WIRING HARNESS SUPPORT STRUCTURE FOR A SADDLE TYPE
VEHICLE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates generally to a wiring harness for an automotive vehicle, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a wiring harness support structure for a saddle type vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A conventional saddle type vehicle with swinging power unit can be divided into a front portion and a rear portion. Both the portions are covered with several covers to hide the vehicle frame. Particularly, the rear portion is covered with a plurality of covers namely a left side cover covering a left side of the vehicle, a right side cover covering a right side of the vehicle and a rear cover at the juncture of the right side cover and the left side cover. The left and right side covers conceal the body frame below a seat from the sides, and the rear cover conceals the body frame from the extreme rear end of the vehicle. A tail lamp unit is attached to the rear end of the vehicle along with the rear indication lamps. It receives power for illumination from a battery connected to the tail lamp unit through a wiring harness which includes a plurality of wires.

[0003] Generally, the wiring harness is routed through the frame members of the vehicle frame. More particularly, the frame members include laterally spaced rear pipes. During assembly, the wiring harness is supported on these frame members and thereafter covered by the respective side cover individually mounted on the vehicle laterally. Hence, the frame member along with the wiring harness is invisible to an onlooker as it is covered on both sides of the vehicle longitudinal plane by left side cover and the right side cover, and the rear cover located below the tail light unit.

[0004] In this configuration,the assembly of wiring harness is cumbersome. Firstly, the wires constituting the wiring harness have to be precisely positioned on and clamped to the frame members. Care is taken for routing the wires on the frame. After that, the side cover is mounted. Both the previous steps are difficult to perform on a moving conveyor line due to space constraints between the respective side cover and the frame member which force the operator to have a loose grip of the side cover. There is also a concern that the wires may get disfigured by being crushed into the space between the side cover and the frame member. All these things put together cause an increase in the assembly time as well as the man hours of the vehicle assembly.

[0005] Further, the serviceability of such wiring harness also poses problems because the wiring harness is difficult to access due to lack of space between the respective side cover and the frame member. The entire side cover along with the tail lamp unit has to be removed to access the wiring harness. In addition to that, the different wires constituting the wiring harness and supported on the frame member cannot be distinguished easily.

[0006] The problem aggravates in the vehicle with a unitary tail lamp unit where the tail lamp unit is made integrally with at least three portions to have a left indication lamp towards the left side of the vehicle longitudinal plane, a right
indication lamp towards the right side of the vehicle longitudinal plane and the tail lamp along the vehicle longitudinal axis. For such construction, a separate wiring harness is required on each side of the vehicle plane and hence more complexities are involved in the assembly and serviceability of the wiring harness.

[0007] In yet another implementation of the saddle type vehicle, each side cover and the rear indication lamp form a separate subassembly. The respective side cover subassembly along with the tail lamp and the rear cover are then separately assembled off the conveyor and then mounted on the vehicle as a whole. In such case, the positioning and routing of wiring harness on the frame member would be difficult and time consuming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wiring harness support structure for easy assembly of the wiring harness along with the side cover subassembly itself. It is another object of the present invention to provide a side cover subassembly for a saddle type vehicle for easy assembly and serviceability of the wiring harness.

[0009] The present invention thereofore discloses a wiring harness support structure connected to a side cover of a saddle type vehicle and having a positioning means and a clamping means. The side cover is a part of a side cover subassembly. The clamping means is connected to the positioning means through at least one fastener. The clamping means is flexible to open and close so as to receive, support and clamp a wiring harness. The wiring harness extends along the length of the side cover from at least one rear indication lamp positioned toward a rear end of the side cover to at least one coupler positioned toward a front end of the side cover and connected to a vehicle battery. This construction allows the assembly of wiring harness along with the side cover subassembly itself. It removes the dependence of the wiring harness on a frame member and hence for serviceability of the wiring harness, the side cover subassembly can be dismounted from the vehicle and the wiring harness can be serviced independent of the frame member.

