System reinforced handles attached to a lower torso flap inset of a garment

PRIORITY OF INVENTION

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/177,803, filed Mar. 24, 2015; the contents of that provisional application are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

In most of the rest of the world, unlike the United States, the dominant mode of multi-passenger transportation is some variant of the motorcycle. It is also one of the deadliest forms of transportation. There were 4668 people killed in motorcycle accidents in 2013 in the United States alone. Many more are killed in third world nations, where motorcycles are often used as taxis and the passengers hold on to the drivers waists, which is not favorable to everyone. I fell off one of those Taxis. Other than some skinned knees and my cargo scattered over the ground there was no harm from this accident because it occurred on a soft murram dirt road.

According to the World Health Organization's Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, there were 1.24 million deaths on the world's roads in 2013. The report further states that 23% of the world's road traffic deaths occur among motorcyclists.

Experienced in the world of garment design, I began experimenting with designs for motorcycle gear which would enhance the safety of motor cycle passengers by giving them an effective means of securing themselves on these vehicles as they dash along the roads in busy Towns. This kind of negligence is found in many other countries, if it is not on land it could be on the water with the Jet skis, with passengers falling off.

When using a motorcycle, both passengers and the driver secure their lower bodies by hugging the saddle between their legs. And the driver can secure the upper half of the driver's body by grasping the handlebars. To stabilize a passenger's upper body against the accelerations inherent in the use of a motorcycle the passenger will generally wrap the passenger's arms around the driver, or less intimately grab onto the driver's clothing or saddle. None of these means is entirely satisfactory.

When wrapping arms around the driver, the passenger can only either grab onto the Passenger's arms or grab onto the driver's clothing. Grabbing one's arms is awkward and tiring and doesn't take advantage of the hand's strongest grip position, the clenched fist. And clothing is either not a secure anchor point, hard to grasp, or both. Holding onto the driver's shoulders is dangerous; it is difficult to securely hold onto a shoulder, and the passenger can destabilize the driver as the driver tries to maneuver. Likewise it is difficult to grip a saddle, and such additional support gained in securing the passenger in a direction essentially perpendicular to the accelerations being experienced is minimally effective in stabilizing the passenger's upper body against left-right accelerations and even less effective in stabilizing against forward and backward accelerations.

I recognized that what was needed was a system which the driver would wear.

And there are two essential elements to such a system:

(1) One or more handholds for the passenger to grasp and thereby securing the passenger's upper body to the driver, and

(2) A system of bands, which is part and parcel of the handholds This system was designed to secure a passenger to the driver of a motorcycle, or Jet Ski, tricycles, scooters and horses. Other inventors have recognized this need but their products have not been seen on market.

This invention differs from others in that it addresses a significant flaw in the previous inventions. Typically, a belt contains at least one opening to allow it to be put on. That opening is normally closed by some fastener when the belt is being used. And, typically for ease of opening and closing, that opening is placed at the center front of the wearer. If you then attach handles symmetrically on the two sides of the opening as has been done in all the prior art, a natural move since the passenger is symmetric having both a right and a left arm, then when the passenger pulls back on the handholds, say when a motorcycle suddenly accelerates forward, the forces securing passenger in place go through the fastener of the belt. If that fastener is not strong enough, or if it has been improperly secured, the results could be disastrous. So as an inventor, I made something different and developed an apparatus where the forces from pulling back on the on the handholds do not go through a fastener, but are instead anchored in a rugged, permanently closed portion of the belt. The handholds are interconnected through the bands or belts and will not fly apart or injure the driver through pulling on the handles. Prototypes have been made. Hence the invention described below.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates generally to a device that provides stability and safety to the passengers riding behind on Motor bike, water jet skiers, horses and bicycles. It is a flap inset base with looped bands threading through handles with a center front permanently shut. The system is then attached to the garment of the driver in the torso area.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART

A number of inventions which involve handholds or handles attached to garments have either been patented or sought patents. These inventions can be categorized as:

1) Inventions similar to the present one which seeks to secure a passenger on a motorcycle, Jet Ski, or in some other similar situation. U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,836 B1 directed toward watercraft; Patent Application US 2012/0137417 A1, directed to open air transportation; U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,751 directed to watercraft and described as being worn over a life vest, U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,812 A directed toward use with motorcycles, U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,292 A directed at aiding a handicapped rider on a horse. U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,107 A Safety garment for cyclist. U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,222 A Safety apparatus for passengers on vehicles and U.S. Pat. Mo. 4,429,419 A.

