If you met Wayne Buys, you wouldn’t peg him as someone who’s just won R250,000 in a custom bike build-off. Hailing from Pietermaritzburg, and currently living in Gqeberha, he has an unassuming nature that belies the depth of his skill, talent and imagination. But when you look at the show-winning BMW R nineT that he built, you fast realise that his nickname, FabMan, is well deserved.
Dubbed ‘Storm,’ this aircraft-inspired nineT looks like it rolled straight out of a science fiction movie. It’s also impossibly smooth, like it was designed in CAD and moulded out of carbon fibre. But Wayne did neither; instead, he shaped every inch of this custom BMW out of aluminium by hand, using an English wheel he built himself.
Wayne originally apprenticed as a millwright, and eventually found himself living in Canada for 15 years. Upon his return to our sunny shores, the company he was working for shut down, and he suddenly had time on his hands.
A lifelong motorcycle fanatic, Wayne found himself with a renewed interest in custom motorcycles—and specifically the Japanese scene. Enamoured with a BMW R nineT built by the Japanese superstar shop, Cherry’s Company, he set out to replicate the style in his home garage, with a BMW R1200S as a base.
The learning curve was steep. Thanks to his career, Wayne could TIG weld and fabricate just about anything, but the dark art of metal shaping was new territory. Through copious amounts of trial and error, he eventually figured it out—and now, ten years later, he’s built a new business as a custom bike builder and parts fabricator.
“I don’t use CAD or do any hand drawings— just form ideas in my head of what I want to incorporate,” Wayne tells us. “For me, the journey of the build is equally as rewarding as the final product. Though the hand cannot match the intricacies produced by a CNC machine, given free rein, I will always choose to jump on a band saw or milling machine to rough out parts, then dress them up with a file and grinder.”
Wayne’s award-winning nineT is the culmination of that decade of bike-building experience. The obvious visual hit is the hand-shaped aluminium bodywork that envelopes it. (Reminder: Wayne built all of that freeform, with not so much as a sketch to guide him.)
Every angle reveals a new detail. Cutouts on the front wheel enclosure provide access to the brakes, while side pods direct air to the BMW’s boxer motor’s cylinder heads. The bike’s final drive is cleverly shrouded too—tight enough to look cohesive, but with enough clearance to allow movement.
A series of Allen head fasteners connect the various panels to each other, while creating the illusion of rivets on aircraft. Multiple vents allow air to flow ‘through’ the bike, along with a couple of strategically place fans. As for that scoop in front of the rear wheel, that’s there to direct air to the relocated oil cooler.
Some of Wayne’s best work on the nineT, however, is only noticeable when you get very close to the bike (or it’s completely hidden). Take the exhaust for example, which exits via a boxy muffler integrated into the belly of the bodywork. And the fuel tank; an aluminium reservoir under the outer shell, connected via a locking ring.
The rider’s view is equally impressive. Wayne built an impressive dashboard, fitted with an Acewell speedo and push buttons to perform the most crucial functions. He added a keyless ignition too, and did a considerable amount of wiring work under the hood to repackage everything.
The handlebars are also handmade, and are hollow so that wiring and cabling can run inside of them. Reverse levers use cables to actuate the brake and clutch master cylinders, which now hide under the bodywork.
It took Wayne eight months to build Storm, and he did everything himself, save for one detail—Dolf at Auto Trust was responsible for the elegant matte silver paint job.
Hosted by BMW Motorrad and The House of Machines, the Lighting Bolt show saw Storm stacked up against some stiff competition—including a stunning bobber from the last event’s winner, Marnitz Venter, and a radical Harley Sportster from Cape Town local, Alex Stoos. The judging panel included Bike EXIF editor Wes Reyneke, Revival Cycles’ Alan Stulberg, House of Machines founder Paul van der Spuy, and the head of BMW Motorrad International, Dr Markus Schramm.
Each bike had to complete a riding challenge, before being judged on its creativity, originality, overall design, and the quality of its fabrication, paint and trim. In the end, Storm ticked all those boxes… and Wayne walked away victorious.
To keep up to date with Wayne’s latest builds visit – www.fabman.co.za
