Patent Grant
9182775
The present invention generally relates to foot-operated controls for motorcycles. More particularly, this invention relates to foot-operated gear shifting and braking controls incorporated into foot boards of a motorcycle to enable a rider to keep their feet on the foot boards at all times while shifting gears and applying brakes with simple rocking motions of the feet.
Foot boards (floor boards) are standard equipment for many motorcycles, and are provided as a more comfortable option to standard foot pegs. Foot boards are usually mounted in proximity to the foot-operated controls of a motorcycle, namely, the gear shifter lever located on the lefthand side of a motorcycle and a rear brake pedal on the righthand side of the motorcycle. U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2009/0272215 to Plackis shows the conventional location of a foot board beneath a gear shifter lever of a motorcycle. In contrast to a standard toe gear shifter configured for operation with the rider's toe, the gear shifter described in Plackis is a toe-and-heel gear shifter comprising interconnected front and rear arms. The front arm is forward of the foot board for operation with the rider's toe, while the rear arm is at the rear of the foot board for operation with the rider's heel. The arms are interconnected to facilitate the usual shifting pattern of a motorcycle. Using the movement of the front arm as reference, first gear is usually one position down from neutral while the remaining higher gears are engaged by multiple incremental positions up from neutral. The rear arm avoids the need to lift the front arm up with the toe as the rider shifts to higher gears by allowing the rider to use the heel to move the rear arm down to achieve upward movement of the front arm. Though not shown, a foot board is also presumably located slightly below and behind a rear brake pedal on the righthand side of the motorcycle.
The foot board shown in Plackis is positioned so that either the toe or heel of the rider's foot can be firmly supported by the foot board during the operation of the gear shifter. For this reason, the foot board is rigidly attached to the motorcycle frame, such that the board cannot move while supporting the rider's feet, including during operation of the gear shifter.
Toe-and-heel gear shifters are often more convention to operate than a standard toe shifter because the rider is not required to lift his or her toe when shifting to higher gears. However, riders may still find a toe-and-heel shifter to be somewhat difficult to operate. For example, certain riders that have suffered lower leg injuries may find it difficult to lift their toe off the foot board and onto the front arm in order to downshift and/or lift their heel off the foot board and onto the rear arm in order to upshift.
The present invention provides foot-operated assemblies and methods of using the foot-operated assemblies to control a motorcycle.
According to a first aspect of the invention, the foot-operated assembly includes
a shaft that defines a pivot axis, a device for mounting the shaft to the motorcycle, a rocker arm coupled to the shaft so that the rocker arm is rotatable about the pivot axis, a second arm interconnected with the rocker arm so that rotation of the rocker arm causes the second arm to rotate about the pivot axis, a feature for coupling the second arm to a gear shifter linkage or a brake cylinder rod of the motorcycle, and a foot board attached to the rocker arm so that rotation of the foot board causes the rocker arm and the second arm to rotate about the pivot axis.
Other aspects of the invention include methods of using a foot board, including but not limited to the foot board described above, to operate a motorcycle, for example, using the foot board as the gear shifter lever or brake pedal of a motorcycle.
A significant advantage of this invention is that a rider is able to safely rest his/her foot on the foot board while riding a motorcycle, while also enabling the rider to shift gears and/or apply a brake with a simple “rocking” motion of the rider's foot. If installed for shifting gears, the rider is able to shift gears by pressing downward on the forward portion of the foot board with the rider's toe to downshift, and by pressing downward on the rearward portion of the foot board with the rider's heel to upshift. If installed for braking, the rider is able to engage a brake of the motorcycle by pressing downward on the forward portion of the foot board with the rider's toe, and disengage the brake by pressing downward on the rearward portion of the foot board with the rider's heel. In each case, a foot-controlled operation of a motorcycle occurs as a result of the rocking motion of the rider's foot on the foot board, all while the rider's foot remains on and is supported by the foot board, and without the need to lift any portion of the rider's foot from the floor board.
Other aspects and advantages of this invention will be better appreciated from the following detailed description.