2) Inventions where the handholds are used as an aid to grab onto a person as might be helpful for example in water rescue. U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,836 B1 (a dual use with category 1).

3) Inventions where the handholds are used to lift a person, either an adult or a child. U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,804 A an infant carrier. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,418 to help support a swimmer.

4) Inventions where the handholds are used to help hold onto a person such as an invalid who needs to be supported. U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,292 A is directed at aiding a handicapped rider on a horse (a dual use with category 1), U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,310 A is a vest to help hold up patients, US Patent Application 2004/0133963 A1 is a vest used to help move or position a patient.

5) Other inventions are for specialized purposes, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,564 B1 handholds to aid in forming a more solid rugby scrum, Patent Application US 2014/0100500 A1 handholds for getting a more effective grip on a towel-like sheet of material being used to compress the torso of the user, U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,750 A a convenient handhold for which can be attached to a pair of pants or other garment for a child to hold onto an adult, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,572 B1 Page handles on a trouser-like garment so that one dancer can hold onto another while twirling the other in the air. U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,896 has a belt and handles positioned in the back of the driver, the handles could easily dislodge since the load is separated from the driver and pulling backwards from the back. This invention suffers from an unbalanced load. While noting the similarity of possessing handholds, only the first category is actually relevant since it is the only one in which they are used so that a person can hold onto another person anchoring the handholds when high accelerations are attempting to separate the two. U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,836 B1 mainly focuses on a vest which, as depicted, suffers from the flaw that a person holding onto it would put force on the fastener in the center of the vest. Handles on wet suit pants are also depicted in the drawings, but the claims are limited to “a life vest” having a “neck opening” and “opposed arm holes” which do not describe wet suit pants. There is no indication in the patent that it envisioned solving the problem of forces on the “attachment feature configured for securing the life vest”. Patent Application US 2012/0137417 A1 depicts in the drawings a lightweight garment with a zipper in the center of the front of the garment (claims 1 through 6), a nylon webbing harness either standing alone (claims 12-15) or sewn inside the garment of claim 1 (claims 7-11), and a light-weight waist-length garment (claims 16-20) not depicted in the drawings. The inventor seems to have considered stress, particularly in the embodiments involving a harness where he describes the handles as attaching to both belts of his harness “in order to evenly distribute passenger loads across the torso of the driver”, but here he does not explicitly recognize that the “quick release mechanism” which secures the harness to the torso is a failure point since he depicts it in his drawing as at the center of the front of the harness and he describes it in his claims as being “on the front torso”. His lightweight garment claims, as stated above, have associated drawings that show the garment closed by a zipper centered at the front of the garment. His lightweight garment claims are silent on how the garment is closed. Describing the garment as lightweight suggests that the inventor here was not seriously taking the stress as a factor in his invention. He does not seem to recognize that the fasteners are a weak point in the design of his invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,751 claims a safety vest with buckles depicted in the center of the front of the vest and claimed as being “near the middle of the front torso”. This inventor, too, seems not to have recognized the buckles as being failure points. Strap 52 can easily tear away. U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,812 A to the extent that the specification and figures illuminate the single highly limited claim of this invention, it “essentially comprises an adjustable length, sturdy strap with a conventional length adjusting means, such as a buckle” depicted in the center front of the jacket. The claim calls this a “cooperating adjustable fastening means detachably securing said elements to each other”. In any case, the forces of the second rider pulling back on the “side hand grip units” would go directly into said buckle, a failure mechanism which the present invention avoids. Here the belt can injure the driver on heavy loads because it is too narrow meaning that stress forces are distributed over a limited area. It is like an having an injury resulting from having a 100 lb woman stepping on you wearing stilettos as opposed to the same woman stepping on you wearing flat shoes. Patent Application US 2012/0137417 A1 claims a life preserver jacket with attached grip handles. It depicts the jacket as having a zipper in front and it makes no mention of the possibility that said zipper might fail. U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,292 A is directed at aiding the wearer, a handicapped rider on a horse. As an apparent afterthought it mentions use “in providing a handhold for the rear person in tandem riding situations”. The two front views of garments depicted in the drawings show buckles closing the front center. Some consideration was given to stress; larger buckles are used in areas which will receive greater stress. Clearly the inventor of this aid for handicapped riders did not recognize the possibility of the present invention in which forces through the fasteners are avoided. U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,107 A Safety garment for cyclist. U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,222 A Safety apparatus for passengers on vehicles and U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,419 A they all have one thing in common, their handles are affixed so they are not part of the belt or garment. My handles are part of the belt, that's the big difference. None of the prior art anticipates the present invention.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The essential invention described in this patent is to secure the handholds in a fixed manner onto the System bands so that under conditions where the handholds are being pulled back as strongly and sharply as a person can do, the System will not fail and have the handholds pull apart.

