Flxible

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A 1987 Metro-B, owned by WMATA, serves as a roadblock in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2005.
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A 1987 Metro-B, owned by WMATA, serves as a roadblock in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2005.

The Flxible Company, (1913-1996), was a motorcycle sidecar, funeral car, ambulance, intercity coach and transit bus manufacturing company based in the United States which went out of business in 1996.

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[edit] Name

The Flxible Company started manufacturing sidecars for motorcycles with a flexible mounting to the motorcycle. The flexible mounting allowed the sidecar to lean on corners, along with the motorcycle. The first 'e' was dropped for use as a trademark. The name is pronounced "flexible".

[edit] History

Hugo H. Young's and Carl F. Dudte's Flxible Side Car Co. was founded in 1913 to manufacture motorcycle sidecars. After low-priced cars became available the motorcycle sidecar demand dropped and Flxible turned to production of hearses and ambulances. The Flxible Co., Loudonville, Ohio was founded in 1924 to produce buses from Studebaker and Buick car chassis. In 1954 the Flxible Co. absorbed the bus manufacturing portion of the Fagoel Twin Coach company, and accepted its first order for transit buses from the Chicago Transit Authority. The Flxible Co. was purchased by the Rohr Industries in 1970. The factory was moved to Delaware, Ohio in 1974. Flxible was sold to Grumman Corporation in 1978 and became known as Grumman Flxible. The name reverted to Flxible when Grumman sold the company in 1983 to General Automotive Corporation. Then in 1996 they went bankrupt. The last official Flxible Metros were eight 35-footers, that went to Monterey Salinas Transit, in Monterey, California. They are powered by Compressed Natural Gas. The molds and plans for the Metro are said to be owned by Motor Coach Industries. The front ends of the Orion 05.501 and the Gillig Phantom bear a somewhat close resemblance to the Metro. It is also believed that a low-floor version of the Metro was under development when Flxible closed its doors.

Charles Kettering of General Motors fame, was closely associated with Flxible for many years, serving as either President or CEO of Flxible from 1914 until Kettering's death in 1958. Flxible's close relationship with GM and Kettering meant that Flxible buses were noted for using many GM parts.

[edit] The 870 frame fiasco

In the mid 1980s, several MTA New York City Transit 870 buses developed cracks in the underframes. This prompted then-president David Gunn to pull the entire fleet of buses off the street. Soon several other companies reported cracked 870 frames. However, it seemed that the frame issues only affected NYCT 870s and not the 870s owned by NYCDOT-franchised carriers. NYCT attempted to get the remainder of the order transferred to General Motors, but was barred from doing so unless they could prove that the 870s were flawed and unsafe. The buses were eventually returned to Flxible and resold to Queen City Metro and New Jersey Transit. Grumman blamed the problems with the NYCT 870s on NYCT's maintenance practices despite Chicago's RTA (now PACE), Houston, and Los Angeles also reporting problems with their 870s. Ironically, NYCT would order fifty Metros in 1995. However, Flxible would close their doors while the order was being produced. NYCT would order new buses from Orion.

[edit] Customers

Flxible sold a lot of buses to many major urban transit agencies including the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore, Maryland during the 1970s and 1980s. They also sold a small number of liquified natural gas (LNG) powered buses to the Maryland Transit Administration in 1994, but they had many problems, and in 1998, they were sold to Montgomery County, Maryland and converted to diesel.

When Flxible closed, it was said that there were still buses on the assembly line ready to be shipped to the Maryland Transit Administration and other transit agencies.

Some big customers were:

The former Flxible factory in Loudonville, Ohio is now a bus maintenance facility of Motor Coach Industries (MCI) while the former Flxible parts facility in nearby Delaware, Ohio now is home to similar duties for North American Bus Industries (NABI) which was one of the companies which grew at the expense of Flxible's demise.

[edit] Products

  • Airway intercity coach (1936)
  • Clipper intercity coach (1940)
  • Visicoach intercity coach (1950)
  • VL-100 intercity coach (1955)
  • Starliner intercity coach (1957)
  • Hi-Level intercity coach (1960)
  • "New Look" transit coach (1961) 111CC-D5-1- copy of GMC New Look and later copied by Flyer Industries of Winnipeg MB (as D700-800 series)
  • Flxliner intercity coach (1963)
  • 870 advanced design transit bus (1978)
  • Metro transit coach (1981)
  • ADB
  • L10 Diesel Pusher
  • Twin Level Models 228JT-1 and 228F-1 coach

[edit] Production Outside the USA

Mexican made DINA Flxliner bus, in second-class service, berthed in the Silao, Guanajuato central terminal, 2006.
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Mexican made DINA Flxliner bus, in second-class service, berthed in the Silao, Guanajuato central terminal, 2006.

Flxible's intercity busses were very popular in Mexico and Latin American countries, however high import duties into these countries limited sales. In the early 1960's Flxible began licensing a producer in Mexico, DINA S.A. (Diesel Nacional), to manufacture Flxible bus designs, this continued until the late 1980's. Flxible also licensed its "New Look" transit coach design to Flyer Industries in Canada.

A Changzhou-Changjiang Flxible bus in Beijing, China. Instead of a Flxible plaque on the front, a Changzhou-Changjiang nameplate can be seen.
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A Changzhou-Changjiang Flxible bus in Beijing, China. Instead of a Flxible plaque on the front, a Changzhou-Changjiang nameplate can be seen.

In China, initially through a joint venture between American Flxible and Changzhou Changjiang in Jiangsu, later through a newly formed company CBC-Iveco, produced buses based on the Flxible Metro design with the Flxible name. Flxible buses in China were available at a variety of lengths from 8 metres to 11 metres, as well as with front and rear engine designs. Flxible buses are used by many transit operators in major Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, however many of these buses have been radically changed from the traditional 870/Metro design.

[edit] Flxible Owners International

Flxible Owners International was founded in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the Family Motor Coach Association. This organization is dedicated to the preservation of buses and coaches produced by Flxible.

The organization holds a rally in Loudonville every even year, normally in mid-July, where many preserved Flxible coaches and buses may be seen.

The majority of vehicles owned by members are of the Clipper series (Clipper, Visicoach, Starliner) that were produced from the 1930s until 1967. However, there are also quite a few "non-clipper" Flxible coaches that are owned, maintained, and operated by proud Flxible owners. This includes the Visicoach, VL100 (VistaLiner), Hi Level, and Flxliner as well as some of the more modern transit buses. Most of these vehicles have been converted to motorhomes, however there are still a few examples of seated coaches belonging to members.

[edit] References

  • Georgano, G. N., Editor {1978). The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-024-6.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../f/l/x/Flxible.html"