Patent ID: 7690390

Claim:
An arched canopy and vehicle system comprising: a vehicle having components forwardly and an essentially vertical seat rearwardly, the seat having an upper extent and a lower extent; a frame formed of two laterally spaced rods having forward ends and rearward ends with a front cross tube, a middle cross tube and a rear cross tube, each cross tube having opposed ends coupled to the rods; forward retaining components for coupling the forward ends of the rods to the vehicle forwardly and rearward retaining components for attaching the rearward ends of the rods to the seat of the vehicle rearwardly; a flexible canopy fabric in a generally rectangular configuration with a front edge and an adjacent front pocket receiving the front cross tube and a parallel middle pocket receiving the middle cross tube and a parallel rearward edge with an adjacent rearward pocket receiving the rear cross tube, the front pocket being of a length essentially equal to the length of the front cross tube, the middle pocket being of a length essentially equal to the length of the middle cross tube, the rearward pocket being of a length essentially equal to the length of the rear cross tube, the canopy fabric also having parallel side edges forming parallel side pockets receiving the side rods between the front and rear cross tubes, the side pockets being of a length essentially equal to the length of the side rods, the side pockets also receiving the spaced intersecting locations; a rectangular viewing panel formed in the canopy fabric between the rear cross tube and the rear edge, the viewing panel being fabricated of a mesh with interstices of sufficient size to allow viewing objects behind the bicycle for safety purposes, the viewing panel also including a rectangular covering panel of flexible opaque material of a size to cover the viewing panel, the covering panel having an upper edge with a strip of hook and loop fasteners and an associated strip of hook and loop fasteners adjacent to the rear cross tube adapted to hold the covering panel over the viewing panel at the discretion of a rider of the bicycle; and a finger ring coupled to the front edge of the canopy cover at the forward-most extent of the canopy fabric, the finger ring adapted to receive a finger of a rider of the bicycle and pull the front cross tube and canopy cover and side rods forwardly for protection purposes, the front cross tube and canopy cover and side rods adapted to resiliently move rearwardly upon release of the finger ring by the rider of the bicycle.