Flxible

The Flxible Co., (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.

History

In 1913, Hugo H. Young and Carl F. Dudte founded the Flexible Sidecar Co. in Loudonville, Ohio to manufacture motorcycle sidecars with a flexible mounting to the motorcycle. The flexible mounting allowed the sidecar to lean on corners along with the motorcycle, and was based on a design patented by Young.

In 1919, the company's name was changed to The Flxible Co. so that the name could be copyrighted and used as a trademark (although it continued to be pronounced "flexible"). After low-priced automobiles became available in the 1920s, the motorcycle sidecar demand dropped and in 1924, Flxible turned to production of funeral cars (hearses), ambulances, and intercity buses, which were primarily manufactured on Buick chassis, but also occasionally on Studebaker, Cadillac and Reo chassis.

In 1953, Flxible absorbed the bus-manufacturing portion of the Fageol Twin Coach Company, and accepted its first order for transit buses from the Chicago Transit Authority. In 1964, Flxible purchased Southern Coach Manufacturing Co. of Evergreen, Alabama and built small transit buses at the former Southern Coach factory until 1976. Flxible was purchased by Rohr Industries in 1970, and a new factory and corporate headquarters were built in Delaware, Ohio in 1974, with the original factory in Loudonville, Ohio being used to manufacture parts and sub-assemblies. 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. In 1996, Flxible declared bankruptcy and its assets were auctioned. The last Flxible vehicles produced were eight 35-foot long CNG-fueled Metro buses that went to Monterey-Salinas Transit in Monterey, California. The former Flxible factory in Loudonville, Ohio is now a bus maintenance facility for Motor Coach Industries (MCI), while the former factory in Delaware, Ohio is now a parts facility for North American Bus Industries (NABI), which was one of the companies that grew at the time of Flxible's demise.

Production outside the USA

Flxible's intercity busses were very popular in Mexico and in Latin American countries. However, high import duties into these countries limited sales. In the early 1960s, Flxible began licensing a producer in Mexico, DINA S.A. (Diesel Nacional), to manufacture Flxible designed intercity coaches, and this continued until the late 1980s. In 1965 and 1966, Flxible also licensed its "New Look" transit bus design to Canadair Ltd., an aircraft manufacturer in Ville St-Laurent, Quebec.

In 1994, Flxible's parent company, General Automotive Corporation, and three other American companies, Roger Penske, Mark IV Industries, and Carrier, entered into a joint venture with Changzhou Changjiang, a Chinese manufacturer in Jiangsu, to produce buses based on the Flxible Metro design and with the Flxible name. The resulting company, China Flxible Auto Corporation, manufactured buses in a variety of lengths, from eight meters to 11 meters. These buses, which include both front and rear engine designs, and share only their general exterior appearance with the American-built Flxibles, are used by many transit operators in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Charles Kettering and General Motors

chassis.

In 1958, and as a result of the consent decree from the 1956 anti-trust case, "United States v. General Motors Corp.", GM was mandated to sell their bus components, engines, and transmissions to other manufacturers, free of royalties. However, in the early 1950s and prior to the consent decree, Flxible built a small number of buses with GM diesel engines while Kettering still served on the board. It has been postulated that GM may have made its diesel engines available to Flxible to reduce the criticisms of GM's business practices that some felt were monopolistic.McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006), 17.] The same has been said about GM's decision in the 1960s and 1970s not to produce a 35-foot long "New Look" transit bus with an 8-cylinder engine. However, it is also possible that GM chose not to enter this market because the potential sales did not warrant the added costs of engineering and production.McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006), 58.] Another result of the consent decree (which was not settled in its entirety until 1965) was that GM was barred from having any of its officers or directors serve as an officer or director for any other bus manufacturing company. This provision would have applied to Kettering, had he not passed away in 1958.

870 frame problems

In the mid 1980s, several MTA New York City Transit 870 buses developed cracks in their underframes. This prompted then-president David Gunn to remove the entire fleet from service. Soon, several other companies reported cracked 870 frames. However, the frame issues primarily only affected NYCT 870s and not the 870s owned by NYCDOT (New York City Department of Transportation) franchised carriers. NYCT (New York City Transit) attempted to get the remainder of its pending order for new buses 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 ordered fifty Metros in 1995 but Flxible closed its doors while the order was being produced, and NYCT obtained the remaining new buses from Orion.

Flxible Owners International

Flxible Owners International was founded in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the Family Motor Coach Association, and is dedicated to the preservation of buses and coaches produced by Flxible. The organization holds a rally in Loudonville, Ohio every even year, normally in mid-July, where many preserved Flxible coaches and buses may be seen. [cite news |first=Jim |last=Brewer |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=1930 Flxible coach steals show at bus rally |url=http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/321374 |work=Ashland Times-Gazette |publisher= |date=July 17, 2006 |accessdate=2008-07-27] [cite news |first=Jim |last=Brewer |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Flxible buses parade through downtown Loudonville |url=http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/4112771 |work=Ashland Times-Gazette |publisher= |date=July 21, 2008 |accessdate=2008-07-27] 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 motor homes; however, there are still a few examples of seated coaches belonging to members.