[00010] The foregoing objectives and summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form, and is not limiting. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present subject matter as well as the subject matter itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the ensuing detailed description of the subject matter and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[00011] The above and other features, aspects and advantages of the subject matter" will be better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings where:

[00012] FIG. 1 shows a side elevational view of a scooter type motorcycle according to the present invention.

[00013] FIG. 2 shows a side elevational view of the frame assembly of the motorcycle.

[00014] FIG. 3 shows a rear view of the motorcycle of FIG. 1.

[00015] FIG. 4 shows a vehicle facing surface of the side cover of the vehicle having a wiring harness support structure.

[00016] FIG. 5 shows a frontward end of the side cover having a wiring harness support structure.

[00017] FIG. 6 shows a clamping means according to the present invention.

[00018] FIG. 7 shows a rear sectional view of the wiring harness support structure connected to the side cover.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[00019] It is to be noted that in the ensuing description, the present invention is exemplified with a two wheeled scooter type motorcycle for better illustration. Further "front" and "rear", and "left" and "right" referred to in the ensuing description of the illustrated embodiment refer to front and rear, and left and right directions as seen in a state of being seated on a seat of the scooter type motorcycle. Furthermore, a longitudinal axis, except otherwise mentioned, refers to a front to rear axis relative to the said motorcycle, while a lateral axis, except otherwise mentioned, refers generally to a side to side, or left to right axis relative to the said motorcycle. Various other features and embodiments of the present invention will be discernible from the following further description thereof, set out hereunder. The detailed explanation of the constitution of parts other than the subject matter which constitutes an essential part has been omitted at suitable places for the sake of brevity.

[00020] FIG. 1 shows a side elevational view of the saddle type vehicle embodied in the form of the scooter type motorcycle. The vehicle 1 includes a frame assembly made up of several tubes welded together which usually supports the body of the said vehicle. The vehicle 1 has a steerable front wheel 2 and a driven rear wheel 25 driven by driving force generated by a power unit 24. The front wheel 2 of the motorcycle 1 is axially supported at a lower end of a front fork 3, and the front fork 3 is pivoted in a steerable manner in a head pipe 31 (FIG. 2) of the vehicle frame. The vehicle 1 is covered by a plurality of vehicle body covers including a front panel 17, a leg shield 16, an under seat cover 21, a left side cover 50 and a right side cover 70. The side covers 50, 70 respectively are present on either side of the vehicle longitudinal plane. A lower member 18 of the front panel 17 functions as the front fender to cover the front wheel 2 whereas a rear fender 27 is provided to cover the rear wheel 25.

[00021] A handle bar 7 is attached to an upper end of the head pipe 31. A headlight unit 10 is arranged forwardly of the handle bar 7. A visor 9 is located upwardly of the headlight unit 10. The handlebar 7 and a seat 22 are supported at opposing ends of the frame assembly and a generally open area is defined there between known as floorboard 12 which functions as a step through space. The seat 22 for a driver and a pillion is placed forward to a fuel tank (not shown) and rearwardly of the floorboard 12. A side trim member 14 beneath an edge portion of the floorboard 12 is provided to cover a lower portion of the frame assembly from being visible. A side stand fixed to the left side of the body frame supports the vehicle such that vehicle inclines to the left side without falling.

[00022] In the vehicle, a rear suspension typically supports the power unit 24 configured to drive the rear wheel 25 of the vehicle. The power unit 24 is integrally formed with an engine and a transmission system, and the rear wheel 25 is connected to a drive shaft at the rear of the power unit 24. In an embodiment of the present invention, the engine is a four stroke single cylinder internal combustion engine.

[00023] FIG. 2 shows a side view of the frame assembly of said vehicle. The frame of the vehicle 1 is an elongated structure, which typically extends from a front end to a rear end of the vehicle. It is generally convex in shape, as viewed from a side elevational view. The frame assembly comprises of the head pipe 31, a downpipe 32 extending downwards from the head pipe 31, a lower pipe 33 supporting the low-slung floorboard 12 extending rearwards from a lower end of the downpipe 32, and a rear pipe 35 formed by curving a rear end section of the lower pipe 33 diagonally upwards. The rear pipe 35 is made of an inclined section 34 extending diagonally upwards from a rear end of the lower pipe 33, and a horizontal section 36 extending rearwards substantially horizontally from the inclined section 34 and is covered by the left side cover 50 and the right side cover 70. The rear pipe is made of at least two parallel tubes laterally spaced apart from each other, one on each side of the vehicle longitudinal axis.

