The custom motorcycle scene truly is a global village. We’ve featured bikes from Indonesia and Japan this week?but today we’re heading south, to the port city of Gqeberha in South Africa.
This aircraft-inspired BMW R nineT is the work of Wayne Buys, who works out of his home garage as FabMan Creations. It’s shrouded in aluminum bodywork that Wayne built by hand, using a homemade English wheel. It’s probably also worth noting that he worked freeform, without a single sketch, render or template?and that his metal-shaping skills are self-taught.

Wayne originally trained as a millwright, before moving to Canada for 15 years. But when he came back to South Africa, he was jobless, so he threw himself into custom motorcycles. ?I was enamored with the Cherry’s Company ‘Highway Fighter’ BMW R nineT, built by Kaichiroh Kurosu,? he tells us. ?I have never owned a motorcycle that I could leave stock, always modifying it as soon as I get it. These boys, however, are in a different league altogether?and I wanted in on it.?

Wayne couldn’t afford an R nineT back then, so he settled on an older BMW R1200R, and created his first ground-up custom build. With a skillset that included welding, machining, fabrication, and electrical and mechanical work, all he couldn’t do himself was shape aluminum. So he figured it out through trial and error?hammering the panels out on a tree stump and planishing them by hand.
That was a decade ago. W...