BMW G310R

[jeffyjeff]

The "R" stands for Roadster

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577739170_07d528a027_c.jpg

Intro and Background
I recently sold my BMW R1150R, and have been looking for a lightweight naked motorcycle that is capable of motorway speeds and reasonable performance on secondary roads. I seriously considered the new Triumph Speed 400, the Kawasaki Z400, Honda CB300R, and the KTM 390 Duke and 390 Adventure.
My search took me to a nearby KTM dealer to check out the 390 Adventure. I’m 6’-0” with a 32 inch inseam, and although I could flat foot the bike, it was a stretch. I didn’t really feel comfortable on it; the seat was too tall and the physical dimensions were larger than I was anticipating. The salesman showed me the 390 Duke, and several other bikes they had from BMW and Yamaha, then took me over to see the G310R.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577509963_c130a38901.jpg

Why BMW?
I don’t even like BMW. Six years with an R1150R exposed me to sufficient corporate shenanigans to question BMW as an ethically run company. I’ve been called a “beemer hater” on this forum, and I suppose that’s fair. I would have preferred a Honda or Kawasaki, but the G310 checked off more of my preferences in a small displacement motorcycle: Single cylinder, ABS, monoshock rear, and tie-down options. Zero tie-down points put me off the CB300R and the Z400, and the CB300R has unacceptable fuel tank range. All the 300-400cc bikes from well-known marques are manufactured in India or Thailand, so potential buyers better get used to that idea real quick. BMW’s partner, TVS Motor Company, has a reputation for building durable, reliable motorcycles in India, where most of the country depends on two wheels for their daily transportation needs.

There were six G310R’s on the showroom floor. All were used by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation to teach new riders. All were untitled with the remainder of BMW’s 36-month warranty, and 6 months extended warranty for the MSF program bikes. The bikes were fitted with factory crash bars and discounted $1,600 (28%) off retail price.
I mulled over the options for a few days and then arranged to test ride the G310R and a Duke 390. I seriously considered both marques, but the promotional offer on the BMW was too good to ignore. I offered to purchase if the dealer would throw in the initial service. Sales manager approved, and the bike was delivered to my home that afternoon. I got a 5-month-old motorcycle with 180 miles on the clock (and 37 months warranty/roadside service/towing) for less than the price of a Honda Monkey 125.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577292721_20edafc2f9_z.jpg

Initial Thoughts
By now I’ve put over 2200 km on the bike. I like it a lot, but after 6 years on an R1150R, my initial foray onto the motorway was a bit underwhelming. OK, so I had to remind myself that this is a 313cc motorcycle. The 310 is challenged in the riding aspects where my R1150R excelled, but to be fair, it excels at everything I disliked about the R1150R; it is light, maneuverable, flickable, with a buttery smooth transmission and a free revving engine. It rides circles around my R1150 on city and country roads. It can easily attain motorway speeds, I’ve had it up to 90mph/145kph. It just needs a push to make it respond. I had a hard time keeping the 7000-rpm target during break in.

Motorcycle school is probably the worst possible environment to break in an engine. Hours running at engine idle and few opportunities for hard acceleration. I believe in Moto Man’s break-in procedure; https://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm, because it most closely resembles the dynamometer runs prescribed after diesel engine overhaul. I rode the little G310R hard for the first 1000 km, throttle pinned and shifting at the factory recommended 7000rpm target. Occasionally hitting 8000rpm, you know the bike is a wannabe hooligan; it inspires ham fisted throttle operation.

Fit and finish meet expectations; paint quality is quite good. Red painted wheels compliment the rest of the bike. The G310 has a very robust aluminum swing arm with a sturdy chain tensioner design. Impressive. It has the longest swing arm I have seen on a production motorcycle; length, swing arm bushing to rear axle, center to center is 60 cm. Side stand could be longer by about 10mm, in my opinion. Overall, I’m very happy with the quality of manufacture. I doubt that Honda or Kawasaki are noticeably better.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577292561_1b06422eaf.jpg

Engine
Configuration is a bit unorthodox; the cylinder is “reverse inclined” i.e. angled toward the rear wheel. Intake and exhaust are inverse of the traditional layout with the air filter and throttle body forward of the cylinder. The exhaust header comes straight out the back with an S bend and more or less straight out the exhaust. Muffler, catalytic converter and header are all one piece, and due to that, not many aftermarket options are available for the G310. According to BMW, the advantage of the reverse incline is a shift in center-of-gravity that benefits the handling characteristics of the motorcycle.

