Читать книгу The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories - Julius Wilcox - Страница 36

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The Bayvelgere, which was at last year’s show and impressed us as the most decided step in chainless driving up to that time, appears now in a rebuilt and materially improved form. In a general way, it looks externally much like other chainless bicycles of the bevel-gear class, and therefore does not need to be shown by a cut as a whole.

The connecting shaft, as before, is made separate from the two ends which carry the bevel pinions. The shaft proper terminates at each end in four short pins with rounded and slightly enlarged ends; these pins enter corresponding receptacles in the two pieces which carry the pinions, and when in position thus the entire shaft is complete.

BAYVELGERE JOINTED SHAFT.

The effect is a sort of ball-and-socket joint; the pins and receptacles together form a semi-universal or toggle joint, technically called a “four-pinion toggle.” So long as the frame is in line, this device remains inert and the working is the same as that of a rigid shaft; but if the frame should become sprung by straining or accident the flexibility comes into action and the power is carried from crank axle to wheel axle without the slightest twisting or binding, whereas any such condition of disturbed alignment will necessarily cause serious binding on any construction with a rigid shaft. In both design and carrying out, this device is thoroughly mechanical and practical. It is shown in the accompanying cut.

When power is applied to the crank axle, it is claimed, there is a tendency to push the small pinion rearward, because the faces of the two bevels at that place are inclined toward each other, and so one presses on the other like two wedges. Other bevel-geared patterns have only a single row of balls at each end of the shaft, and it is claimed by the Bayvelgere people that when the shaft is thus pressed rearward there is nothing to hold it, and the pinion on its end is crowded hard against the pinion on the wheel hub, thus producing extra friction and perhaps a deadlock; such a deadlock of the gears is also liable to occur if the bicycle falls over and the blow drives the gear on the crank axle sharply against the pinion which meshes with it. Conceding this to be so, the precaution against it taken on the Bayvelgere, and forming an important point in its patent claim, is certainly practical. This precaution consists in placing a double row of balls at each end of the shaft (i.e., on each of the pinions) and as these rows face in opposite directions any rearward thrust on the shaft is met by one of the rows of balls on the back pinion; moreover, there is a little space at each of the toggle joints above described, and this space must be taken up before any end thrust on the shaft can affect the meshing of the gears.

This construction, together with the manner of fixing the gears in the frame—a method which cannot be shown without too much detail and several cuts—is claimed to greatly facilitate placing the parts together and to make their action easier and their endurance better. To put it in another way, each pair of bevels is claimed to be independent and to be capable of taking care of itself in adjustment and running, while the flexible shaft merely carries power from one to the other without any effect to disturb either.

Mr. L. D. Munger is in charge of the works as designer. The price of the Bayvelgere is $100.