well you are lucky you can still buy one , but to me times have moved on . you have to try these new bikes ! otherwise we shall all be riding bush pigs for ever . there is still room in the market place for all but for me a 310 gs will do .

That is pretty much the crux of it - and ought to be in threads like this... no one is disputing that different bikes can satisfy a particular individual's certain needs and/or budget etc.

Personally speaking, I feel it would be more useful to discuss how the G310GS actually handles being used how most of us here on the HUBB actually tend to use our bikes - ie. it's weak/limiting points vs. it's positives - based on ownership and experience with the machine, and let readers make up their own minds if it might be right for them or not...

There are plenty of tit-for-tat specification comparison threads between bikes on other forums like ADVrider... ;o)

"I mean, why would you ever buy a 170Kg bike with 34hp when you can get double the power at under 150Kg with a Husqvarna 701 blah blah blah..."


Jenny x

Thanks, but no thanks.....Ive owned and ridden plenty of small bikes, I found the KTM 390 was fairly gutless and the build quality was horrible - hopefully KTM will change the gearing and bottom end torque if they do a 390 Adventure and not make it out of cheese. The Kawasaki Versys 300 you have to rev to the red line to get it moving - not my style of riding.
If I was to buy a another small capacity bike, Id rather buy a lightly used Yamaha WR250R, 30+ kg lighter than these new cheaply made wave of small capacity bikes and far better off pavement - which is where I would ride it, no bodywork to break and much better suspension and build quality.

I did talk to my wife about a 310 GS, she used to ride and was contemplating getting back into riding a smaller easier to manage bike with a low seat height, but she still would find it too heavy to maneuver and push (she is quite petite and not very strong)

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I did a couple of thousand kms on and with 310s in November.
Bikes had around 7-11,000km on the clocks and all came with locally made bash-plates and crash bars.
Overall we covered 11,000km (me 2200).
The agency has had no issues with breaking side stand mounts.
None of us detected worn cush-drives.

Long version and loads more pics here

Good
• Indian build still keeping up

• Efi motor fuels smoothly at all altitudes
• Comfortable for tall riders, considering it’s a small cc bike
• A great little bike for bendy, gnarly backroads

• Decent brakes and easily switchable rear ABS

• Mitas E-07/ Metz Karoo 3 do-it-alls better all round than stock Anakees

• 19-inch front wheel ideal road/trail compromise

• Suspension surprisingly well damped

• Very good economy. Averaged 90 mpg (75 US; 31.8kpl; 3.13L/100k)

• Range from the 11-litre tank well over 300km, or about 200 miles

• Hallelujah, a near-proper toolkit!
• Chunky looking subframe should manage loads fine

• Useful dash data too, scrolled or edited with one button

• Yes it’s 169kg wet (claimed) but like they say of a GS12, it carries it well

Less good

• Over geared; could easily lose a tooth off the front sprocket
• Tank panels too wide for comfortable off-road standing

• Still stalls occasionally when pulling away or cold
• Thin seat lasts a couple of hours
• Hard to select neutral from a standstill

• Some bikes had starting issues at <5°C

• Mirrors blur above 90kph as vibes set in

Problems
• A couple of the bikes with the wire wheel conversion had malfunctioning ABS: the ABS ring sensor was probably mispositioned.

• On one cool wet morning, and on a couple of chilly <5°C mornings, a couple of the bikes wouldn't start straight away. It's a known issue. One guy may have pushed his battery too far and ended up jump startiing. To be precise, we found if you didn't catch and rev the engine first go, it took a minute or three to get going, initially misfiring before firing properly. Must be some fuelling/‘choke’ thing. Switching off to possibly reset something, and 'no throttle' seemed to do the trick.

• A couple of times my engine coughed under light load.

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

 

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

Had a broken side stand on a recent trip.
Bike had about 19,000km.
Bloke was just dismounting normally.
Rental agency said it had happened to a couple (or happened to this bike before).
Not an easy fix to do well.
Other than that, bikes are doing great for what they are.
A Himalayan can't catch them on the road once they get it on, but it's so much better on the dirt. Mpg is about the same.

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

I know I am late to the party. but in my defence I only joined the Forum yesterday.
I have been riding bikes, no breaks, since I was 16 and I am now the wrong side of 50 nearer 60 to be honest. I have ridden all kinds of bikes, sports, sports tourers and touring. All of the larger cc's.
I got the baby GS as a 2nd bike for commuting, which is 45 miles a day on Yorkshires finest back roads, and as I intend to scale down work and do more leisure biking, I dipped my toes in adventure style bike because my aim is do some serious travel. Having tried every demo small capacity ADV bike in Yorkshire, I decided on the 310GS, for my commute to get used to this style of riding.
Price of fuel ever increasing high mpg for commuting a must getting 85 - 90 mpg, comfy (think sports bikes), well equipped and a very good instrument panel. With our roads getting worse, repairs not forthcoming due to cut backs, except where the Tour de Yorkshire cycle races take place ! Decent brakes with switchable ABS and long a service intervals. Bike is totally standard my only mods are a tall Powerbronze screen and better headlight bulb.
Since getting the bike at beginning of this year, I have been to Lake District, off road on the forestry commission roads locally, and a trip to The Black Forest in Germany, visiting my sister and back via the Alps in France to see an old friend.
For a bike that was supposed to be for commuting only, I am never off it, so much so I have literally just sold the Ducati sports bike.
The bike, whatever that maybe for my travels will have some big shoes to fill. Whats not to like.
I accepts all the views of seasoned ADV riders and the misgivings of this bike, but these are my views on the baby GS.
No I don't work for BMW.