This is achieved in the primary implementation by locating the opening in the Belt off the center front of the System. With an opening on the side, center back or with no opening at all.

Having bands that are looped through the handles connected to each other for less disengagement. Normally handles are affixed to a member which is not this case. The feature of moving the opening for the Belt outside the portion of the Belt which connect the handholds is the non-obvious innovation which sets this invention apart from prior art. This innovation is particularly non-obvious because garments (even life-vests for use on jet-skis, the product focus of some previous inventors) normally open and close at the center at the front of the garment. So normally the opening would fall between the handholds. Moving the closing point of this invention's system off-center, creating an asymmetric system, was an unusual move, but one which enhances safety.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates the inventor's preferred embodiment of her invention 100 where the System claimed in this embodiment having two handholds, has an opening in its belt and the opening is off-center, the system is attached to a flap of material and will be secured at one edge to an underlying garment, and will be further attached to the garment, and the further attachment mechanism are hook and loop fasteners and buckles.

FIG. 2 illustrates the elements which go into an embodiment of the flap, two pieces of material which are then sewn together on three sides to form the base for the flap.

FIG. 3 illustrates the base for the flap created from the material from FIG. 2 which has been sewn together on three sides and turned inside out to produce clean finished edges on the three sewn sides. The remaining unfinished side will then be inserted into the side seam of the underlying garment to which it is to be attached.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of critical elements of the System, the 3 bands which are the principal elements of the belt. The central band contains the forces generated by the passenger pulling back on the handholds. These bands can also be 2 in numbers and will achieve the same strength of the belt even greater

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of handholds, rubber handles, each with an opening along the axis of the handle so that the bands from FIG. 4 can be threaded through the handles and there by link one band to the next in forming the belt.

FIG. 6 illustrates the elements of another embodiment of handholds, two pieces of fabric which can be rolled and sewn together to form hollow cylinders much like the rubber handles of FIG. 4 and then used in the same way to provide both a handhold cover for the passenger to grip in a much more comfortable way.

FIG. 7 Illustrates the bands in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 assembled with a finished belt with its handles ready to be attached to the flap The central band has been permanently sewn closed to form a loop, of an embodiment permanently closed. This loop band formation can also be achieved with 2 bands only.

FIG. 8 illustrates the inventor's preferred embodiment of her invention 100 attached to the bottom back portion of the garment. This portion before being joined to the upper garment would be good for users of personal watercraft.

FIG. 9 illustrates an inner view of the flap embodiment of FIG. 1 attached to a garment before the flap is folded over the front of the garment. The flap has been sewn into the side seam of the garment and it depicts further attachment to the Garment particularly using hook and loop fasteners. The garment is shown with features such as more reflectorized strips, which are not limitations to the Claims.

