Fender Attachment Mechanism for Saddle-Ride Vehicles
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Solution Overview
Problem
In saddle-ride type vehicles, attaching a fender to fork tubes often requires welding, leaving welding marks on the design face and concentrating torsional forces, or using bolts that require cumbersome removal of the front wheel for attachment.
Innovation Solution
A configuration featuring a fender stay and inner fixing member with a shaft shape and flange portion, allowing the fender to be attached to fork tubes without welding, using bolts inserted from the outside, which simplifies attachment and reduces the need for front wheel removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If welding is used to attach the fender to the fork tubes, then the attachment strength is improved, but welding marks are left on the design face and torsional force concentration occurs
Solution Approach 1:
A bracket is introduced as an intermediary component between the fender and fork tubes. The bracket includes attachment portions that connect to both the fender and fork tubes, distributing torsional forces across multiple attachment points rather than concentrating them at single welded joints. This mediator structure eliminates welding marks from the fender's design face while maintaining attachment strength through mechanical fastening.
Solution Approach 2:
The attachment system is segmented into multiple discrete attachment portions on the bracket, each connecting to the fork tubes at separate locations. This segmentation distributes the torsional load across multiple points, preventing force concentration that would occur with single-point welding, while allowing the fender's design face to remain unwelded and clean.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If bolts are inserted into the fender from the inside to fasten it to the fork tubes, then welding marks are avoided, but the attachment process becomes cumbersome requiring front wheel removal
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of inserting bolts from the inside of the fender (which requires front wheel removal), the bracket's attachment portions are designed to receive bolts from the outside of the fender. This inverted approach allows technicians to access and fasten the attachment portions without removing the front wheel, significantly simplifying the attachment process while still avoiding welding on the fender's design face.
3Device complexity
If nuts are welded on the fender to attach it to the fork tubes, then the attachment structure is simplified, but torsional force concentrates at the welded portions requiring special strength consideration
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket serves as a mediator that distributes torsional forces across multiple attachment portions rather than concentrating them at welded nut locations. Each attachment portion on the bracket connects to the fork tubes at different positions, creating a distributed load path that reduces the strength requirements at any single attachment point compared to direct nut-welding on the fender.
Data Source
AI summary
A saddle-ride type vehicle in which a fender can be attached to the fork tubes without welding on the fender, and the fender can be attached easily. The saddle-ride type vehicle includes a fender fixed to the fork tubes and covering a front wheel from above, a bracket supporting the fender from an inside of the fender, a bolt that fastens the fender to the fork tubes, a fender stay provided at the fork tubes, and an inner fixing member having a shaft shape and inserted into the bracket and the fender from the inside of the fender. The inner fixing member is fastened to the bolt inserted into the fender stay from an outside in a vehicle width direction, and the fender is held between the fender stay and the bracket on an axis of the inner fixing member by fastening force of the bolt.