The 313cc DOHC engine won’t win awards for performance, but it’s plenty adequate. The G310 is now in its eighth year of production, and it took 4 years for BMW to really get the bugs worked out. A recurring problem in bikes built from 2017-2020 is stator bolts that back off into the flywheel, often causing catastrophic damage. Beginning in 2021, the bike got Euro 5 emission certification, a slipper clutch, adjustable hand levers and ride by wire electronic throttle control. The exhaust note is a chippy bark, and when you give it the beans the air intake snorts with authority. Some riders complain; I like it. Push the bike hard and it sounds proper.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577739095_aeec17e0e0_z.jpg

Ride
The little 310 is a hoot to ride. The suspension has enough travel and dampening to handle potholes and gnarly road imperfections. It features non-adjustable inverted forks and mono shock with adjustable preload in the rear. The forks easily compress and hard stops result in significant (borderline excessive) fork dive, but it works. I have yet to bottom out the forks or the shock, and the bike tracks true through tight curves at speed without wallowing when pushed hard. I’ve not yet ridden the bike 2-up, so no comment on that.

My old R1150 was great on the motorway, but on technical, secondary roads it was like wrestling a St. Bernard. By contrast, the G310R weighs nearly 80 kg less; it effortlessly changes direction when the road gets tight. The smaller single lacks the torque of the big twin to power out of the curves with gusto, but quick changes of direction do not involve risk of drifting into the lane of oncoming traffic.

The bike rides smoothly up to 75 mph or so. In stock configuration, approaching 80 mph, the handlebar begins to buzz with an engine-induced high frequency vibration. Fitting a one-tooth-larger front sprocket cured the bike of that annoyance.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577739220_fc7721b3a9_z.jpg

Seat and Ergos
The stock seat appears a bit thin in the padding, and my initial thought was that it would be wholly inadequate for any kind of distance riding. I was wrong; the seat is way better than it looks. I’ve been on rides up to 4 hours without excessive seat related fatigue or monkey butt. Knee angle and leg comfort are surprisingly good on longer rides. The riding position is relatively upright, but not as bolt-upright as a YBR. I haven’t experienced fatigue or cramping like I did on the VFR or R1150R. My only knock on the seat is that it steps up for the pillion, which limits sliding back on the seat to stretch. I really prefer a flat seat, such as you find on the Triumph Speed 400. Aftermarket seat options are available, but I haven’t convinced myself that the benefit is worth the cost.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577619574_00d9979e9c_z.jpg

Fuel economy/range
Stated fuel tank capacity is 11 litres/2.9 US Gallons. I ran my tank down to 1 mile on the range indicator, and on fill it took 10.4 litres. Internet reports have riders continuing up to 30 miles/48 km after the range indicator hit zero, so it appears the G310 holds adequate fuel in reserve. Up to the initial 600-mile service, I was getting around 145 miles per tank. Since then, I’m riding a bit more relaxed and tank range is steadily increasing. My last tank was good for 172 miles. I’m hopeful that as the engine loosens up, it may eventually be good for 200 miles without trying too hard. According to my fuelly report, the bike is averaging 62.4 mpg US/75 mpg UK over the last 500 miles. Best tank so far yielded 64.5 mpg US.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577509903_1075be9964_z.jpg

Instrument display
An LCD display is centered in the console, with indicator lights on both sides. The LCD display is well designed to be visible in any light. I have not once had trouble reading the display. The side indicators not so much. Bright sunlight renders the peripheral lights unreadable, sometimes even if you look hard. Turn signal indicator, high beam indicator, low fuel light, neutral indicator, general warning, abs light, low voltage, and check engine light are all affected by bright sun. Not good.

The fuel gauge, clock, gear indicator, speedometer, and tachometer are always displayed in sharp contrast on the LCD screen. This is my first bike with a gear indicator; I like it – cool feature. Just above the digital speedometer is a multifunction display, which can report odometer mileage, trip 1, trip 2, coolant temperature, range to empty, average fuel consumption, instantaneous fuel consumption, average speed and date. A button on the lower left of the console scrolls through the options. Trip 1, trip 2, average fuel consumption, and average speed are manually reset with a long button press. When the fuel tank quantity reaches approximately 3.5 litres, the low fuel light illuminates and the display automatically switches to “range to empty”.

The tachometer display is a sliding bar across the bottom of the LCD display. It is not as reactive as an analog tach, and in my opinion, not very good. Better than nothing, I suppose. To date, I have bounced off the rev limiter once.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577739265_75ddc0b841_z.jpg

Modifications
First order of business was to fit my tyre repair kit to the bike. Unfortunately, there is insufficient room under seat for the kit. Have you ever been out for a country ride, miles from nowhere, and incur a flat tyre? Not fun. I once attempted a flat repair using the small, CO2 cylinders to inflate the tyre after repair. They get super cold in use, and even with the neoprene insulator it frosted over; I think they are dangerous. Four CO2 cylinders only brought my rear tyre to 28psi. Now I use a micro air pump; it is not much larger than a cigarette pack, and fits into a nylon tactical pouch I have attached to the rear fender.

iPhone Airtag – Affixed to the fuse box cover with double stick tape, as a recovery aid in the event the bike is nicked.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577619614_891d41e069.jpg