Products

* Motorcycle sidecar (1913-early 1920s)
* Intercity coach (1924-1932)
* Funeral car (1924-1942, 1946-1952, 1959-1964)
* Ambulence (1924-1964)
* "Airway" intercity coach (1932-1936)
* "Clipper" intercity coach (1937-1942, 1944-1950)
* Parts for Liberty ships, M4 tanks, F4U Corsair fighter aircraft, and Goodyear "L" type blimps (1942-1945)
* "Airporter" intercity coach (1946-1950)
* "C-1" intercity coach (1950)
* "VisiCoach" intercity coach (1950-1958)
* FL "Fageoliner" transit bus (1953-1954)
* FT "Flxible Twin" transit bus (1953-1959)
* VL-100 "VistaLiner" two-level intercity coach (1954-1959)
* "StarLiner" intercity coach (1957-1967)
* "Hi-Level" intercity coach (1959-1962)
* "Clipper Eagle" intercity coach (1960)
* "New Look" transit bus (1960-1978)
* "FlxLiner" intercity coach (1963-1969)
* "Flxette" light duty transit bus (1964-1976)
* "Flxible" Cruiser Motor Home (1967-1969)
* 870 "Advanced Design Bus (ADB)" transit bus (1978-1983)
* "Metro" transit bus (1983-1995) Metro A (1983-1986) Metro B (1987-1991) Metro C (1992) Metro D (1993-1994) And Metro E (1994-1996)

References

* cite journal
last = Crandall
first = Robert W.
coauthors = Elzinga, Kenneth G.
title = Injunctive Relief in Sherman Act Monopolization Cases
journal = Journal of Research in Law and Economics
pages = 68–81
publisher = The Brookings Institution
date = 2002-04-24
url = http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/crandall/20020424.pdf
accessdate = 2007-02-04
* Georgano, G. N., Editor {1978). "The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles". Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-024-6.
* Luke, William A. (2003). "Flxible Intercity Buses: 1924-1970 Photo Archive", Hudson, WI: Iconografix. ISBN 1-58388-108-5.
* Luke, William A. & Metler, Linda L. (2005). "City Transit Buses of the 20th Century", Hudson, WI: Iconografix. ISBN 1-58388-146-8.
* Luke, William A. & Metler, Linda L. (2004). "Highway Buses of the 20th Century", Hudson, WI: Iconografix. ISBN 1-58388-121-2.
* McKane, John (2001). "Flxible Transit Buses: 1953-1995 Photo Archive", Hudson, WI: Iconografix. ISBN 1-58388-053-4.
* McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006). "Welcome Aboard the GM New Look Bus", Hudson, WI: Iconografix. ISBN 1-58388-167-0
* cite journal
last = Plachno
first = Larry
title = Back to the Futurliners
journal = National Bus Trader
issue = February, 2001
pages = 16
publisher = National Bus Trader, Inc.
url = http://www.busmag.com/PDF/futurliners.pdf
accessdate = 2007-02-07
* Stauss, Ed (1988). "The Bus World Encyclopedia of Buses", Woodland Hills, CA: Stauss Publications. ISBN 0-9619830-0-0.
* [http://www.coachinfo.com/index.html Coach Information Network] , "coachinfo.com", retrieved on 2007-02-04.
* [http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/y/yellow_coach/yellow_coach.htm Coachbuilt.com - Yellow Coach] , "coachbuilt.com", retrieved on 2007-02-07.
* [http://home.znet.com/x1937/Flx.htm Flxible] , "znet.com", retrieved on 2007-02-05.
* [http://www.flxibleowners.org/history.htm History: The Flxible Corporation] , "flxibleowners.org", retrieved on 2007-02-04.
* [http://www.bw.edu/academics/ecn/news/flxible/ History and Analysis of the Flxible Company] , "bw.edu", retrieved on 2007-02-07.
* [http://www.omot.org Ohio Museum of Transportation] , "omot.org", retrieved on 2007-02-04.
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050205165743/www.omot.org/roster/flxlist/index.html Ohio Museum of Transportation - Flxible Transit Coach Production Lists] , "omot.org", archived on 2005-08-28 on "archive.org", retrieved on 2007-02-04.
* [http://www.prewarbuick.com/features/the_flxible_company_and_buick The Flxible Company and Buick] , "prewarbuick.com", retrieved on 2007-02-05.
* [http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/reghist/twincoa.html Twin Coach Company, Records, 1914-56] , "library.kent.edu", retrieved on 2007-02-04.

Notes

External links

* [http://busexplorer.com/PHP/FeaturePage.php?id=24 Images of Flxible buses in busexplorer.com]
* [http://flxibleowners.org Flxible Owners International, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Flxible buses and coaches]