Step-in snowboard binding
OwnerPaul Flanneryinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided herein and improved step in binding having a body and a footplate pivotally coupled therein at the front. A levered high back exposes load arms which are interfaced to the pivotable footplate by way of linkages. When the footplate is depressed, the linkages transition horizontally, thereby increasing rearward force and therefore leverage on the backplate, until substantially horizontally engaged. At this orientation, the linkages experiences little or no vertical vector component thereby preventing inadvertent unbinding.
Claims20
An improved step-in binding configurable between opened and closed configurations and comprising:
- a body;
- a footplate pivotally coupled to the body at a front pivot point such that, in the open configuration, the footplate is raised at a rear edge thereof;
- a lever coupled to the body at a rear laterally adjacent fulcrum points thereby defining a rear high back supporting arm and a forward load arms;
- a pair of linkages each connecting a respective load arm to a rear of the footplate at rear and forward pivot points respectively and wherein, in the open configuration, the forward pivot point locates above the rearward pivot point.
A method of binding a boot, the method comprising inserting a boot between a high back and an ankle strap of a binding comprising:
- a body;
- a footplate pivotally coupled to the body at a front pivot point such that, in the open configuration, the footplate is raised at a rear edge thereof;
- a lever coupled to the body at a rear laterally adjacent fulcrum points thereby defining a rear high back supporting arm and a forward load arms;
- a pair of linkages each connecting a respective load arm to a rear of the footplate at rear and forward pivot points respectively and wherein, in the open configuration, the forward pivot point locates above the rearward pivot point, wherein the method comprises:
- applying force to the footplate with the boot such that the linkages initially apply a force vector to the forward load arms comprising a predominating vertical vector component and wherein as the footplate falls, the linkages transition such that force vector transitions to comprise a predominating horizontal vector component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.