[00024] FIG. 3 shows a rear view of the said motorcycle. The left side cover 50 and right side cover 70 also cover a rear portion of the vehicle frame along the vehicle front to rear axis. A rear cover 85 covers the vehicle frame from the rearmost direction and is flanked by the left side cover 50 and the right side cover 70. The rear cover 85 houses a tail lamp 99 arranged at a rear end of the seat 22. The tail lamp 99 also acts as brake lamp. Further, to convey the rider's intention to take a turn, at least two rear indication lamps namely a left rear indication lamp 55 and a right rear indication lamp 75 are provided in the rear portion of the vehicle. The tail lamp 99, the left rear indication lamp 55 and the right rear indication lamp 75 together form a non-unitary tail light unit wherein the tail lamp 99 is housed in the rear cover and each rear indication lamp housed in respective side cover. Each rear indication lamp along with one side cover forms a side cover subassembly. More particularly, the left rear indication lamp 55 is housed in a portion of the left side cover 50 to form a left side cover subassembly 46. Similarly, the right rear indication lamp 75 is housed in a portion of the right side cover 70 to form a left side cover subassembly 45. The left side cover subassembly 46 and the right side cover subassembly 45 are assembled together with the rear cover 85 and the tail lamp 99 as a whole and then assembled with the motorcycle on the conveyor line.

[00025] The present invention is now explained with the help of only right side cover subassembly. However, the concepts can be utilized equally well with the left side cover subassembly. As shown in FIG. 4, the right side cover 70 comprises of a vehicle facing surface 203 facing toward the vehicle and a vehicle opposing surface 202 facing outwardly of the vehicle. A wiring harness 210 extends along the length of the right side cover 70 from at least one rear vehicle lamp positioned at a rear end of the vehicle to at least one coupler 211 positioned toward a front end of the right side cover and connected to a vehicle battery. The wiring harness is supported on the right side cover itself and connects the rear vehicle lamps (jointly referred by numeral 215) to the vehicle battery. The rear vehicle lamps 215 includes the tail lamp 99, the left indication lamp 55 and the right indication lamp 75 all of which are separately housed. In one embodiment, the wiring harness 210 carries power to each of them through a plurality of wires. For example, there can be provided separate wires for tail light 99, left indication lamp 55 and right indication lamp 75 but collectively the wires are referred to as wiring harness 210. The wires are connected to the vehicle battery at one end and to the rear vehicle lamps at the other end by means of couplers 211.

[00026] According to an aspect, a portion of the wiring harness 210 is supported on a wiring harness support structure 205 provided on the vehicle facing surface 203 of the right side cover 70. A plurality of wiring harness support structures may be provided along the length of the right side cover 70. However, for the sake of brevity, only one of them is described in detail.

[00027] As shown in FIG. 6 and 7, the wiring harness support structure 205 comprises of a positioning means 206 and a clamping means 207. The positioning means 206 fixedly connected to, and integrally formed with the right side cover 70. The clamping means 207 is removably attachable to the positioning means 206 for receiving and supporting a portion of the wiring harness 210. One end of the clamping means 207 has a positioning hole 207a through which it may be secured to the threaded positioning means 206 through a fastener 209. A one other end is flexibly openable and closable for supporting the wiring harness 210 on the clamping means 207. When manually closed, the one other end forms a curved
portion 208 to house the wiring harness 210. According to an aspect, the curved portion 208 can be curved towards the ground or opposite to the ground.

[00028] The clamping means 207 is rotatable about its other end which helps it to adjust itself according to the sliding movement of the wiring harness 210 (if any). During the side cover sub-assembly, first the clamping means 207 is opened at its other end, the wiring harness 210 is routed within the clamping means 207 such that the wiring harness touches the surface of the clamping means and then closing the other end of the clamping means 207 by curving manually to form the curved portion 208 around the suspended portion of the wiring harness 210 such that the wiring harness 210 does not slip out of the curved portion 208. The same procedure is repeated for all the wiring harness support structures provided along the length of the side cover 201.

