Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Nippon Shokubai Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd.

Tomohisa Abe

Kozo Yamada

Kenichi Ueda

Katsumi Kohama

Daisuke Atobe

Hidemitsu Takizawa

Ryoichi Yugami

Yuji Inagaki

Jun Ito

Masahiko Tsuchiya

Yosuke Hoi

Yoshiaki Noda

Tokio Isono

Takao Kochi

Hiromi Tanaka

Hiroo Ebisawa

Masato Kita

Bill E Orr

A snowmobile provided with skis and being steerable by a steering shaft, and being provided with a silencer on the front side of an engine. The steering shaft passes between the engine and the silencer and overlaps the silencer in side view. Flat step floors for a rider's feet are provided on lateral sides of a lower portion of a seat. Step bars for enabling positioning of the rider's feet are provided at front portions of the step floors. The step bars are each provided on the rear side relative to the step floor tip end and within 350 mm from a track belt drive shaft which is provided on the rear side of the engine. The resulting configuration of the snowmobile makes it possible to lay out the silencer close to the engine, affords excellent turning performance, and provides step floors for good foot holding properties.

Snowmobile

A snowmobile includes a seat for the rider behind an engine and an air cleaner, and an elongate fuel tank below the seat. The height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at a location corresponding to the rider seating position is lower than the height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at other portions thereof. A raised ceiling portion is provided in the fuel tank by raising upwards the front side of the fuel tank. A fuel pump is provided in the raised ceiling portion of the fuel tank. The fuel pump is attached to the ceiling of the fuel tank, and a fuel supply pipe for supplying fuel from the fuel tank resides between the fuel pump and the front side of the fuel tank. The snowmobile having such fuel tank stabilizes vehicle body during operation, enhances the seating comfort, and easily incorporates a fuel pump therein.

Snowmobile with improved fuel tank structure

A snowmobile comprises a left-right pair of skis, an engine and a track belt provided on a vehicle body. The track belt is driven by the engine, and the skis are steered by an operation on a steering handlebar. The vehicle body frame is formed by connecting intermediate frame sections, which are U-shaped in side view, to a front portion of a rear frame section, the rear frame section having a roughly U-shaped section and connecting a front frame section to front portions of the intermediate frame sections. In the vehicle body frame, detachable side frame sections are used to connect the portions between the upper ends of front suspension members for supporting the skis and a front portion of a rear cushion for supporting the track belt. The reinforcing side frame sections include portions which are protuberant to the upper side and curved downwards, respectively. The resulting snowmobile frame structure is rigid enough to accommodate an engine of increased weight.

Snowmobile with reinforced frame structure for improved engine support

An improved snowmobile component layout structure includes an engine provided at front portion of the vehicle body, a cylinder head of the engine is inclined by an angle &#x3b8; rearwards from a vertical axis, a steering shaft extends forwardly of the engine, and an air intake system, including an air cleaner, is provided at the rear side of the engine. In addition, a rider seat is provided on the rear side of the engine, and an elongated fuel tank is provided below the seat. The air cleaner has an improved disposition between the fuel tank and the engine. The inventive configuration narrows the spacing between an engine and a rider and concentrates mass to enhance turning performance.

Snowmobile with improved air intake structure

An improved component layout in a snowmobile includes a muffler is disposed on the front side of an engine, and a lower portion of a steering shaft extends between the muffler and the engine. The engine is disposed rearwardly of the lower portion of the steering shaft. In other words, the steering shaft lower portion is disposed on the front side of the engine, whereby the engine is easily relocated rearwards with respect to the vehicle body so as to concentrate the center of mass at a central location of the vehicle body.

Snowmobile with improved component layout

A fuel inlet apparatus is provided for a personal watercraft of the type having a fuel tankdisposed in a craft body, and a fuel supply hoseextending from the fuel tankwith an end thereof connected to a fuel filler memberon a deck. One end of a chainis fastened inside the fuel filler member, and the other end of the chainis fastened to a fill capused for sealably closing the top of the fuel filler member. The chainhas a protective tubesurrounding a portion thereof, to contact the fuel fillerwhen the fill capis removed. The provision of the protective tubereduces the risk of damage to the fuel filler or the deck, and the chain itself can also be protected by the tube.

