BMW K 100 Silverback Gorilla Chucks the Flying Brick Onto Cafe Racer Territory

The owner Matt began experimenting with customization at a fairly young age, riding and repairing scooters before selling them on. He later got involved in the motorcycling industry, where he would spend a large chunk of his professional career in several different roles. From sales and journalism to a more hands-on approach as a mechanic, the man has done it all and gained a ton of valuable experience along the way.

He was even promoted to the role of sales manager around 2014, when employed at the leading motorcycle dealer in Lithuania. Not fully content with settling there for good, he ultimately went on to establish Two Wheels Empire, and the rest is history. Despite the firm’s primary focus shifting toward e-bikes over time, you’ll still see Matt and his crew tackling the occasional custom project to this day.

Dubbed the Silverback Gorilla, the one we’re about to inspect was put together for a German customer back in 2020. The client had fallen in love with a previous build from TWE, the Black Mamba, and he eventually decided that something along the same lines was needed in his garage. Just like the machine it was influenced by, this venture began with a BMW K 100 whose model-year hasn’t been stated.

Once the Flying Brick had been delivered to Matt’s workshop in Kaunas, it was promptly stripped back to the bare essentials before the custom surgery could begin. For starters, the original K 100 subframe has been removed to make way for a bespoke alternative built from scratch. Attached to its underside is a discreet rear fender, while the new tail unit found up top is an off-the-shelf item from TWE’s proprietary aftermarket catalog.

It supports a thin solo seat featuring black leather upholstery and diamond pattern stitching. Moreover, there’s an LED light embedded into the tail’s rearmost tip, along with aftermarket turn signals attached to the subframe tubing on the sides. As for the license plate, it now goes on a swingarm-mounted bracket to keep the rear end looking as tidy as possible.

The stock fuel tank was retained, but it’s been topped with a CNC-machined filler cap and fresh BMW roundels that look a lot neater than the factory parts. We also find a bespoke fender at the front end, placed on handmade mounting hardware in between a pair of inverted forks. These are Showa modules donated by a Suzuki GSX-R, which was kind enough to also offer its Tokico front brake calipers.

Matt and his team had them paired with some brand-new floating discs for ample stopping power, while also fitting a replacement drilled rotor at the rear. In that area, suspension duties are now taken care of by a high-grade piggyback shock absorber from Ohlins’ range. Choosing to retain the Beemer’s distinctive factory wheels, the guys simply cloaked their rims in Avon Roadrider tires fore and aft.

An imposing LED headlamp keeps the way ahead brightly lit even on the darkest of nights, and all the electronics were rewired through a Motogadget controller. The same German brand supplied much of the equipment in the cockpit, including a digital Motoscope Pro dial, bar-end turn signals, and glassless mirrors. These adorn the tips of aftermarket clip-ons, joined by a Brembo front brake master cylinder on the right.

With all the aforementioned mods performed, the Silverback Gorilla was really starting to look the way Two Wheels Empire wanted. Thus, Matt and his squad turned their attention to the powertrain sector, where an invigorating makeover was performed before the addition of some new breathing equipment. On the intake front, they ditched the OEM airbox in favor of a tailor-made manifold topped with a premium pod filter.

Then, a unique four-into-one exhaust system was manufactured in-house, right down to the boxy muffler you’ll spot at its tip. After finishing off the Silverback Gorilla’s ergonomics with a pair of billet aluminum rearsets, TWE’s artisans went onto tackle the final aspect of this project – the paintwork. As you can tell, there’s nothing too complicated going on here, but the matte-black colorway they went with is a great match for this K 100 cafe racer.

Pinches of yellow and gold are present on the suspension hardware and brake calipers, so as to add a bit of color to an otherwise muted visual affair. Once the paint job was done, the bike made its way to the owner in Germany, fully-compliant with the country’s notoriously strict regulations. Tough and menacing, but also incredibly elegant, the Silverback Gorilla is bound to make quite an impression wherever it rides.