2017 BMW G 310 GS
FIRST TEST
P82
absence of vibration from the little DOHC four-
valve engine.
This has a single gear-driven counter-balancer,
which does its job to perfection—the Ducati Super-
mono I used to race was previously the smoothest
single I'd ever ridden, but the much less costly G
310 GS matches that, even at higher rpm. It has
no vibes at all, zilch—not through footrests, seat or
handlebar, even when approaching the 10,500 rpm
limiter, after the white shifter light in the dash starts
flashing at 10,000 rpm to remind you to shift up.
The one downside of the small capacity mo-
tor is that you do need to rev it pretty hard to build
any kind of speed—it's quite happy to plonk along
slowly in traffic or sightseeing, but if you want to
get any sort of acceleration you must keep the revs
up above the 6000 rpm threshold, when engine
speeds start to pick up noticeably more smartly.
Doing that entails using the gearbox quite hard,
but the GS has really well chosen ratios, as well
as a clean, precise shift action and a very light
clutch. BMW has improved this on the GS com-
pared to the R-bikes I rode last year, and the shift
action is now Japanese quality. This makes it no
The BMW has light, neutral steering but feels planted in a straight
line—it gives no impression of being nervous.
