Bicycle steerer tube with variant stiffness
AssigneeSram, LLC
InventorsJonathan Blair Watt, Robert Powell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bicycle steerer tube is adapted to reside in a plane of travel of the bicycle. A thickness at a point on the wall of the steerer tube body in a lower section thereof varies as a function of the cross-sectional angle of the point to the plane of travel, with the wall thickness being at a maximum in the plane of travel. An inner wall of the lower section may be elliptical, with a minor axis aligned with the plane of travel and a major axis orthogonal to the plane of travel.
Claims65
A steerer tube for a bicycle, the steerer tube comprising:
- an elongate hollow body arranged around a steering axis located in a vertical plane of travel of the bicycle,
- the body having upper and lower sections, a segment of the upper section adapted to be joined to a bicycle handlebar, a segment of the lower section adapted to be joined to a crown of a front wheel fork of the bicycle, the lower section joined to the upper section, and outer surfaces of the upper and lower sections of the body being circular in cross section, and
- the body formed by a wall, a thickness of the wall at any point in the lower section of the body varying as a function of the cross-sectional angle of the point relative to the plane of travel, the wall thickness being at a maximum in the plane of travel of the bicycle.
A steerer tube for a bicycle, the steerer tube comprising:
- an elongate hollow body arranged around a steering axis located in a vertical plane of travel of the bicycle,
- the body having upper and lower sections, a segment of the upper section adapted to be joined to a bicycle handlebar, a segment of the lower section adapted to be joined to a crown of a front wheel fork of the bicycle, the lower section joined to the upper section,
- and an outer diameter of the lower section of the body is greater than an outer diameter of the upper section of the body, and
- the body formed by a wall, a thickness of the wall at any point in the lower section of the body varying as a function of the cross-sectional angle of the point relative to the plane of travel, the wall thickness being at a maximum in the plane of travel of the bicycle.
A steerer tube for a bicycle, the steerer tube comprising:
- an elongate hollow body arranged around a steering axis located in a vertical plane of travel of the bicycle,
- the body having upper and lower sections, a segment of the upper section adapted to be joined to a bicycle handlebar, a segment of the lower section adapted to be joined to a crown of a front wheel fork of the bicycle, the lower section joined to the upper section, and the segment of the lower section of the body is joined to the crown of the front wheel fork, the body formed of a material different from the crown of the front wheel fork, and
- the body formed by a wall, a thickness of the wall at any point in the lower section of the body varying as a function of the cross-sectional angle of the point relative to the plane of travel, the wall thickness being at a maximum in the plane of travel of the bicycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.