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EASY TO LIVE WITH

18th October 1986, Page 134
18th October 1986
Page 134
Page 136
Page 137
Page 134, 18th October 1986 — EASY TO LIVE WITH
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Comfortable to ride in, easy to drive and cheap to run, Leyland's new Lynx should prove an effective contender in the deregulated market.

• Leyland's single-decker National has been replaced by the Lynx. The newcomer is designed to retain the National's virtues, including easy passenger access and ergonomically good driver's cab, but without the inflexibility caused by the National's mass production methods.

The Lynx has been specifically designed to compete in world markets so, unlike the National, it is available as a bare chassis or in kit form as well as a complete single-deck bus.

Although the Lynx makes its official debut at the Motor Show (in complete bodied form) examples are already in service with public sector and private operators.

CM is the first journal to roadtest a Lynx and has just taken a Leyland-bodied example around the arduous London test route. The bus is a single door Gardnerengined version, soon to be delivered to Kelvin Scottish Omnibuses.

Now that the emphasis is on smaller buses, Leyland Bus is going to have to work hard at promoting the benefits of its Lynx. Once in service, however, it is likely to please passengers — particularly the elderly and disabled.

The low floor Lynx is designed to be available in 10.3, 10.7, 11, 11.18 or 11.97 metre variants although all the examples produced to date are 11.18m models.

• PASSENGER COMFORT

Our test vehicle is a single door 51seater with room for 22 standing passengers. Its wide entrance has a "South Yorkshire Style" split-step arrangement. The ground-to-step height at the front of the door is just 355mm and 330mm at the rear. The intermediate step is 200mm at the front and 165nun at the rear, which gives the Lynx the lowest step height of any British bus currently available.

The low floor and step heights make the bus easy to enter and leave. In addition to making life easier for the elderly, this has the added advantage of shorter stops at bus stops and faster journey times to improve utilisation. On the Kelvin bus the floor is free of steps and slopes gently towards the rear. As an alternative, a horizontal floor with a small step forward of the rear axle can be specified.

Our only criticism is that shorter standing passengers will find it very difficult to reach the straps hanging from the ceiling at the front of the saloon. Leyland, however, stresses that any number of different interior layouts are available.

Full air suspension, well proven on the Olympian, provides a firm ride with no pitching or bouncing and, a great boon for standing passengers, absolutely no body roll.

For ease of cleaning, the entire floor section forward of the rear axle is free of obstructions. Heaters are mounted on each side of the bus and direct warm air through ducts on the saloon floor; a third underseat heater is fitted at the rear.

The Lynx has the potential to be a very pleasant vehicle to drive, although our test vehicle suffered from a fairly stiff throttle which made it difficult to pull away without a sudden surge of acceleration.

The further the test progressed, however, the easier the bus became to handle. Similarly, at first the brakes seemed harsh, making it hard to find the exact amount of initial pedal pressure needed to activate the retarder which is integral with the Leyland Bus four-speed Hydracyclic transmission.

Once again matters improved with familiarity and will probably get better as the vehicle gets older. The turbocharged Gardner engine's characteristic chugging during tickover also caused vibrations, particularly at the rear of the saloon. The Lynx can be supplied with Leyland's TL11 H or Cummins' horizontal L10 engine.

• HANDLING

The 7.1'. integral power steering (also specified for the Olympian double decker and the Royal Tiger coach) is pleasantly light. The turning circle is also impressive and the bus proved easy to direct through the congested London streets.

The relatively small Leyland steering wheel proved comfortable in this urban environment.

• CAB COMFORT

The classic Leyland ergonomically-designed driver's cab places all instruments directly in the driver's line of vision with controls and switches all within easy reach.

Visibility particularly good from the raked driver's screen and the side cab windows. The benefits of computer-aided design and use of computer programmes such as SAMMIE (System for Aiding Man/Machine Interface Evaluation) during the development stage are obvious.

The steering column angle is adjustable and the driver's seat includes vertical and horizontal adjustment; its backrest can be adjusted for height and lumbar support — it is similar to that used in the Roadrunner truck. The steering column and light, wiper and indicator controls are identical to those of the Roadtrain truck range.

Unfortunately the cab environment of our test vehicle was let down by badlyfitting main passenger doors which rattled and banged.

The one-piece black plastic bulkhead behind the driver also creaked incessantly. We found that this was because it had come out of, or had not been properly fitted in its rubber top mounting.

In the saloon, coloured Melamine side panels, GRP moulding at the front and rear and powder-coated black aluminium window frames make for an easy-to-clean, modern and airy passenger environment.

From the operator's and engineering point of view the Lynx has a great deal to commend it. Minor body repairs should prove particularly easy, as skin panels are in individual bay lengths with their top edges slotted into an aluminium waist extrusion with their edges merely bonded in place.

Bonding is also used to keep the onepiece roof panel and the front and rear mouldings and windows in position.

The lower panels around the body, in

eluding the side engine access flaps and the wheel arches, are protected by impact-absorbing ABS mouldings. All glazing is flat.

• PERFORMANCE

Unfortunately it was not possible to load our vehicle for test purposes. Unladen it was able to accelerate easily from 048km/h in under 13 seconds. It took just over 35 seconds to reach its maximum speed of around 80km/h.

• TRANSMISSION

The Leyland Ilydracyclic four-speed gearbox is fitted with a fully automatic control system with the gear selector control to the right of the driver. Normally the bus can be driven with the selector lever in the fully automatic (A) position. The first three gears can be held if required by using the hold (H) position.

The automatic gear selection programme fitted to our test bus is designed for slow speed urban operation, but the programme can be readily changed to give an inter-urban gear change pattern if the bus is required for other duties.

The gear selector lever has to be placed in the start (S) position before the engine can be started.

• SUMMARY

From the passengers' point of view, the Lynx has a great deal to offer and is likely to prove a valuable marketing tool in the competitive post deregulation bus world.

Drivers will like the Lynx. It is comfortable to drive, has generally light controls and very good visibility. Lively acceleration and a good turning circle are also among its virtues although the total impression was marred by an insensitive accelerator control.

The Lynx should prove economic to operate. Our Gardner-engined vehicle proved to be very fuel efficient; on our urban route with an average speed of only 23krn/h, the fuel consumption averaged 28. 2lit./100krri ( lOmpg).

Body repairs should also prove easy once staff have got used to working with adhesives rather than rubber gaskets and rivets and the initial purchase price is competitive.

Lynx prices start from £57,500 for a semi-automatic Leyland IL11H-engined single door bus. Our Gardner-engined machine costs about 260,500 which, for a carrying capacity of 73 passengers, is not at all bad. Leyland Bus is keen to talk to all types of operators about Lynx and has already sold three to independent bus operators.

Its single door layout should prove suitable for intensive and rural local services with the flexibility to double as a school or works contract vehicle. At a pinch its standards of ride comfort make it acceptable for shorter private hire jobs too.

It is an attractive vehicle with a modern European look and deserves a successful future. The minor creaks and bangs, particularly from the doors and the driver's cab partition, are disappointing but should prove easy to rectify.

LI by Noel Millier

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Locations: London

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