Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

The First Tadpole Tricycle

The first tricycle that I have found with the two wheels in front and the larger wheel in back (the tadpole configuration) was patented in England before 1876, and sold as by the Rudge company.   The seat was like a carriage seat, with coil springs to absorb shocks. The large rear wheel was the drive wheel, and the front wheels were for steering.  This model is propelled by levers and cranks, but this mode was later replaced by the chain and crank.  Between 1880 and 1890, this form of bike was one of the most popular cycles in England, being even more popular than two wheelers.

The Star Bicycle

In the era when alternatives were being tried to the "ordinary" bicycle, many new configurations were tried.  One was that made by the Star Company, of H. B. Smith.  In this design, the small wheel was in front, with the intent of reducing the number of headers that riders suffered. The Star Bicycle was used by Lucius D. Copeland as a frame for his steam engine. 

Paul Arany's Recumbent Trikes

I don't know much about Paul Arany's trikes, except they look like a lot of fun!

The Recumbent Couch-Cycle

Nate Welbourn showed me his recumbent couch, and I had to know how that beast came to be built.

"The whole notion of an amphibious tall couch trike is the beer-induced brain child of a Rat Patrol member who goes by the name of Nancy Porker; I am simply the conduit between a fantasticly absurd idea which should never have been done, and something that now exists and is actually practicle to use in the real world.

Why? That's a fair question, but one that I haven't seriously considered until now; I guess we were looking for a ride with style so we figured a couch bike is probably going to satisfy that brief, and it had to be a tallbike so that the eye level of the pilots would be well above that of all but the tallest pedestrians (good for concerts and the like)... also the couch had to be easily removeable for parties (it's held on to the frame by 8 bolts, and the brake and gear levers simply pull off)...

Yes, we happened to have quite a bit of refuse steel lying about our workshop too... Plans are afoot for a parasol cover, fold-out bed, etc, etc. This is a chick magnet by anyone's standards! In any case, it probably hadn't been done before, and that seemed like a sound reason in itself. It made sense at the time!

What else? Well, you'll notice a bit of a cocktail bar/table at the couch; this will soon be completed with drink holders in which to put one's beer, thus affording our no-doubt-soon-to-be-patented Steer by Beer Technology (you need a beer in order to steer!). Seing as we were already building a tall trike with a serious inherent danger of off-camber cornering disastery, I thought it would also be great to have a reliable 360degree-turning system, allowing it to (theoretically) spin on it's own footprint in traffic. And guess what; it turns on it's own footprint!!! It was all "educated guesswork" (I'm a graphic designer working at a university, so that seemed to make excellent sense!), but I tried to design the weight distribution such that most was over the back wheels so that the bike would turn well and minimise the tendancy to roll over and snap people's backbones...

After working out some basic dimensions, it just seemed to make some kind of 'lateral sense' to create such a thing which could be ridden into and through the water without stopping (we had consumed a lot of beer at this point)... that makes sense, doesn't it?

After a lot of talk about using empty coke bottles, discarded newspapers and old candy packets for displacement, I found myself insiting on retaining 'some kind of hydro dynamics'. We ended up sourcing some old plastic barrels, chopped the tops off and smashed them together with a film of epoxy. All of a sudden the hulls became very strong — even stronger than I had invisaged. Then, we used a 2-part expanding polyurethane foam to fill each barrel, ensuring enough displacement (and that at the very least, the hulls couldn't sink), based on some rather blurry mental calculations. A rudder? The front wheel would do.

The floatation hulls and associated frame attach or detach easily by one person and are held in place by 4 high-tensile bolts. The aqua propulsion system also easily detaches when required. I think the floatation system weighs about 80kg (you'll be used to do your own metric conversions of course, living in probably the only country in the world still using emperial measurements! Anyhoo...), while the rest of the bike is probably around 70kg. Surprisingly (and this REALLY surprised me!), she is pretty stable on land and absolutely stable in the water. We have tried to capsize her, but to no avail!!

I think I must be quite good at guess work and bring with me a wealth of good luck, because the test float was so successful that no further structural changes were required. This was good news, after about 250 humorous hours of late-night labour and much domestic anxt.

OK, it probably has a top speed in the water of about 1 knot, but it's a STYLISH ride! The cops aren't sure how to take this one, it's a bike but it's much bigger than a car... or is it a boat? We are quietly confident that she is legal in this country.

