Bicycle gear mechanism
OwnerRichard J. Kilshawinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bicycle gear assembly comprises first and second sets of cog wheels, each having at least three cog wheels of various sizes including a largest cog wheel and a smallest cog wheel. These two sets are oriented so that the largest cog wheel of the first set is aligned with the smallest cog wheel of the second set and vice versa, the first and the second sets of cog wheels define at least a first, second and third pair of substantially aligned cog wheels. Additionally, a chain is mounted about a first pair of the aligned cog wheels and a gear shift assembly is adapted to move the chain from the first pair of substantially aligned cogwheels to the second pair of substantially aligned cogwheels and from the second pair of substantially aligned cogwheels to the third pair of substantially aligned cogwheels.
Claims29
A gear assembly, comprising:
- (a) a first drive cogwheel defining a first rotational axis;
- (b) a driven cogwheel defining a second rotational axis, parallel to and displaced from said first rotational axis,
- (c) a chain mounted about said first drive cogwheel and said driven cogwheel, linking said first drive cogwheel with said driven cogwheel, thereby defining a first gearing assembly, and a first gear;
- (d) a second drive cogwheel, co-axial to said first drive cogwheel, thereby forming a drive cogwheel set;
- (e) a rear wheel defining a third rotational axis, displaced from said first and said second rotational axis, and being operatively connected to and driven by said driven cogwheel;
- (f) a multi-step gear change assembly;
- (g) wherein a first movement of said multi-step gear change assembly results in a transition of said chain from said first drive cogwheel to said second drive cogwheel while remaining linked to said driven cogwheel, thereby defining a first gear change, a second gearing assembly and a second gear, wherein a second movement of said multi-step gear change assembly results in a return of said chain from said second drive cogwheel to said first drive cogwheel while remaining linked to said driven cogwheel, thereby defining a second gear change and a return to said first gear.
A gear assembly comprising:
- (a) a first co-axial cogwheel set defining a first rotational axis, and including a first-set first cogwheel and a first-set second cogwheel of different sizes;
- (b) a second co-axial cogwheel set defining a second rotational axis, parallel to and displaced from said first rotational axis, and including a second-set first cogwheel and a second-set second cogwheel of different sizes;
- (c) a rear wheel defining a third rotational axis, displaced from said first and said second rotational axis;
- (d) a chain linking said first-set first cogwheel and said second-set first cogwheel thereby defining a first gearing assembly and a first operational chain alignment plane, operationally normal to said rotational axis;
- (e) a multi-step gear changing assembly adapted to move said chain from said first-set first cogwheel to said first-set second cogwheel, while linked on said second set first cogwheel, thereby defining a first step gear change, a second gearing assembly and a second operational chain alignment plane, and from said second-set first cogwheel to said second-set second cogwheel, thereby defining a second step gear change, a third gearing assembly and a third operational chain alignment plane;
- and
- (f) wherein said gear assembly provides a first operational gearing ratio when said chain is linked in said first gearing assembly, a second operational gearing ratio when said chain is linked in said second gearing assembly and a third operational gearing ratio when said chain is linked in said third gearing assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.