Steib sidecar
The Steib company was founded in 1914 by Josef Steib Sr. The Steib company started as an automobile paint and upholstery shop. In 1925, Steib was contracted by Ardie-Werk to build a sidecar for their new Ardie TM-500 motorcycle touring model . It was at this point that Steib expanded his shop facilities to accommodate sidecar fabrication.
By the 1930’s Steib together with Stoye of Leipzig, the major sidecar supplier for Ardie-Werk at the time, enjoyed 80% of the market share in Germany. By the 1950’s, Steib was the world leader in sidecar production and sales with over 90% market share. In 1955, Steib fabricated approximately 50 sidecars per day. A year later production fell to only 5 sidecars per day and dwindled almost to a close when Ardie-Werk shut down in 1958. By this time however BMW was still offering motorcycles with Steib sidecars and even had one model commissioned to their specs, a modified TR500 marketed as the BMW Spezial. The Steib company ended the manufacture of sidecars in the early 60’s? and diversified in tractor and related farm equipment. Stoye on the other hand produced their last sidecar model, the SEL in 1989 and were merged into MZ -Werk, a state owned vehicle manufacturer.