FIG. 10 illustrates the System of FIG. 9 with the flap extended across the front of the wearer and buckled in place.

FIG. 11 illustrates the back view of FIG. 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This invention is a System to be worn by a person to provide an anchor by which the upper body of another person may be stabilized against accelerations. The System has two essential elements; Handholds which the person being stabilized may grasp, and a Belt, which may be made of a number of parallel belts, to secure the System to the wearer. The novelty in this invention is that the Handholds are connected to each other in a fixed manner rather than being connected through a closed opening in the System Belt. A secondary implementation of the invention is to eliminate any opening in the system belt by compelling the wearer to don the system by pulling the System over the wearers head. Besides being difficult to don, the secondary implementation does not provide an opportunity for the Belt to be cinched down to more securely fit on the wearer. The primary implementation of this invention is to locate the opening in the system belt off the center of the front of the System and to locate the handholds away from center and away from the side seam. Hereby creating an asymmetric system as illustrated in FIG. 1. In this embodiment the belts are in essence two parallel belts which go across the torso of the wearer at two different levels. The belts are made out of two or three pieces of band material in the prototypes I used bands of 2″ heavy synthetic, double-thread woven material. The three pieces of material are formed into two loops. The center loop is permanently closed, sewn shut. This loop is located at the center front of the wearer when the system is in place. This loop is determined by the size spacing between the handholds, and takes up the forces exerted by the person being stabilized when that person is pulling back on the system in response to forward accelerations. This same system can be formed with only 2 bands fit the System for another larger wearer. The loops are threaded as shown through By use of these locking mechanisms the loop may be shortened to cinch the System down on the user and may be lengthened as needed to initially close the system or to handholds which connect the two loops and which provide the anchor points which the person being stabilized holds. The closable openings in the belt are necessarily at least as far off the center line of the wearer as the attach points for the handholds, and are the asymmetric feature of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates the front view of the inventor's preferred embodiment a Flap 100 for which the bands 410, 420 and 430 shown in FIG. 4 have been bent 710 and threaded through the openings 520 in the rubber handles 510 from FIG. 5. The critical central band 420 has been formed into a loop and sewn shut. The shorter band 410 terminates in buckle pieces 730 which mate with the corresponding buckle pieces 740 which terminate the longer band 430. The buckles 740 may include locking mechanisms which can be used to cinch down the belt upon the wearer. The bands are sewn secured to the Base 300 of the Flap and by reinforced single needle and Double-needle X-stitching 110 at thirteen places and further secured by four rivets 120 at each corner of the reinforced double-needle X-stitching which mark and hold back the handles from tearing apart from the base flap. The hinge side of the Flap will be sewn along the stitch line 320 into the side seam of the underlying garment. The Flap can be further attached to the garment by sewing it to the side seam, left side seam 320 at the top part hook and loop fasteners 920 will attach it to the bottom front garment portion and buckled at the right side 730, 740. One set of hook and loop fasteners 920 is attached to the inner side of the Base of the Flap. These fasteners mate with a corresponding set of hook and loop fasteners attached to the underlying garment.

The details described here apply to the preferred embodiment, and are not limitations to the Claims. FIG. 1 even shows features, such as a zipper 130 leading to a convenient pouch, and reflectorized strips 140, which are product features unrelated to the Claims.

FIG. 2 illustrates the elements which go into an embodiment of the flap, two pieces of material 210 and 220 which are to be sewn together on three sides to form the base for the flap to form base 300. There are notches 230 in the top and bottom of the material to help locate the reflectorized strips to be added later in the assembly. There are likewise notches 240 in the two sides of the material to help locate the bands along seam lines 250 which are spaced away from the edge of the material for seam allowance. FIG. 3 illustrates the Base 300 for the flap created from the material from FIG. 2 which has been sewn together on three sides and turned inside out to produce clean finished edges 310 on the three sewn sides. The remaining unfinished side will be sewn along the remaining seam line 320 into the side seam of the underlying garment to which it is to be attached. The side seam again is located away from the edge of the material 330 for seam allowance. The notches 230 and 240 again serve as location aids for later assembly of the bands and the reflectors.

