The BMW G 310 R has been on the radar for motorcycling enthusiasts in India ever since it was revealed in 2015. Earlier it was reported that the bike's launch would be some time in the second half of 2017, but a BMW India top boss said that this launch has now been pushed further.
BMW Motorrad did not include this 313cc, single-cylinder roadster in its line-up when it made an official entry into India and launched nearly its entire model range. They included the company's adventure bikes from the R1200 range, along with the six-cylinder K1600 range and even the neo-retro R NineT range. This also included the recently updated 2017 S1000 range featuring the S1000RR superbike, the touring-oriented S1000XR and the S1000R sport-naked.
However, with only four showrooms across the country at the moment, specifically catering to the company's 'big bike' range, BMW Motorrad is in the process of identifying more dealerships to make the G 310 R more widely available, as it is meant to be a more mass-market bike compared to the company's other offerings. Speaking to an English daily, Vikram Pawah, president of BMW India, confirmed this by saying, "We need to have an adequate retail infrastructure before it (the G 310 R) becomes available here."
Developed in collaboration with TVS Motors, the G 310 R has a very unique single-cylinder motor with its liquid-cooled cylinder reclined backwards and head rotated 180 degrees which exchanges positions of the inlet and exhaust ports. This has allowed for much better packaging and significantly improved weight distribution. Peak power and torque figures from this mill are 34hp at 9,000rpm and 28.4Nm at 7,500rpm, respectively.
The bike has already gone into production at TVS's Hosur plant and is currently being shipped to the European and US markets. According to BMW Motorrad, the bike will actually end up seeing an India launch by next year, although the company hasn't specified exactly when in 2018 that would happen. This delay in getting the bike to market means that the Apache RR 310S, TVS's full-faired take on the G 310 R, will go on sale significantly before BMW's bike hits the market.
This push of the launch date implies that the G 310 GS, an adventure touring version of the R which was unveiled at EICMA 2016, will hit Indian shores in 2018 as well. Expect pricing for the G 310 R to be in the range of Rs 2.50 lakh, with the GS commanding a bit of a premium over its naked sibling.