Powerlet plug – I could have fit an SAE connector on the bike and ignored the powerlet mounting bracket on the left side of the bike. I prefer the clean design of the BMW powerlet, which I use to power the micro air pump and to connect a battery tender. The powerlet is connected to the battery; fused but not switched. Plugs and receptacles are readily available, and it just seems proper to use the bracket in the manner for which it was designed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577619579_a1326e0bb0_z.jpg
Camera mounts – I fit some magnetic mounts front and rear for my DJI Action 2 action cam.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577509858_455738895d_w.jpg

17 Tooth Countershaft Sprocket – 17T is a one tooth increase over the stock 16 tooth sprocket. Inmates on the G310 Forum were talking it up, and I decided to give it a try. Biggest advantage I can see is a dramatic reduction in handlebar buzz at speeds over 80 mph. Really transformed the motorcycle when riding on the motorway. Oddly, when I made the switch, I thought the effect would be most noticeable in the higher gears. Judging from the crappy tachometer, engine speed on the motorway is maybe 200 rpm less at 75mph/120kph. It’s hard to tell, the LCD bar display is hardly a precision indicator.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577739080_969a1976e9_z.jpg

Rear Rack – Found a BMW rear rack at an attractive price and had it shipped over from France. The rack is large, and affords even more options for tying down my cargo nets. Mounting was not straight forward; it took more than one attempt to fit the rack. I found that tightening the cap screws in the right sequence is key to success.

Ugly Rumours – Here are some characteristics of the G310R that have been reported in various ride reviews that I disagree with.

1. 1st gear is too tall. Maybe this was true of the Gen 1 (2017-2020) G310s, but it sure is not true with the current generation motorbikes. If anything, first is too low and the gears are spaced too close together. The 17T sprocket mod really helps space things out in that regard.

2. Crappy Brakes. Not in my opinion. I think they are about what you should expect from a bike like this. They work well, they scrub off speed adequately. Maybe they are nothing to boast about, but they certainly are not deserving of complaint.

3. Crappy mirrors, vibrates too much. They are motorcycle mirrors; mounted to the handlebar. They work, about the same as my VFR or R1150R. Nothing to boast about and nothing to complain about.

Ugly Truths – And characteristics that I am in general agreement with.

1. Lack of service manual. Damn this grinds me. No service manual available from BMW, Haynes, or anybody else. The salesman was up front about this when I asked him. Fortunately, the bike is made by TVS of India for export by BMW. TVS makes their own version of this motorcycle called the TVS Apache, and there is a manual available for that. So except for fairing removal, pretty much all I need (torque values, service specifications, etc.) is available in a pdf file that I downloaded free off the G310 Forum. BMW can take their proprietary selfishness and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

2. No center stand. The G310GS has a center stand available, not so the R model. I thought about getting one and modifying it for the shorter height of the 310R, but haven’t talked myself into it yet. There was an aftermarket stand available for awhile, but no longer in production. It must not have been very good. I have a paddock stand that I use on the R, and for now it serves well.

3. Buzzy at high speed. Yes, we know that is true, but good that the 17T countershaft sprocket cured that. Problem solved.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53577292511_271091c77d_z.jpg

SUMMARY
Overall, I’m happy with the BMW G310R, and my satisfaction with the purchase increases with the passage of time. It lacks the thrill of instantaneous acceleration of the VFR and it lacks the grunt out of the corners like the boxer BMW could muster. But overall, it does everything else I need it to do with aplomb. Easy to maneuver, great handling, spunky engine coupled to a smooth gearbox, and frugal. Plus, easy access to everything I'll need to get to in order to service it myself. I’m looking forward to riding it up to Oregon, maybe later this year, to see how it does long distance. For now, however, the time is approaching for me to return to Morocco and back to the YBR.

At least I have something to look forward to on my return to the states.
____________________
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men - BOC

[jonquirk]

That’s a great write up. I passed my test in September 2021 and bought a brand new G310R. I did 7000 miles in 18 months before trading it in for a Triumph Trident 660. My partner rides pillion on both bikes. The seat on the G310R was more comfortable for her but, like me, she prefers the sound of the triple on the Trident.

My longest ride on the G310R was 271 miles, in the third week of ownership. I did 1000 miles in the first three weeks; I went out at every possible opportunity.

I averaged 79.49 mpg (Imperial) and my longest range was 215 miles.

Good luck with the bike, I still miss mine at times. I may yet own another one someday.
____________________
2021 Triumph Trident660
1978 BMW R60/7

[stinkwheel]

Mrs stinkwheel hired one for our bike club trip to the Picos de Europa a couple of years back. It was a slog riding it up the motorway from Madrid to the North but once it got there, we all agreed it was the best bike in the group for the type of riding we were doing (insane twisty mountain roads). It ran rings round the other bikes effortlessly (A Blackbird, 1080 daytona, F800, tiger sport and my big-bore bullet). She passed an inordinate number of big BMW adventure bikes in a manner I hope they were embarrassed by.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[jeffyjeff]

Thank you, guys, for the affirmative feedback. Nice to hear that other riders have had positive experiences with the G310R.
____________________
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men - BOC

[ElaineSalguer...]

It is my dream bike. I wish I could afford it. hehe. But I am saving my money.

[A100man]