R.I.P. Snowbum

On December 26, 2024 the BMW motorcycle community lost a true friend.

Anyone who has ever owned, repaired or ridden an older BMW (or Airhead as they're known by aficionados) will be familiar with the technical musings of Snowbum, aka Robert Fleischer.

Since the early days of the World Wide Web the legal-pad yellow web pages he created have been an invaluable resource. His no-nonsense (well... mostly) technical reference for the repair and restoration of BMWs stands out. There are few other motorcycle marques (or many other subjects for that matter) that have been so thoroughly researched and documented. 

Fleischer grew up in Los Angeles and dabbled with all things mechanical from a very early age. He went survived racing motorcycles, learning to fly, joining the Marines, repairing electronics, playing piano for Pride events in Palm Springs and skiing. Lots and lots of skiing, which is where the nickname Snowbum originated. But there's no need for me to encapsulate this story— not surprisingly he documented that as well. Refer to the web page titled: Who the Hell is Snowbum?. 

Fortunately, for all of us, Fleischer made arrangements for his website to outlive its author. A few years ago the entire tome was moved to new servers and is now maintained by the Vintage BMW Owners, Inc. So now the vast technical knowledge, accumulated over all those years, can continue to support repair and restoration of older BMW motorcycles for many years to come.

The entire Snowbum encyclopedia is now available at bmwmotorcycletech.info/technical-articles-list.htm

Photo courtesy of bmwmotorcycletech.info