Referring to
The gear shifting assembly 10 is further represented as comprising a foot board 14, a rocker arm 16 to which the foot board 14 is mounted, a shaft 18 on which the rocker arm 16 is mounted for rotation, and a shift arm 20 mounted on the shaft 18 so that the rocker and shift arms 16 and 20 rotate together, for example, as a result of at least the rocker and shift arms 16 and 20 being connected for rotation together as a unit on the shaft 18, or as a result of the rocker and shift arms 16 and 20 being secured to the shaft 18 so that the rocker and shift arms 16 and 20 and the shaft 18 rotate together as a unit as shown in
The assembly 10 further includes a mounting plate 26 for securing the assembly 10 to a motorcycle (not shown), such as a portion of the motorcycle's frame. It should be understood that the assembly 10 is not limited to any particular configuration for the mounting plate 26, in that the mounting plate 26 may be fabricated to have any configuration necessary to allow the assembly 10 to be mounted to any particular motorcycle. In the embodiment shown in
In the configuration shown in
Importantly, to achieve the desired pivot/rocking action for the foot board 14 capable of actuating the shift linkage 12 in both forward and rearward directions, the pivot axis 28 is disposed between the frontmost and rearmost extents 32 and 34 of the foot board 14. According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the majority of the foot board 14 is located forward of the axis 28. More preferably, greater than half and up to about three-quarters of the length of the foot board 14 is located forward of the axis 28, and in a particular embodiment about two-thirds of the foot board 14 is located forward of the axis 28. According to another preferred aspect of the invention, the foot board 14 passes beneath the pivot axis 28 and the portion of the foot board 14 directly below the axis 28 is spaced at least one inch (about 2.5 cm) from the axis 28, more preferably about two to three inches (about 5 to 8 cm) from the axis 28. As a result, the motion of the foot board 14 is not strictly or just a pivot action, but instead is a swinging motion beneath the pivot axis 28. This motion of the foot board 14 is believed to be within the ability of a rider having limited lower leg movement to allow the rider to swing/pivot the assembly 10 about the pivot axis 28 and, in so doing, actuate the gear shift linkage 12 to downshift by pressing downward with the toe near the frontmost end 32 of the foot board 14, which in addition to causing the end 32 of the foot board 14 to pitch down also causes the foot board 14 to swing slightly to the rear. Similarly, the gear shift linkage 12 is actuated to upshift by pressing downward with the heel near the rearmost end 34 of the foot board 14, which in addition to causing the end 34 of the foot board 14 to pitch down also causes the foot board 14 to swing slightly forward. Thus, shifting gears can be performed with a simple swinging/rocking motion of the rider's left foot without requiring removal of the foot from the foot board 14.
From
Various materials can be used to construct the components of the assembly 10 shown in
Referring now to
As evident from
Similar to the shaft 18 of
The pivot arm 50 is shown in
In the configuration shown in
Importantly, to achieve the desired pivot/rocking action for the foot board 44 capable of actuating the master cylinder rod 42 in the forward direction, the axis 58 is disposed between the frontmost and rearmost extents 62 and 64 of the foot board 44. According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the majority of the foot board 44 is located forward of the axis 58. More preferably, more than half up to about three-quarters of the foot board 44 is located forward of the axis 58, and in a particular embodiment about two-thirds of the foot board 44 is located forward of the axis 58. Furthermore, the foot board 44 is preferably disposed on the pivot axis 58. By arranging the foot board 44 and shaft 48 so that the pivot axis 58 defined by the shaft 48 extends through the width of the foot board 44, the foot board 44 has a truer rocking action about the pivot axis 58, in contrast to the swinging action of the foot board 14 about the pivot axis 28 of
The foot board 44 of
In use, a person riding a motorcycle on which either or both of the assemblies 10 and 40 are installed is able to place his or her feet on the foot boards 14 and 44, and simply rock his/her feet to shift gears and apply the brake as previously described. As also previously described, the foot boards 14 and 44 offer significant advantages. The foot boards 14 and 44 offer a more comfortable support than standard foot pegs, and the rider is able to perform shifting and braking operations while the rider's feet remain on the foot boards at all times, in contrast to prior art foot boards that require the rider to lift the toe or heel in order to shift gears and/or apply a brake. These aspects of the invention are particularly beneficial to a rider whose lower legs have limited mobility due to a health condition or a previous injury.
