Propeller “windshield wiper” for motorcyclists

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propeller &# 34; windshield wipers&# 34; for motorcyclists

Propeller-driven rain shield
“windshield wipers” for motorcyclists

Better view when it rains. Albert Keller’s propeller-driven rain protection screen is supposed to offer this. It took him six years to get the patent. He has already put some 10,000 euros into it. A weirdo out of touch with reality? Not at all.

Michael Schumann

11/10/2016


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When he’s not repairing cars in his workshop with two employees, Albert Keller (right) thinks about it. He has sketched his best ideas on the ceiling in chalk.

When he was 13, he invented a mechanical aid for backing up parking spaces. “So that mom doesn’t always have such trouble with the car,” the boy thought at the time. That was 30 years ago. Electronics and sensors from Bosch, Conti and Co. have had parking under control for a long time. But the blueprint from that time still exists. As a chalk sketch on the ceiling of Albert Keller’s study. This is where the master auto mechanic recorded all of his inventions. Even if he doesn’t like to call them that and most of them, like the mechanical parking aid, have never become a reality.

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It is different with the rain cover. It can also be found on the ceiling. But at the same time it is very real in front of the basement on the kitchen table. “Those were the prototypes that I quickly welded together,” he says, “still with springs and wiper rubbers – it shook without end.” But his rain cover runs smoothly and works, MOTORRAD has tried it out. Nevertheless, she gives Keller a headache. Because now he has to market them, which forces the tinkerer to do things that are completely atypical for him.

Honda CB 750 C for 28 years

Using his cell phone, for example. “I have one, but it’s mostly over. And it’s just a phone, I’ve never owned a smartphone, ”he says apologetically to MOTORRAD. The journalist and photographer tried to call him when it was clear that they would be an hour late on the way to him in Hintschingen, a village with 240 inhabitants. But once again, Keller didn’t answer. “Doesn’t matter,” he says. “I had enough other things to do.”

Keller’s Honda, a CB 750 C, built in 1980, fits well into the picture. He doesn’t drive the fully analog four-cylinder because old school is modern again. Apart from a self-restored DKW 175 from his father, an agricultural machinery mechanic, Albert Keller has never had another motorcycle – he has owned the Honda for 28 years. “Most of my buddies here have Ducatis and always laugh at me,” he says. “But woe betide it gets twisty and tight. Then they won’t come after me with their unwieldy things. “


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The idea of ​​the sofa turned into prototypes, but they didn’t work.

It was also a tour with his buddies that brought Albert Keller to the rain cover: “Whitsun 2009, we were on our way back from Italy and it pissed endlessly.” Flying blind over the Alps wasn’t really fun. He approached the subject in his typical way, completely rational: “At home on the sofa, I always think about problems and look for solutions.”

It took six years until the Stuttgart Patent Office finally gave him the green light in 2015. The rain protection screen is now officially and protected as Albert Keller’s invention. It is his third patent, after two versions of a group game in which the players shoot steel balls at different targets with air pressure – “similar to a pinball machine, only bigger”. A well-known game provider was interested in it at the time, but then declined. Too complicated. “Only two percent of all patents make it onto the market,” says Keller. He presented the rain cover to BMW for testing: “They looked at it seriously and then discovered that a similar system already existed in the USA. But I already had the patent. ”In shipping, too, Keller knows today, electrically operated centrifugal discs are used.

The round plexiglass panes are lasered by a company in the Black Forest, the aluminum spacers are turned by Keller in the neighborhood, and the ball bearings are bought from SKF. But the orders over the Internet (www.regenschutzscheibe.de) come extremely sparse. “The problem is: motorcyclists are vain,” he stated at various motorcycle fairs and in many conversations. “When it rains, it doesn’t bother anyone to put on a bulky sack. Rain suits also look like shit! ”After a first presentation in MOTORRAD (16/2016), a biker magazine from Australia got in touch with him. “They’re also testing the rain protection screen right now,” he says. Maybe this will be the breakthrough?

This is how it works


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Only the pane provides the right perspective.

Clear view despite the rain? We all know that, thick raindrops usually roll off, but thrown spray is nasty, the gloves are worn out from the constant wiping, it’s dark and the taillights ahead are blurred in a dark soup. When attached to the visor by a suction cup at about nose level, the propeller sets the Plexiglas pane rotating due to the airflow. The centrifugal force throws the drops off, and visibility improves significantly. Only isolated droplets collect behind the rotating disk on the visor. The suction cup also holds at 130 km / h, turning the head is not a problem. In all cases, a rubber band protects against loss of the rain cover. There are no official concerns about the disc, it is legal to use. From 40 euros plus shipping.

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