Bicycle hub freewheel assembly
OwnerJohn Haeussingerinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A freewheel assembly has a specialized mounting sidewall which keys to a mating endwall of a bicycle hub so that the freewheel drives the hub directly through positive interengaging keying structure rather than the threaded shaft connection by which conventional, current freewheels are mounted. The keying structure comprises bosses in the hub endwall and corresponding recesses in the sidewall of the freewheel in the preferred embodiment, with screws through the spindle endwall recesses into the bosses. The freewheel gear sprocket spindle also accommodates a smaller sprocket than is commonly usable, and will accommodate multiple sprockets in parallel on a BMX bicycle, with the sprockets being removable and thus separate pieces from the freewheel spindle.
Claims4
For mounting on a bicycle hub with an axle bore therethrough defining a rotational axis and having an endwall defining endwall keying structure, a freewheel comprising:
- (a) an annular core having a bore therethrough coaxial with said axial bore when said freewheel is mounted to said hub and having a gear spindle coaxially and unidirectionally rotationally mounted around said core;
- (b) said core defining a sidewall having sidewall keying structure which keys to the endwall keying structure of said hub to positively prevent any rotational motion between said hub and spindle when said freewheel sidewall is mated against an endwall of said hub;
- and,
- (c) direct fastening means for releasibly fastening said sidewall directly to said endwall substantially independently of any other axially compressive freewheel mounting structure and any axle-concentric threaded mounting connections with other structure between said sidewall and endwall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.