Fuel inlet structure for personal watercraft

To enhance the joint strength between the hull and the deck of a water craft and reduce the number of steps needed for joining the hull and the deck, a water craft body is constructed by joining the hull and the deck together at their peripheral regions, applying a protector strip of extruded material to the joint between the hull and the deck peripherally of the water craft body and installing fasteners, such as self-tapping screws or rivets, through the protector strip and through the peripheral regions of the hull and deck for integrating the protector strip and the peripheral regions of the hull and the deck. Formed in the outer surface of the protector strip is a positioning groove that facilitates locating the positions of fasteners about the peripheral joint between the hull and the deck of the water craft.

Small craft

A personal watercraft designed to advance suitably in a forward direction, to prevent an influence of side waves, and to incline to the turning center side when being steered by an operator from a forward direction to a turned direction. The personal watercraft includes a keel provided at a middle portion in the widthwise direction of the bottom of the body and extending from the bow to the stern. The keel is formed in an arc in the widthwise direction of the body. The keel is configured such that, at the rear half portion of the body, the center of the arc of the keel substantially coincides with the position G of the center of gravity of the body. On the other hand, at the front half portion of the body, the radius R of the arc of the keel gradually decreases in the forward direction.

Personal watercraft

In a jet-propelled boat, a nozzle of a jet pump is constructed so as to be rotatable in response to steering by a rider of the boat in order to change a course of the boat. A rudder, that does not project downwards further than a boat bottom, is attached to an outer surface of the nozzle. A jet pump channel is provided for guiding a water flow to the jet pump. A rudder channel is provided separate from the jet pump channel and guides a water flow to the rudder. When a driving speed of the jet pump is stopped or slowed, the rudder will enable the course of the boat to be steered when the boat continues to move through the water due to its own inertia. The steering occurs because the direction of the nozzle and hence the rudder can be controlled by the boat's rider, and water will continue to be delivered to the rudder via the rudder channel. The rudder may be duct-shaped. Further, a plate may be provided to selective block an inlet of the rudder channel, with the plate opening the rudder channel when a driving speed of the jet pump is a prescribed value or less.

Jet-propelled boat

In a method for molding a sheet which includes thermosetting resin materials reinforced with glass fiber or carbon fiber, the sheet includes a covering film always existing in a side which is not in contact with a mold face and, when the sheet and covering film are shaped along a mold face and the sheet is thermally cured, apparatus for dealing with an accidental breakage of the covering film is arranged on the side of the sheet which is covered by said covering film.

Method for molding fiber-reinforced resin

An astride-type small boat sails on water under propulsive forces generated by a propulsion unit driven by an engine mounted in a hull assembly. A driver's seat is disposed on the hull assembly rearwardly of a steering device mounted thereon, with foot spaces defined on opposite sides of said driver's seat. A passenger's seat displaced from the driver's seat in a transverse direction of the hull assembly. The passenger's seat is displaced from the driver's seat in a fore-and-aft direction of the hull assembly.

Astride-type small boat

This invention provides a sheet for molding a fiber-reinforced resin finishing the fiber-reinforced resin moldings surface under an excellently colored condition. A sheet for molding of this invention comprises a fiber-reinforced resin layer and a colored surface resin layer being laminated and has, in the fiber-reinforced resin layer, a fiber-reinforced colored resin layer adjacent to said surface resin layer and colored in a color similar to that of the surface resin layer, and a fiber-reinforced transparent resin layer arranged on a surface in a side reverse to the surface resin layer and having a curing character by ultraviolet rays.

Sheet for molding fiber-reinforced resin

The method for molding a resin reinforced with fiber wherein a resin sheet reinforced with fiber is positioned juxtaposed a face of a mold, which is either one of a female mold or a male mold, and then hardened, but before molding, modifying the viscosity to different levels in different portions of the resin sheet. Thus, it is possible to surely prevent occurrence of a partial difference in thickness of the moldings or, if necessary, to partially change these thicknesses according to predetermined values.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Tomohisa Abe