Patent Application
20110031714
The present invention relates to the field of collapsible wheeled vehicles and in particular to portable collapsible scooters that are powered by hand and can be operated by those with limited lower body mobility.
There is a need for a hand powered wheeled vehicle that can be used by individuals with limited lower body mobility. Traditional bikes and scooters are typically leg and foot driven. For those with limited lower body mobility, such leg and foot driven wheeled vehicles are not a viable option. Of course, such individual may still enjoy the opportunity to use a wheeled vehicle.
Hand powered mobile devices, such as hand-powered railway carts, have been known for years. But the railway carts are large and cumbersome, and are operated on rails by raising and lowering a pivot bar. These devices are not readily portable and they are not suitable for use on the street for recreation, exercise or transportation by those with limited lower body mobility.
More recently, two wheeled scooters such as those shown U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,997 to Chait have been described. Such scooters, though less reliant on lower body mobility, utilize a back and forth arm motion to drive the vehicle, cannot be folded to promote portability, and fail to disclose mechanisms to slow, stop, or turn the vehicle. Such devices have not disclosed any way to change the drive gear ratios while the vehicle is moving to vary the mechanical advantage provided.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved portable collapsible scooter that is powered by hand and overcomes the limitations found in the known scooters. The present invention achieves this goal by providing a scooter which is driven by hand using a motion in which both hands simultaneously move a peddle assembly mounted to a steering column in counterclock-wise rotation to drive the scooter and counterclock-wise to slow or stop the scooter or rotate both hands to the right or to the left to turn the drive wheel and thus steer the scooter.
To promote portability, the present invention introduces a hinge which allows the steering column to fold back towards the scooter frame. This unique hinge also allows for adjustment of the axle height to adjust for users of different height.
It is a further object of the present invention is to provide a hand-powered scooter that includes a way to vary the mechanical advantage being applied to the drive wheel while the scooter is moving. The transmission from one level of mechanical advantage serves to allow the operator to change gears making hill ascent easier.
Yet another important object of the present invention is to provide a method by which users having limited lower body mobility can propel, or slow, a scooter using a crank shaft mounted to the axle used to turn the scooter. The gear change device is located in the right handle of the crank. All functions, therefore, can be selected without releasing the crank creating a simple and safe method of operation.
Referring to
The steering assembly 15 includes handlebars 16, which also serve as the crank shaft to propel the portable hand driven scooter 10 of the present invention. The handlebars 16 are rotatably mounted to a collar 18 mounted to the top of a tube serving as an upper steering column 19. The upper steering column 19 is secured to an upper hinge plate 20. Upper hinge plate 20 is rotatably connected to lower hinge plate 21. The upper hinge plate 20 and lower hinge plate 20, which together form hinge 22, can be rotated and secured in relative angular position, to adapt the scooter 10 to account for varying heights of riders and to fold the upper steering column 19 back towards the standing platform 12 for ease of storage and transportation as shown in
The steering assembly 15 also includes a lower steering column 23. Lower steering column 23 attaches at one end to lower hinge plate 21, passes through a collar 24 mounted on frame 11, and includes a drive wheel 25 assembly rotatably mounted at a lower end. In the preferred embodiment, the lower steering column 23 is formed of a generally cylindrical hollow metal tube where it is attached to the lower hinge plate 21 and passes through the collar of frame 11, but is formed in a fork-shape such that the drive wheel assembly 25 is mounted between the forks of the lower steering column 23. The bicycle fork of lower steering column 23 are best shown in
To propel the portable hand driven scooter 10, a drive sprocket 26 is fixedly mounted to the handlebars 16 which serve as the crank shaft. As shown in
In operation, the rider of the portable hand driven scooter 10 both steers and drives via handlebars 16. As with a normal bike, the rider controls the direction of travel by rotating the handlebars 16, and thus the steering assembly 15, in the chosen direction. To drive the scooter 10, the rider rotates handlebars 16 in the counterclockwise direction as viewed in
The clockwise rotation of handlebars 16 causes drive sprocket 26 to rotate, which through chain 32 causes sprocket 27 to rotate. Because sprocket 27 is mounted on the drive axle 28 of conventional bicycle gearbox 31, which includes driven sprocket 33, rotation of sprocket 27 causes rotation of driven sprocket 33. In turn, rotation of sprocket 33, which operatively connected to sprocket 34 through chain 35, causes rotation of sprocket 34 and the attached drive wheel 25. To brake, the user reverses the direction of rotation and the coaster brake within drive wheel assembly 25 causes scooter 10 to slow and to stop. Optionally, this braking can be augmented by a hand or foot operated brake (not shown) operating on either wheel assembly 25 or rear wheels 13, 14.
The construction of hinge 22, in combination with the unique drive system comprised of two chains and four sprockets facilitates transportation by allowing scooter 10 to fold into a more compact form. This same construction also enables scooter 10 to be adjusted to account for variations of rider height. The rotational adjustment of hinge 22 is discussed in connection with
Moreover, in the preferred embodiment, the portable hand driven scooter 10 is equipped with a conventional, off-the-shelf, bicycle gearbox 31. The gearbox 31 of the preferred embodiment is of the double sprocket type and can provide 3 different final drive gear ratios so as to enable the rider to change the mechanical leverage needed to drive scooter 10 up an incline. Gearbox 31 can be activated and controlled by a gear selector (not shown) mounted on steering assembly 15.
While the invention has been shown and described by reference to the presently preferred embodiments, it should be understood that changes in the structure, materials and form may be made by those of skill in the art without departing from the invention.