[00029] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the positioning means 206 is a threaded mounting boss fixedly enmoulded with the right side cover 70. In an embodiment, the clamping means 207 is a flexible hose clamp removably fastened to the mounting boss. According to an embodiment, the clamping means 207 is made of a metal strip sandwiched between a plastic resin cover.

[00030] The wiring harness support structure 205 may be present in the left side cover 50 or the right side cover 70 or both. However, according to a preferred embodiment, the wiring harness support structure 205 is present only on the right side cover 70 mounted towards the right side of the vehicle longitudinal plane.

[00031] Thus, the wiring harness 210 is separately assembled with the right side cover 70 and the right indication lamp 75 to form a right side cover subassembly 45.

[00032] Another embodiment of the present invention is possible with a unitary tail lamp unit where the rear vehicle lamps 215 includes the tail lamp 99, the left indication lamp 55 and the right indication lamp 75 which are integrated as one light unit.

[00033] From the foregoing description, it will be appreciated that the present invention offers many advantages including those described above. The wiring harness support structure provides the flexibility of opening and closing clamping means for routing the wires of the wiring harness in the side cover subassembly thus increasing its serviceability and ease of assembly as the wiring harness forms part of the side cover subassembly. The movement of the wiring harness is minimized because the side cover subassembly does not move up and down with respect to the vehicle body thereby enhancing durability of the wiring harness. The wiring harness according to the present invention does not take support on the frame which eases the dismounting of the side cover while servicing of the vehicle. Therefore, during disassembly, the wires are taken off from the couplers 211 at one end and from the rear vehicle lamps 215 at the other end of the side cover and the wiring harness can then be removed along with the side cover subassembly.

[00034] The present subject matter is thus described. The description is not intended to be exhaustive nor is it intended to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosed embodiments may be modified in light of the above description. The embodiments described are chosen to provide an illustration of principles of the invention and its practical application to enable thereby one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Therefore the forgoing description is to be considered exemplary, rather than limiting, and the true scope of the invention is that described in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A saddle type vehicle having a wiring harness support structure (205) comprising: a positioning means (206) fixedly connected to, and integrally formed with a side cover (201) of the vehicle; a clamping means (207) connected to the positioning means (206) for receiving and supporting a wiring harness (210); wherein the wiring harness (210) extends along the length of the side cover (201) from at least one rear vehicle lamp positioned toward a rear end of the side cover to at least one coupler positioned toward a front end of the side cover and connected to a vehicle battery.

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clamping means (207) is removably attachable to the positioning means (206).

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 1, wherein a one end of the clamping means (207) is secured to the positioning means (206) through a fastener (209), and a one other end forms a curved portion (208).

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the positioning means is a mounting boss.

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clamping means (207) is a flexible hose clamp.

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the hose clamp is openable and closable.

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the hose clamp is made of a metal strip sandwiched between plastic resin cover.

The wiring harness support structure (205) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wiring harness (210) is separately assembled with the side cover (201) and the at least one rear vehicle lamp to form a side cover sub-assembly.

A side cover subassembly (45) for a scooter type motorcycle comprising: at least one side cover (70); at least one rear vehicle lamp (75) connected to the at least one side cover (70);
a wiring harness (210) extending along the length of the at least one side cover (70) from the at least one rear vehicle lamp (75) positioned toward a rear end of the at least one side cover to at least one coupler (211) positioned toward a front end of the at least one side cover and connected to a vehicle battery; wherein the at least one side cover (70) further comprises: a positioning means (206) fixedly connected to, and integrally formed with the at least one side cover (70); a removably attachable clamping means (207) supported on the positioning means (206) for receiving and supporting the wiring harness (210).

10. The side cover subassembly (45) as claimed in claim 9, wherein the positioning means (206) is a mounting boss and the clamping means (207) is an openable and closable flexible hose clamp.