Patent Application
20170275151
Stirrups support a rider's feet and balance when riding on an animal. Although stirrups do not tend to wear out and generally require little maintenance, riders sometimes need to change stirrups for comfort or for aesthetic reasons because the foot beds do not fit in that riding occasion.
Generally, different riders have different preferences about the foot beds of their stirrups. Some prefer wider foot beds while others like their foot beds to be more fitting. Some prefer foot beds with greater depths while others might want thinner foot beds. Even for the same rider, the preference may change due to the type of shoes the rider is wearing. In addition to comfort, stirrup designs also serve decorative purposes. A rider may from time to time feel like switching foot beds of the stirrups to add some personal touch.
Existing solutions for personalizing stirrups require either professional help for switching foot beds or replacing the whole stirrups. It is desirous to have stirrups that have detachable foot beds for a layperson to easily switch to fit his/her needs at that time. Having multiple foot beds for replacement instead multiple stirrups help saving money too.
The structure, overall operation and technical characteristics of the present invention will become apparent with the detailed description of preferred embodiments and the illustration of the related drawings as follows.
The invention is incorporated in riding stirrups each comprising a hoop and a foot bed removably attached to the hoop by a set of coupling mechanisms. An exemplary hoop comprises a curved top portion and a flat bottom portion. The bottom portion preferably has at least one first coupling mechanism.
An exemplary foot bed of a riding stirrup comprises a top surface and a bottom surface that has a traverse channel. A preferred traverse channel is located at or near the center of mass of the exemplary foot bed and configured to receive the bottom portion of the exemplary hoop. The preferred traverse channel comprises at least one second coupling mechanism configured to mate with the first coupling mechanism of the exemplary hoop. The first and second coupling mechanisms together constitute the set of coupling mechanisms that removably couples the exemplary hoop and foot bed.
A suitable set of coupling mechanisms can be any fastening systems as long as it allows a user to easily attach and detach the hoop and the foot bed. A preferred set of coupling mechanisms is a ball detent system including at least one ball plunger and at least one corresponding ball detent. For this preferred set of coupling mechanisms, the first coupling mechanism can be the ball plunger while the second coupling mechanism is the ball detent, or vice versa. Another preferred set of coupling mechanisms is an alternate ball detent system including multiple ball plungers and one or more grooves as the ball detents. Yet another exemplary set of coupling mechanisms may use magnets on the hoop and/or the foot bed.
A preferred foot bed further comprises a top surface with at least one removable anti-slip projection or traction pin. The anti-slip projection of the preferred foot bed may have various configurations. The head of an exemplary anti-slip projection may be of the shape of a spike or mushroom. The bottom of the exemplary anti-slip projection may be partially threaded to be driven into a hole on the foot bed. Alternatively, the bottom of the exemplary anti-slip projection may be made of elastic material and configured to detachably plug into a hole on the foot bed. Another exemplary anti-slip projection may comprise a magnet at its bottom or be made of magnetic material for coupling with a magnetic foot bed.
An exemplary foot bed may further comprise a top surface with a ramp at the rear end. The ramp preferably slopes downward so that a rider's boot can easily slide into the exemplary stirrup. A preferred angle of the ramp is 45° but an angle between 30° to 60° is also acceptable.
One object of this invention is to provide a riding stirrup with a foot bed that can be easily attached and detached for replacement.
Another object of this invention is to provide a riding stirrup that has anti-slip projections on the top surface of the foot bed and the projections may be easily replaced.
One object of this invention is to provide enhanced ingress for a rider's boot to easily slide in and out of the riding stirrup.
3A-3D.
The preferred embodiments include ridding stirrups with hoops and interchangeable foot beds as illustrated in
Another preferred embodiment of the riding stirrup is shown in
The foot bed (300) of this embodiment, shown in
When the foot bed (300) is to be mounted onto the bottom portion (220) of the hoop (200), the user first aligns the channel (320) with the bottom portion (220). Then the user presses the foot bed (300) down and causes the balls of the ball plungers (221) slide into the sockets (not shown, hidden inside the bottom portion (220)) against the pressure of the springs (not shown) located in the sockets. The balls of the ball plungers (221) are pressed into the sockets until the balls are in line with the grooves (322). The grooves (322) preferably have a width slightly smaller than the diameter of the balls. Therefore, the balls partially fall into the grooves (322) under the pressure of the springs, and thus the foot bed (300) and the hoop (200) are temporarily coupled together.
The user may remove the foot bed (300) from the hoop (200) by pulling the foot bed (300) upward. Since the balls of the ball plungers (221) are only partially inside the grooves (322), the balls would be forced to slide out of the grooves (322) and then the foot bed (300) is detached from the hoop (200).
The channel (321) of the foot bed (300) in this preferred embodiment is not uniform in width. As shown in
In this preferred embodiment, the top surface (310) of the foot bed (300) has an angled ramp (312) at the rear end of the top surface (310). With the angled ramp (312) sloping downward, a rider's boot can easily slide into/out of the embodiment. Additionally, the top surface (310) of the foot bed (300) of this embodiment comprises multiple receptacles (311) configured to removably mate with anti-slip projections, such as the traction pin (400) in
The exemplary traction pin (400) in
While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those ordinarily skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit disclosed herein. For instance, the foot bed and the hoop of an embodiment may be removably attached by any suitable fast coupling/releasing mechanisms known in the art such as hook-and-loop fasteners. The anti-slip projections on the foot bed's top surface of an alternate embodiment may be made of various suitable materials such as metal or rubber and can be of various shapes such as a mushroom-headed bolt and a plug with a figurine head. The angled ramp of the foot bed's top surface in an embodiment may be of any suitable angles such as 45° or 30° downward.
The present application claims priority to a co-pending United States provisional patent application entitled “RIDDING STIRRUPS WITH DETACHABLE FOOT BEDS” having Ser. No. 62/311,842, filed on Mar. 22, 2016, which is entirely incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62311842 | Mar 2016 | US |