FIG. 4 illustrates the principal elements of the Belt, bands 410, 420 and 430 of two inch and more, wide, heavy, synthetic; double-heavy threaded woven material. As you will see its formation in FIG. 7

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of Handholds, rubber handles 510, each with an axial opening 520 so that the hands from FIG. 4 can be threaded through the handles and thereby link one band to the next in forming the Belt.

FIG. 6 illustrates the elements of another embodiment of handholds, two pieces of heavy and soft hand fabric 610 which can be rolled and sewn together to form hollow cylinders much like the rubber handles of FIG. 4. Alternatively fabric could be used to cover handles made of rubber or some other material. This is for comfort to the fingers and nails of the passenger.

FIG. 7 Illustrates the bands 410, 420, and 430 and the handles 510 from FIGS. 4 and 5 assembled together by threading 710 the bands through 520 the 510 handles, permanently closing a loop by sewing together end bands of 420, also 2 equal bands can be used to form this same invention by threading them through the opposite way, crossing each other. The essence of the invention claimed here the manner in which the bands are threaded that allow forces generated by a passenger pulling back on the Handholds during a sudden acceleration of a motorcycle, are contained with a rugged, permanently-closed, portion of the belt. In the inventor's preferred embodiment illustrated here, those forces are contained within the central band 420. When this central band has been formed into a loop, sewn shut, and assembled with the handholds as shown in FIG. 7, it can support much more load than the strongest heaviest passenger could ever possibly exert.

And with one piece 730 buckle attached to each end of the short band 410 and a mating piece 740 attached to each end of the long band 430. This assembly forms an embodiment of a System wherein the bands have one (off center) opening. In the embodiment illustrated here the opening is intended to be closed by the use of two buckles and, the upper end of the short band 730 connected to the upper end of the long band 740, and the lower end of the short band 730 connected to the lower end of the long band 740.

FIG. 8 illustrates the inventor's preferred embodiment 100 of base 300 is inserted in with 810 the back of the garment where the band 430 as assembled of FIG. 11 to support the long band 430. In this embodiment the bands 410, 420, and 430 are backed over substantially their entire length. The combination of the Flap Base 300 and the base 810 is substantially as long as the Belt, and will therefore approximately encircle the wearer with the edge 820 of base 810 approximately closing on edge 830 of the Flap Base 300. The edge 820 is clean and finished, and there is a topstitch line 840 closing the other end of base 810. To reinforce the side seam where the flap is inserted a double needle top stitch 840 is added to the seam.

FIG. 9 illustrates a front and inner view of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1 attached to a garment before the Flap 300 is folded over the front of the garment 950. It shows the reinforced double needle stitches 910 which secure the bands and reflectorized strips. And it also depicts hook and loop fasteners 920 on the Flap and mating hook and loop fasteners 930 on the underlying garment to provide further attachment to the garment. The Flap is primarily attached to the garment by being sewn into the side seam 320 of the garment 950. When in use, the lower portion 960 of the garment will be covered by the Flap and attached to the long band 430 shown extending out from behind the garment 950. The garment 950 is shown with features such as more reflectorized strips 970, which are product features unrelated to the Claims.

FIG. 10 illustrates the System of FIG. 1 with the Flap extended across the front of the wearer and buckled in place and the hook and loop fastener attached in place. The Flap Base 300 is attached at the side seam 320 of the garment. The edges of the buckles pieces 730 are shown at the edge engaged their mating buckle pieces 740 on the right side of the garment. Here the system is closed and ready to use. This system can be placed on different style garments or safety wear as needed for any kind of ride. Could also be padded for floatation. Could be vest or jacket, long or short sleeved, could be worn on top of other garments.

FIG. 11 illustrates the back view of FIG. 10 and shows the base 810, the long band 430 the base 810 is attached to the top seam of the garment 340, the buckle pieces 740 attached to the long band 430, and the mating buckle pieces 730 plugged into the buckle pieces 740. Double cross stitching 110 is also used at the back for reinforcement.