the source of the braking force. As will be illustrated later on, the motion that powers the system is mechanically drawn from the rotating tire; however, it must be emphasized that any and all cases in which motion is drawn from any bicycle or motorcycle wheel component, such as tires, rims, disc-brakes, hubs, accessories and other systems, even those that have been added for this specific purpose at any point on the wheel, herein defined as a rotating system, are to be considered as analogous and equivalent systems which are covered by this patent. Li kewhise, this discovery also covers transmissions sy¬ stems, such as belts, shafts, flexible elements etc.etc, that are different from the system illustrated herein, as well as any power take off methods, such as co¬ axial take-off, tangential take-off etc.etc, that are differentfrom the method illustated herein. The effectiveness of the system described herein is enhanced by two important se¬ condary factors: the force with which the rider pushes a knurled wheel against the tire when he actuates the brake lever, as well as the inertia with which the eccen¬ tric-piston assembly opposes the rotational movement of the wheel . The primary purpose of the discovery described herein is to perfect a device that uses a wheel to draw motion from the wheel of the vehicle considered, bicycle or motorcycle, and that subsequently transmits such motion to a system, i.e. a shaft or a lever, including an eccentric, all this representing a mechanism which im¬ parts an intermittent impulse to a brake pad. Another rjurpose of this discovery is to perfect a device, according to the device described in the preceding paragraph,in which the wheel of the device draw motion from the rim or from the sidewall of the tire and the brake pad exerts its braking action on the rim of the wheel itself. A further purpose of this discovery is to perfect an irrteπrrittent braking system using "single-caliper"brake levers or shoes that are alternatively thrust by a special wheel or cam when said wheel or cam is pressed into contact with the external sur¬ face of the tire. These "single-caliper"brake levers or shoes then directly trans- πrits their motion to normal brake pads which directly act with an impulse-type action upon the rim of the bicycle/motorcycle wheel . This small wheel or cam, that is ac¬ tuated by the brake lever on the handlebar, is able to simultaneously power two'sim- metriclevers that hold the brake pads. This concept might be convenient most of all for bicicyles and motorcycles which use disc-brake. In fact,the above described sy¬ stem , instead of over the wheel , might be located over the disc-brake, being part of the caliper. The other characteristics and advantages of this discovery are better described by a detailed description of a nu er of its concrete configurations.An approximate but not limiting illustration of these configurations can be found on the three attached tables of design, to wit: . fig. 1 shows a schematic side view of the front wheel of a bicycle with the in¬ termittent braking device, taking off the motion from the tire and exer¬ ting its braking action on the rim; . fig. 2 shows a partial view of the device shown in fig. 1 ; . fig. 3 shows an eccentric cam, as used in a second possible application of the discovery herein treated; . fig. 4 shows a side view of the second above mentioned possible application, using two lever-type "mono-calipers"; . fig. 5 shows a front view of the device illustrated in fig.4 . fig. 6 shows a schematic view of a further configuration ready to operate illustra¬ ting a brake pad actuated by a lever coupled with an eccentric wheel . A first configuration of the impulse-type intermittent braking device for bicycles and motorcycles, as defined by this invention, is installed on the front forks of a bicycle in the same position as traditional brakes. The device (1 orl .l ) is installed over (2) each branch of the fork, and the device is kept at a distance from each branch of the fork by a return spring.The cable (5) is pulled by the brake lever on the handlebar to actuate the device.Two versions of this device can be built: a sim¬ ple type (1 ) which provides braking action only and a complex type (1.1, not shown), which has in addition a built-in generator that is used to signal braking action with a signal light. As has already been pointed out in an approximate but not limiting example,the bra¬ king unit is installed over (2) the front fork (3). The braking " unit is made up of a bearing structure that holds a brake pad (7) which moves at a right angle to the rim (10) of the wheel of the bicycle or motorcycle, and an eccentric or cam (6) that is directly moved by a serrated or knurled wheel (4). The eccentric is mounted at a right angle with respect to the axis of the small piston that moves the brake pad (7) and, to be more precise, that acts upon the stop (9). In ef ect, the shaft that holds the brake pad (7) is constantly held against the ec¬ centric by a return spring (8). The knurled wheel (4) is constructed of material that can draw motion from the sidewall of the tire, i.e. aluminium, (11) without da¬ mage to the tire when the lever on the handlebar is pulled and the knurled wheel is brought into contact with the tire. When this cccurs,motion from the tire is tran¬ sferred trough the knurled wheel to the eccentric, which in turn transmits the motion to rhe shaft that holds the brake pad.In the simplest application of this discovery, the brake pad is moved against and then drawn back from the rim of the bicycle/mo¬ torcycle wheel at each turn of the eccentric, thus generating the alternating motion that results in an intermittent braking action. In an analogous way and using the same concept a second device is illustrated and described in figg. (3) - (4) and (5) in whic a syππetrical "single-caliper"brake lever or shoe (12) is used on the right-hand and left-hand of the wheel of a bicycle/ motorcycle.Here a special wheel or cam (16) is positioned above and along the center line of the tire (11). This special wheel or cam is symmetrically widened at the sides (17) and is actuated by the brake cable (5) and extension (18) by means of an arm which holds the wheel or cam against the circumference of the bicycle/motorcycle wheel; thus, the wheel or cam is moved by frictio whenever the system is actuateed with the bicycle/mαtrcycle wheel in motion. The two symηetrical lever-brake shoes (12) which are rispectively installed over (13) and connected to (15) the two branches of the bicycle fork, are equipped with w brake pad (7) on one of their ends; this pad provides braking action on the rim of the wheel of the vehicle (10) .The other end of the two synrnstrical lever-brake shoes is equipped with an intermediate control terminal (14) that is moved at a right angle by the special wheel or cam (16) during braking. In fact, when the wheel or cam (16) turns the widened area at the side (17) moves the lever-brake shoe (12), thus pressing the brake pad (7) against the wheel rim (10). The resulting braking action is intermittent since the widened areas on the sides of the wheel or cam (16) are only present on a part of their lateral surfaces. Obviously, return springs will be providede to mve the brake pads away frαn the wheel rimwhen the lever-brake shoe (12) is not being thrust by the cam or wheel (16). In this case, too, braking action is intermittent and the impulse-type action of the brake pad (7) on the wheel rim (10) prevents the tire from locking up, thus improving overall braking performance. Another concept included in this discovery is illustrated in fig.6. The lever (102) that has its fulcrum in (104) is connected at one end to the brake pad (101) and at the other end to the eccentric wheel (103).This,placed into motion by contact with the rim of the wheel.gives back an eccentric movement to the lever (102) which imparts an intermittent braking impulse on the pad (101).The fulcrum (104) can be mobile, by an appropriate mechanism, in order to regulate the position of the brake pad (101) due to its comsumption. Naturally, this invention is not limited to the sample applications described above; such examples merely represent a starting point for other configurations and methods for the creation of this type of system. In any event, the executive details can be varied witouht ccmpromising the spirit of the invention as listed and claimed below.

Claims: Claims l. A impulse-type intermittent braking device for bicycles and motorcycles which is characterized by the fact that such device is made up of a mechanically, hydrauli- cany,pneumaticany and/or electrically driven mechanism that is placed in motion through contact with a wheel of a bicycle or motorcycle. 2. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1, which is cha¬ racterized bythe fact that said mechanism acts upon the braking means of bicycles ormotorcycles in an intermittentmanner due to the effect ofthemotion transmitted to said brakingmeans. 3. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1, which is cha¬ racterized by the fact that said mechanism is preferably placed into motion by contact with the rim or the tire of the bicycles or motorcycles and which exerts its anti-lock braking action preferably on the rim of the wheels of the bicycles or motorcycles. 4. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1, which is cha¬ racterized by the fact that said mechanism acts upon the rim of the wheel of the bi¬ cycle or motorcycle in an intermittent anti-lock manner due to the effect of the mo¬ tion transmitted to said mechanism by contact with a wheel of a bicycleor motorcycle. 5. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1, which is cha¬ racterized by the fact that the motion of said mechanism can be advantageously drawn from any other component part of the wheels of the bicycle or motorcycle, including tires, rims, hubs,brake-discs, joints or other accessories, whether already present or installed for this specific purpose and whether housed at any point on the wheels of the bicycles or motorcycles or in any way connected to the wheels, whether to draw or to impart motion, by means of belts, shafts, flexible cables etc.etc. 6. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1, which is cha- racterized by the fact that said mechanism is made up of an eccentric wheel placed 1 into motion by contact with the wheel of the vehicle.Said eccentric wheel imparts the alternating anti-lock movement to the brake pad through a lever or a shaft or analo¬ gous and equivalent system. c 7. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1 , which is cha ¬ racterized by the fact that said mechanism is preferably made up of a control termi¬ nal located on the handlebar of the bicycle/motorcycle, a small knurled wheel that re¬ sts on the tire of a wheel and is moved by said tire, an eccentric hub or equivalent system that is axially connected to said small knurled wheel and which is in turn IQ connected to a small piston or other moving element and with the aforesaid moving e- le ent equipped with a brake pad and arranged at the side of the wheel rim upon which said brake pad exerts the required intermittent anti-lock braking action. 8. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1 , which is cha- 15 racterized by the fact that said device can also be created by drawing motion from the circumference of a tire of the bicycle or motorcycle by means of at least one small cam-type wheel equipped with two lateral shoulders, including any other simi¬ lar device for this same purpose which is arranged over the center line of yhe bicy¬ cle or motorcycle and which actuates two levers, left and right, that are mounted 20 over the center of the wheel and that impart alternating motion to the brake pads. 9. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1 , which is cha¬ racterized by the fact that said device can also be created by drawing motion from the circumference of a brake-disc by means of one small cam-type wheel equipped with 5 lateral shoulders, or any similar device for this same purpose, which is arranged over the center line of the brake-disc which actuates the braking intermittent action. 10. A impulse-type intermittent braking device as described in claim 1 , which is cha¬ racterized by the fact that the operation of said mechanism can be obtained by using sources external to the wheels of the bicycle or motorcycle, such as elctric motors 1 that are powered by a variety of methods (dynamo, battery, rechargeable battery etc.) 11. A impulse-type interπritteπt braking device as described in claim 1, which is characterized by the fact that such device can be created on the basis of one or more ' of the preceding claims and according to what is substantially described and illu¬ strated on the tables attached herein.

Inventors: ZAGO MASSIMILIANO, ZAGO, MASSIMILIANO
Applicants: ZAGO MASSIMILIANO, ZAGO, MASSIMILIANO
Application year: 1992
Main classification: B60T8
IPC codes: B60T8, B62L1, B62L3