Multispeed, shaft-driven vehicle drive
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsDantar P. Oosterwal, Katherien L. Oosterwal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multispeed, shaft-driven drive for a human propelled vehicle has a driving gear set of concentric ring gears, a driven gear set of concentric ring gears, a rotatable drive shaft having a pinion on each end and a control mechanism for moving the pinions axially of the shaft and into and out of engagement with selected ring gears.
Claims10
A shaft-driven, multispeed drive for a human-propelled vehicle having at least one drive wheel comprising:
- a driving gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to pedals;
- a driven gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to the vehicle's drive wheel;
- a rotatable drive shaft having a pinion on each end, each pinion having means for mounting it for movement axially of the drive shaft for selective engagement, one each, with the ring gears of the driving gear set and the driven gear set, respectively;
- and
- a pinion control means mounting each pinion for independent movement in a direction transversely of the axis of rotation of the drive shaft into and out of engagement with each ring gear of its associated set.
A shaft-driven, multispeed drive for a human-propelled vehicle having at least one drive wheel comprising:
- a driving gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to pedals;
- a driven gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to the vehicle's drive wheel;
- a rotatable drive shaft having a pinion on each end, each pinion having means for mounting it for movement axially of the drive shaft for selective engagement, one each, with the ring gears of the driving gear set and the driven gear set, respectively;
- and
- a drive shaft control means mounting each end of the drive shaft for independent movement toward and away from the teeth of its associated gear set transversely of the axis of rotation of the drive shaft to engage and disengage the pinion with the teeth of a selected ring gear.
A shaft-driven, multispeed drive for a human-propelled vehicle having at least one drive wheel comprising:
- a driving gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to pedals;
- a driven gear set having a plurality of concentric ring gears operatively secured to the vehicle's drive wheel;
- a rotatable drive shaft having a pinion on each end, each pinion having means for mounting it for movement axially of the drive shaft for selective engagement, one each, with the ring gears of the driving gear set and the driven gear set;
- a drive shaft control means mounting each end of the drive shaft for independent movement toward and away from the teeth of its associated gear set transversely of the axis of rotation of the drive shaft to engage and disengage the pinion with the teeth of a selected ring gear;
- and
- a pair of pinion shifting members for moving each pinion separately on the drive shaft to align the pinion with a selected ring gear and for moving the pinion transversely of the axis of rotation of the drive shaft into engagement with the teeth of the selected gear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.