BMW R50 With Steib Sidecar

A 1957 BMW R50 motorcycle with Steib sidecar

Key facts

Year

1957
Country

Germany
Capacity

490cc
Cylinders

2
Maximum speed

70mph/112.65kph
Price new

(with sidecar) £580
Manufacturer

Bayerische Motoren Werke A.G.

In the mid-1950s, BMW plus Steib was considered the most desirable of all outfits for sporting yet civilised sidecar work. Allied to the BMW with its smooth, quiet, twin-cylinder engine and shaft drive, its pivoted-fork suspension at front and rear and its all-round excellence in engineering, was a quality sidecar with a very robust chassis and sprung, trailing-arm suspension of the wheel. Both motorcycle and sidecar were expensive by the standards of the period.