Improvements in and relating to the Connection and Adjustment of Cycle and like Handle Bars to and upon their Steering Posts.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 30th July, 1898-Accepted, 17th Sept., 1898
فال
Improvements in and relating to the Connection and Adjustment of
Cycle and like Handle Bars to and upon their Steering Posts.
I, GEORGE YATES COOPER, Managing Director of The New Cooper Cycle Fittings
Company, Limited, of 89 & 90 Belmont Row, in the City of Birmingham, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention relates to the steering mechanism of cycles and consists of certain
improvements in their construction which enables the handle bar to be adjusted
as to its angle or tilt, to be folded so that its curved ends depend vertically down-
ward, and also to be turned so that it can be placed in longitudinal line with a
cycle's frame. This last-mentioned position is an extremely important one where
a cycle has to be stored in a small space or in a narrow passage, or where numbers
of them require to be closely packed, as in the case of transit in a railway van,
and by this invention this can be effected without perceptibly altering the design
of the parts and without weakening the supporting means for the handle bar.
The improvements according to this invention will be clearly understood by
reference to the annexed sheet of drawings, which illustrate how the invention is
carried into effect, and the various positions which it will allow the handle bar to
take.
In Fig. 1 of the said sheet of drawings a diagrammatic view of a diamond frame
cycle shows in dotted lines four important positions which the handle fitted with
the improvements according to this invention may take. Fig. 2 is a view drawn
full size of the steering mechanism, Fig. 1, minus the cycle's framing parts and
the steering wheel, and Fig. 3 is a top side plan of this view. In these two last-
mentioned Figs. the handle'bar is shown in full forward of the steering post, and
in dotted aft of the steering post; the handle bar lug which carries it and which
is constructed according to this invention allowing of same. Fig. 4 shows the top
portion of Fig. 2 but with the summit of the steering post in elevation instead of
section. Fig. 5 shows a somewhat similar view to Fig. 2 but with the whole of
the parts in elevation, and the handle bar turned upon the steering post so that its
length is in direct longitudinal line with the direction of the cycle's frame, this
position being shown clearly by the dotted line x in Fig. 1.
c is the
Referring to the said figs., a is the fork of the front or steering wheel, o
the crown part thereof, and a³ the steering socket standing vertically up from the
said crown, the same being broken off for the purpose of convenience.
steering post to which the handle bar is adjustably connected and is its crown
part or summit, which is coned for a short distance from its end and bored out
centrally and vertically and formed with a screwed box c. d is the handle bar
lug and e is the handle bar carried adjustably by it through the medium of the
coned part of the steering post. The handle bar lug d is a split clip-like part
formed with a conical socket and a circular eye, the first-named being
adapted to set itself upon the coned summit of the steering post and to turn

page_text: thereon, and the latter being adapted to carry the handle bar e by being made to
grip onto it; a split bush or liner e intervening between the handle bar and the
inner face of the circular eye ³.
A clamping screw bolt ġ takes vertically through a hole in the top part of
the handle bar lug and engages the screw box in the crown of the steering post;
the said bolt having a suitable abutment with the upper part of the handle bar
lug. The purpose of this clamping screw bolt y is two-fold: it pulls together
the halves of the clip-like handle bar lug and closes its circular eye onto the
handle bar, so that the latter is gripped, and it also pulls the cone part of the
steering post into the conical socket d*, so that a rigid frictional connection
between the steering post and the handle bar lug is made; it being understood
that in the same way as it causes the parts to grip each other when screwed up it
allows them to move freely upon each other when unscrewed.
It will be seen clearly from Fig. 4 that the handle bar lug d and the crown
part of the steering post fit into each other plug and socket-like, and that by
means of this the handle bar can be turned bodily on the said coned end to take
varying positions in line or at an angle to the frame and wheels of a cycle, and
that furthermore the handle bar lug can be so turned as to bring the handle bar
either forward or aft of the steering post, both last-named positions being shown
by full and dotted lines in Figs. 2 and 3. When such an adjustment of the handle
bar is being effected the clamping scrow bolt g is unscrewed in order to free from
each other the parts to be turned, but the whole of the said parts are rigidly
clamped and firmly held to each other by again screwing up the bolt.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I.
claim is:
First. In cycles and like steered machines, connecting the handle bar to the
steering post so that the former can be rotated or turned upon the latter into a
position either in longitudinal line or at an angle to a cycle or the like's framing,
and be firmly and rigidly clamped to the said steering post in any position in
which it may be placed, substantially as described and set forth."
Second. In cycles and like steered machines, connecting the handle bar to the
steering post by means of a conical socket and a coned part, and so that the said
handle bar can be rotated or turned upon the steering post into a position either in
longitudinal line or at an angle to a cycle or the like's framing, and be firmly
and rigidly clamped to the said steering post, in any position in which it may be
placed, through the medium of a clamping screwed bolt and a screw box, substan-
tially as described and set forth.
Third. In cycles and like steered machines the combination of the steering
post c, having its crown or summit coned and formed with a screw box, a handle
bar lug d of a split-clip formation having a circular eye within it, and a
conical socket, a handle bar e adapted to engage the circular eye and to be
clamped therein, and a clamping screw bolt g taking through the handle bar lug
and into the screw box e of the steering post, and which is adapted to screw up
the different parts tightly together for affixment and to free them for adjustment,
substantially as described and set forth in Figs. 1 to 5.
001
1
.
1
2000
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
11, Burlington Chambers, New Street, Birmingham,
Patent Agents for the Applicant.