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 the name could be copyrighted and used as a trademark. (The name continued to be pronounced "flexible", however).

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 MCI, while the former factory in Delaware, Ohio is now is now a parts facility for NABI, which was one of the companies that grew at the time of Flxible's demise.

Production in Canada

In 1965 and 1966, Flxible also licensed its "New Look" transit bus design to Canadair Ltd., an aircraft manufacturer in Ville St-Laurent, Quebec. The resulting model was called the CL-218

Products

Intercity

• Airway (1932-1936)
• Airporter (1946-1950)
• Clipper (1937-1942, 1944-1950)
• Clipper Eagle (1960)
• C-1 (1950)
• FlxLiner (1963-1969)
• Hi-Level (1959-1962)
• Intercity coach (1924-1932)
• StarLiner (1957-1967)
• VisiCoach (1950-1958)
• VistaLiner VL-100 (1954-1959)

Transit

• FL "Fageoliner" (1953-1954)
• FT "Flxible Twin" (1953-1959)
• Flxette (1964-1976)
• Flxible "New Look" (1960-1978)
• 870 "Advanced Design Bus (ADB)" (1978-1983)
• Metro (1983-1995)