Flxible s/c safety?

[Grumpa]

So this month our calendar has a 1929 HD FLXI Sidecar Racer with "a sidecar from the Flxible Company that was designed to lean with the rider into corners. By the late '20's, safety concerns meant these sidecars no longer carried passengers, serving only as ballast beside the bike".

Awesome photo and what an engineering marvel in my opinion. Anyone know what the safety concerns were?

[Rubone]

Maybe Gene Harper will comment and let you know. He has one .

[Sargehere]

They'd flop over on RR tracks, and other places. They were unstable on almost any kind of rough surface. The rigidity of a triangular chassis turned out to be much more secure way to guide the thing than a motorcycle with a third wheel on a hinge on one side of it. Across the side of a hill? Forget it. The whole flxi concept was a negative, except for sliding around racetracks in one direction.

[Eric]

FLXI for passenger

FLXI for passenger
JD Cameron and Lance Tidwell made a trip from California to Sturgis back in 80.


1923JD74.jpg

SCAN0197.jpg

SCAN0198.jpg

[Tom Lovejoy]

Dee Cameron rode his dad's all the time and I wanted one. They look so cool going down the road, but Dee told me they were death traps - that was all I needed to hear. But if I ever had a sidecar - that's the only kind I would want.

[exeric]

This is a link to Gene's FLXI experience.

http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...e-FLXI-sidecar