Vintage motorcycle enthusiast Ron Nichols had his mind blown at the 2022 Barber Vintage Festival Swap Meet.
The Canadian says he’d taken a friend to visit the Barber event because, “He’d always wanted to go, and had never been able to,” Ron says. “In appreciation of him helping me with a house renovation, I told him I’d take him down. It was my second trip to the Barber Festival, which is an unbelievable event.” While wandering the acres of swap meet vendors, Ron walked past a motor home. Parked in front of the RV was an old BMW with a For Sale sign that “sort of caught my eye, but I didn’t know why. It all looked correct, but there was also something weird and unfortunately, I didn’t look too closely. But that night, I started to think about it more, and I said to myself, there’s something really weird about that bike. I’ve got to take another look.”
The next day, Ron returned to the RV. Although the BMW was still there, the For Sale sign was down. Notably, there was indeed something different about the machine. “It was an old BMW R60 with a Volkswagen Beetle engine in it. And I thought, that’s too cool for words. How in the heck did they make that happen?”
Ron spent his entire career working with corporate VW in Canada and has restored 10 air-cooled Beetles, three Karmann Ghias and five Buses. He also has extensive knowledge of BMW Boxer twins. Given that background, he says, “My god, this is a
