Patent Application
20100190613
The present invention relates to an exercise machine and, more particularly, to an exercise machine with coaxial load wheel and cranks.
The environment is changing so that there is less and less space for people to exercise in. The society is also changing so that there is less and less time left for people to exercise. Therefore, people exercise less and less, and this jeopardizes physical and mental health. According to reports, light and frequent exercise improves human health as well as more intense but less frequent exercise. To facilitate exercise, there have been various exercise machines. With these exercise machines, people can exercise whenever they are available.
A typical exercise bike or oval-movement exercise machine includes two cranks, an active wheel and a load wheel. The cranks are connected to the active wheel. The active wheel is connected to the load wheel via an ordinary belt, a timing belt or chain. The load wheel exerts a load on the active wheel through the belt while a user is working out. The load wheel may include external or internal magnets or frictional elements. The active wheel and the load wheel are provided on two different axles, and this renders the exercise bike or oval-movement exercise machine bulky. The bulkiness intimidates customers who intend to use exercise machines at their not-big-enough apartments.
There have been attempts to reduce the distance between axles that support an active wheel and a load wheel and the dimensions of parts of an exercise machine. However, these attempts have not been proved to be successful.
Should the cranks be directly connected to the load wheel, i.e., without any active wheel, the rotational speed of the load wheel is the rotational speed at which a user treads the cranks. The rotational speed of the load wheel would be too low, i.e., the rotational momentum of the load wheel would be too small to ensure smooth rotation of the load wheel, particularly near upper and lower dead points.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.
It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide an exercise with coaxial load wheel and cranks.
According to the present invention, an exercise machine includes a base, an axle rotationally supported on the base and two cranks connected to the axle so that the cranks are rotational synchronously with the axle. A drive wheel unit includes an active wheel provided on the axle so that the active wheel is rotational synchronously with the cranks. A passive wheel unit includes a load wheel supported on the axle so that the load wheel is rotational relative to the axle and a passive connected to the load wheel so that the passive wheel is rotational synchronously with the load wheel. A step-up device includes a shaft rotationally supported on the base and small and large wheels connected to the shaft so that they are rotational synchronously. The small wheel is connected to the active wheel so that the small wheel is rotational with the active wheel. The large wheel is connected to the passive wheel so that the passive wheel is rotational with the large wheel.
Other objectives, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description referring to the attached drawings.
The present invention will be described via detailed illustration of embodiments referring to the drawings.
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The drive wheel unit 20 includes a ring 21 secured to the axle 15 by welding for example and an active wheel 23 connected to the ring 21 with fasteners 22 such as screws. Thus, the active wheel 23 is rotational synchronously with the cranks 161 and 162.
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A transmitting element 24 is arranged between the small wheel 34 and the active wheel 23 so that power can be transmitted to the small wheel 34 from the active wheel 23 via the transmitting element 24. The transmitting element 24 may be an ordinary belt, a timing belt or a chain. The small wheel 34 and the active wheel 23 may be pulleys, timing pulleys or sprockets corresponding to the transmitting element 24. The transmitting element 24 is preferably an ordinary belt wound around the small wheel 34 and the active wheel 23 embodied as pulleys.
The diameter of the active wheel 23 is at least twice as large as that of the small wheel 34. Preferably, the diameter of the active wheel 23 is three times as large as that of the small wheel 34. Therefore, the rotational rate of the small wheel 34 is three times as large as that of the active wheel 23.
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A transmitting element 37 is arranged between the large wheel 36 and the passive wheel 53 so that power can be transmitted to the passive wheel 53 from the large wheel 36 via the transmitting element 37. The transmitting element 37 may be an ordinary belt, a timing belt or a chain. The large wheel 36 and the passive wheel 53 may be pulleys, timing pulleys or sprockets corresponding to the transmitting element 37. The transmitting element 37 is preferably an ordinary belt wound around the large wheel 36 and the passive wheel 53 embodied as pulleys.
The diameter of the large wheel 36 is at least twice as large as that of the passive wheel 53. Preferably, the diameter of the large wheel 36 is three times as large as that of the passive wheel 53. Hence, the rotational rate of the passive wheel 53 is three times as high as that of the large wheel 36.
As discussed above, the rotational rate of the load wheel 51 is nine times as high as that of the cranks 161 and 162 because of the step-up device 30.
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The present invention has been described via the detailed illustration of the embodiments. Those skilled in the art can derive variations from the embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments shall not limit the scope of the present invention defined in the claims.