Glad you are enjoying your 310, Pete.
I was just reading about the side stand issue yesterday and how they handled it.
Do you know if yours was reinforced under recall (if it was made before May 2018).
Or, I would be interested to see a close-up photo of the redesigned sidestand pivot on a post 5/18 bike.
I presume the pivot plate welded to the frame is substantially thicker.

Hi Chris - my bike had the frame replaced (even though mine never suffered from a broken stand) as part of the warranty recall, this is what the revised mounting bracket looks like on the replacement/new frames:





Note. I removed my side-stand switch earlier on during my trip, and I asked them not to replace it as part of the rebuild, which is why it's missing in these photos.

Jenny x

Hi Cholo - yes, if you were to smash the switch on a rock for example, then you'd end up with the bike only being able to be started in neutral, which is a bit inconvenient - particularly if you happen to stall the bike in a tricky section and you need to select neutral before you can get going again.

If you read my ride-report Beemer Beemer Chicken Deener on the HUBB, you'll see the kind of conditions I was riding in all through last summer - plus the specific post here describes how you can remove it and bypass the in-gear cut-out, while leaving it able to be reinstated at a later date if you wish.

note. It's obviously far easier to do that mod at home in the garage than out on the trail, but if you did damage your side-stand switch, that's how you bypass it to keep going.

Hope that helps...

Jenny x

It's a common mod, Cholo.
Besides breaking a low-slung switch, water getting in there can be a problem on bikes, road or trail.

Remove it (or permanently join the wires in the switch) and it's one less thing to have to diagnose if the ignition plays up.
Plus you can put it in gear with the wheel up leaning on the stand, to spray the chain.

Thanks for pics, Jen.

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

A dirty double bill...

A little shameless self-promotion here, but if you fancy a weekend in the Sierra Nevada foothills (Mariposa California) at the end of September - I'll be hosting two presentations at the annual Horizons Unlimited traveller's meeting:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/california-2019

Along with my updated Packing Light Q&A session, I'll be presenting my original G310GS video together with the debut of part 2 which covers the second half of my 2018 trip cross-crossing the North America on the G310GS last summer...



This is always an excellent and inspirational event, coupled with some awesome on-road and off-road riding right on the doorstep of the venue, just west of Yosemite National Park - hope to see some of you there this year!

Jenny x

Motorrad, a quite large motorcycle news company (i believe), just uploaded their 50.000km test and their results from extensive (?) tests and measurements they took beforehand as well as afterwards. Their findings include also problems, toubleshooting and so on. Worth a watch, and i believe youtube translates it too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OlD4Fejn_M&t=0s


Greetings

Just back from another cumulative 21,000km (6 x 3 x 1200) on or with 310 rentals, now with about 30,000km on them.

All look in very good shape (Moroccan climate)
No USD leaks
No burning oil
Neutral hard to select
Shock has even less damping now
Another (reinforced) sidestand went
Up to 110 mpg (39kpl)
Up to 12 litres in a tank
One had a persistent battery issue down to a loose connection somewhere
One smashed wheel (unfortunate square-edged rock encounter while crashing).
All hanging in there as the German video above may also confirm.

Nothing special on the dirt as you'd expect – bigger BMs I also rode felt a lot more stable – but as much fun blasting through mountain switchbacks.

With TL you rarely have to remove a wheel but I noticed the 17mm front axle cap bolt only has 5mm sides (like the X-bike BMs of a few years back). It means you absolutely need the right sized ring spanner if it's been done up to 973Nm like they do out here (even with oil filler caps) or you'll ruin the nut and be buggered. Not present in the surviving toolkits, local Chinese '17s' were way out, but a Mercedes (or any European car, fyi) wheelbrace includes a solid 17mm socket.

By the end of a week most admitted begrudging respect for the 310s.

More pics here.

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

4 pages and still no outright conclusion

Thank you to everyone who posted.

My dilemma.

I like the spec.
I dislike the BMW brand and have history with their awful customer support.
I like the price
The dealer who I would buy from has a reputation for not being corporate idiots. Speer vs Goering, hardly a convincing argument.
I will do my own maintenance so basically throw the warranty away at 6000 miles.
There seems to be no experience of this, the owners seem frankly institutionalised (present company excepted).
I think I can fix the cold starting problem with a lithium battery which I will buy anyway.
I don't think I should have to.
They claim to have fixed so many issues there can't be much left to go wrong.
I cannot live with a CRF250 because I'm too short.
Honda are running scared of the virus to the point they are impossible to deal with and don't seem to want to sell me a CB500X
The CB is 30kg heavier which is important enough not to ignore
I can get the right tyres while the choice on the CB is missing a winter selection.
The Enfield is a step too far down on power.
I aren't buying Chinese made.

I think this is coming down to who offers the best deal

Andy

If you buy a new one, you will get a THREE year warranty. Which is actually really good.

So any problems will be fixed for free. Then get rid of it.

I was a BMW dealer tech until quite recently. I saw many of them come in and out and worked on many of them.

They're a cheap Indian bike with better quality stickers and fairings. Don't expect quality because you won't get it. Like anything BMW, take off 30% of it's price-tag for the badge, and that's what you're really buying.

For what they are, they're actually very expensive. But BMW warranty is really good. As long as you're not one of those arsey people who whine that the their centre stand gets rusty on it's feet after two years.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.