In addition to these comfort and convenience-related benefits, the braking assembly 40 is capable of providing significant safety features. Since the rider is not required to lift his/her right foot off a foot peg or foot board and place the foot onto a separate brake pedal in order to actuate a brake with the brake pedal, the time required to actually begin braking can be significantly reduced, enabling the rider to stop faster. Regardless of the speed or the time necessary to apply the rear brake by conventional means, the braking assembly 40 reduces reaction time and provides the ability to stop faster, which has the potential for avoiding accidents and saving lives.
It should be further noted that the ease with which a rider can shift gears with the assembly 10 and brake with the assembly 40 is promoted by key features of the invention, namely, the location of the shafts 18 and 48 that define the pivot axes 28 and 58, and the contours (curvatures) of the foot boards 14 and 44. As previously described, the location of the pivot axes 28 and 58 with respect to the positions and contours of the foot boards 14 and 44 provide the rider with the ability to easily shift gears and apply the brake, respectively. In particular, because the foot board 14 passes below its pivot axis 28, a swinging action is achieved by which both forward and rearward rotations of the shaft 18 can be easily produced by pressing downward on either end 32 or 34 of the foot board 14, whereas a truer pivot action is achieved with the foot board 44 because the axis 58 passes through the board 44, so that a forward rotation of the shaft 48 can be easily achieved by pressing downward on the frontmost end 62 of the foot board 44. As also previously noted, the contours of the foot boards 14 and 44 also provide leverage for shifting gears and applying the brake, while also providing stability for the rider's feet and reducing the likelihood that the rider's feet might slip off the foot boards 14 and 44.
While the invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments, it is apparent that other forms could be adopted by one skilled in the art. For example, the physical configuration of the assemblies 10 and 40 and their components could differ from those shown, and materials and processes other than those noted could be used. As a particular example, the outlines of the foot boards 14 and 44 are not required to correspond to the outline of a boot or shoe as depicted in the figures, and instead the foot boards 14 and 44 can be fabricated to have a wide variety of shapes, including ornamental shapes that may appeal to various segments of the population. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be limited only by the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/250,960, filed Oct. 13, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3181668 | Siuk | May 1965 | A |
| 3252550 | Kitchen | May 1966 | A |
| 3741356 | Sieren et al. | Jun 1973 | A |
| 3919896 | Foster | Nov 1975 | A |
| 4086823 | Fatur | May 1978 | A |
| 4091889 | Brown et al. | May 1978 | A |
| 4114738 | Brown et al. | Sep 1978 | A |
| 4631034 | Menne et al. | Dec 1986 | A |
| 4759417 | Wanie et al. | Jul 1988 | A |
| 4958607 | Lundberg | Sep 1990 | A |
| 5152382 | Hoch et al. | Oct 1992 | A |
| 5231891 | Morita et al. | Aug 1993 | A |
| 5661999 | Carone | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5738180 | Hofmann et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5826463 | Monson | Oct 1998 | A |
| 5890545 | Smith et al. | Apr 1999 | A |
| 5893424 | Hisada | Apr 1999 | A |
| 6155133 | Swansegar et al. | Dec 2000 | A |
| 6223623 | Vance | May 2001 | B1 |
| 6270106 | Maki et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 6347560 | Maezawa et al. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
| 6622589 | Pino et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6719316 | Anthony | Apr 2004 | B1 |
| 6886677 | Rupiper et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6962094 | Porter et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
| 7104036 | Trefz | Sep 2006 | B2 |
| 7654358 | Gilgallon et al. | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 7877993 | Sakamoto | Feb 2011 | B2 |
| 7913799 | Kawashiri et al. | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| 8056697 | Eley et al. | Nov 2011 | B2 |
| 20050056115 | Da Silva et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20070057484 | Gilman | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20090026729 | James et al. | Jan 2009 | A1 |
| 20090038870 | Kissick et al. | Feb 2009 | A1 |
| 20090255360 | Witteveen et al. | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090272215 | Plackis | Nov 2009 | A1 |
| 20110146442 | Gobillard | Jun 2011 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20110247444 A1 | Oct 2011 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61250960 | Oct 2009 | US |
