VOL. 53 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 25, 2016 P89
comfortable in a full day's ride, though. Thumb the
starter button, and the engine catches instantly
from cold on the auto-choke, then settles to a quite
high 1500 rpm idle, perhaps chosen to rule out any
rear wheel chatter on the overrun in the absence
of a slipper clutch. The large exhaust canister
containing the Euro 4-compliant three-way catalyst
whispers rather than booms, though above 5000
rpm there's a pleasant rasp from the intake, which
gives you the impression you're going somewhere.
As indeed you will be, by short-shifting through
the six-speed gearbox which has a light, precise
shift action and invites you to keep the engine on
the boil via your left foot. The oil-bath clutch action
is light and untiring, making riding the BMW in
city streets a pleasure; your hand won't cramp up
doing so, although bottom gear is very low, and
obviously chosen for when a passenger is carried.
You soon find it's better to start from a stop on level
ground in second gear if you're on your own, with-
out any need to slip the clutch unduly. But shifting
gears is really a delight, and though you must use
the clutch for the bottom two upward shifts to do
so smoothly every time, you don't need to do so in
the higher ratios, and indeed so precise and clean
is the shift action that you can drop from top gear
to fifth without using the clutch, as well.
The G 310 R is indeed a great traffic tool, thanks
also to the wide spread of torque peaking at 7500
revs, just three-quarters of the way to the 10,500
rpm rev limiter. The 310cc twin cam single pulls
wide open in top gear from as low as 3200 rpm
without any hesitation or transmission snatch,
thanks to its good low-down fueling. Then there's
an extra kick of acceleration around 7000 rpm,
and another one at nine grand, so it pays to rev it
out. That's not to say that the power delivery is lay-
ered, just that it becomes more urgent the harder
you rev the motor. Nice. It's also pretty economi-
cal, with a claimed consumption of 70 mpg.
The G 310 R's tubular steel frame more than
lives up to the job of harnessing this power delivery
well, and the non-adjustable KYB suspension plays
a key role in this. Its fixed settings at both ends are
extremely well chosen, with much better compli-
ance than you have any right to expect for such
budget hardware. Ride quality is high especially at
the rear, and damping so well chosen that I ended
up looking for the rare patches of rough tarmac on
German B-roads to give it a workout. Compression
damping on the fork could possibly be a little stiff-
er, because when you lean on the front brake for
maximum stopping power there is some nose dive,
but it's not excessive. The single front 300mm disc
and its four-piston radial caliper are just about up
to the job of stopping the BMW and its solo rider