So, what's the next project? Sleep :)

Long Wheelbase Recumbent Bike

One type of recumbent bike is called a long wheelbase recumbent, and this is an example which was patented in 1981.  There are several commercial models using this general configuration, such as excellent bikes by RANS.



This model also has under seat steering, with a linkage to the front wheel, which is still a popular mode of steering.

Cleverchimp Rickshaw

Looks like Todd at Cleverchimp has a new model of utility bike, and this looks cool!  Looks like a great kid hauler, grocery hauler, stuff hauler.  Might even be a two seater with a slight modification in the seat.  Good luck, Todd!

First Front Suspension Bike?

Here is an interesting and early (1890) front suspension bike, using a spring in the fork assembly to soften the rough roads of the day. 

SlowWheel Cycling innovation

Nathan Womack is a serious bike rider, serious enough that he wanted to ride at a training pace on rides with his girlfriend.  The trouble was that his preferred pace for training for triathalons was about 20 mph, and his girlfriend’s pace is more like 15 mph.  He had the bright idea of making a wheel that would give him some resistance in his rides, so that his speed would equal his girlfriends speed, yet give him the training he wanted.

His solution developed into a bike product called the SlowWheel. The SlowWheel is a replacement rear wheel for a bicycle that allows the rider to increase the resistance of the wheel (in order to slow the rider down). Using the SlowWheel, Nathan and his girlfriend are able to ride together, and both get a workout!  The wheel can also be set to no resistance at all, for maximum speed.

Additionally, Nathan looks to have a children's model out (for children under 5) that will go on a small bike with training wheels to help "slow" the child down as they learn to ride a bike. This will help in coordination as well as be an incredible safety device (as the children will not be able to get going so fast they get out of control).

Vintage Fuji Roadbike

Recently my 15 year old daughter has "adopted" my wife's nice road bike, and has been doing some great rides around town on it.  So I thought I'd look for another road bike of about the same size to have a road bike available for both of the ladies in my life.  I thought I'd go check out a thrift store bike yard, because my partner Steve found a great mountain bike out there.  I went to the bike enclosure of the thrift store, and ran into Steve and his wife Jody, who were scouting for a kids bike.  We prowled around together looking for gems, and seeing mostly junk. 

Steve and Jody left with a nice kids bike, and I saw an aero brake lever on a handlebar, under a pile of nasty bikes.  I unraveled the stack of nasty bikes, and got more and more excited as I freed the bike at the bottom of the pile.  I saw a Campagnolo brake, then finally got the entire bike free to look it over.   

It was a Fuji, with double butted steel tubing, and about the right frame size for  my wife.  It  had Campy hubs, cranks, brakes, headset, shifters, bottom bracket and skewers, and Cinelli stem and bars.  The saddle was suede, and it had Shimano pedals.  Since one tire was gone, and it was pretty dirty and greasy, the lady at the gate of the bike yard put a price of $5.00 on it.  I tried not to jump for joy, paid my $5, and took the bike home to clean it up.  It was like Christmas in July, and with new tires and a little soap, the old bike looks pretty decent.  This bike was the JACKPOT!  Judging from ebay prices, any of the Campy parts would go for $75 to $125, and the whole bike might run $500+ on ebay. 

Now if I could upgrade the shifters to indexed shifters, maybe older Shimano 105 derailleurs and down tube levers, my wife would like it a bit better.  Anyone have advice about such an upgrade? 

Restored Motobecane Grand Record

My fun project of late has been restoring my old bike to its former glory.  In 1973 I bought my first real road bike, a Motobecane Grand Record.  I rode it everywhere, including to work, which was 17 miles one way.  As I had kids, this became the kid hauler, the trailer hauler, the bike for family rides through the orchard country of Wenatchee and Yakima.  When I went to law school in Moscow, a town full of gravel roads, the Motobecane hauled me to classes. After hanging in the garage for 12 years in Boise, down it came for a rebirth. 

The Grand Record has some good features and was toward the top of the line of the Motobecane brand.  I have since learned that many people think that  French road bikes of that period were the pinnacle of road bike design,  and have a different and desireable feel compared to more contemporary road bikes.  The Grand Record has tubes made of Reynolds 531 double butted tubes, and fancy Nervex lugs holding the tubes together.  It has some components made by Campagnolo, the premier bike components manufacturer.  Other componenets are so-so, but thanks to ebay I can upgrade them as part of the overhaul. 

This is the way the frame looked "before". 

These are the "after" shots, although it will look better after some ebay purchased parts get installed.

A host of bicycle patents and technology are in the bicycle technology category.