Bike review
BMW G 310 R review: the India specification, checked line by line
What BMW Motorrad India’s own technical data sheet says about the G 310 R, what it leaves out, and what this page had to delete when the document was found.
- BMW G 310 R ₹2.45L
MotoSutra editorial rating
3.9/5
Verdict
Checked against the manufacturer’s document, this motorcycle is a better-specified and less powerful machine than this page previously claimed: 34 PS rather than 33.5 bhp at a different engine speed, an upside-down fork rather than a telescopic one, full LED lighting and ride-by-wire rather than a sparse electrical list, and ₹2.45 lakh rather than ₹3.09 lakh on the day BMW Motorrad India relaunched it in October 2020. The case for it is the same case the sheet makes — chassis hardware and a low, manageable package in a small capacity — and the honest caveat is what the document does not publish: no economy figure, no disc diameters and no price for a market it was reported to have left in January 2025.
What this page is
MotoSutra is a demonstration build with no photography, no test facility and no owner panel, and this page has never pretended otherwise. What changed in this phase is the status of its numbers. Until now the G 310 R listing carried sample data — plausible figures written to exercise the pages. It now carries figures transcribed from the technical data sheet BMW Motorrad India attached to the announcement that relaunched the motorcycle in October 2020, and the fields that sheet does not state have been removed rather than kept.
That is a stronger position than it sounds, because the check was not kind to the earlier version. Several of this page’s previous claims were not merely unverified but wrong, including one about the equipment level that flattered the argument the page was making. Three dates matter and should be kept apart: the launch documented here is 8 October 2020; the article was written on 21 September 2026 and its figures were checked against the manufacturer document on the same date; and the model year the sheet describes is the BS-VI motorcycle built in India for the Indian market.
What the sheet actually says
The powertrain is a 313cc water-cooled single with four valves and two overhead camshafts, rated at 25 kW — 34 PS — at 9,500 rpm, with 28 Nm at 7,500 rpm and a stated maximum speed of 143 km/h. The mass figure is 158.5 kg unladen and fully fuelled, the seat stands 785 mm high at a 1,380 mm wheelbase, and the usable tank volume is 11 litres with roughly a litre of reserve.
Those numbers describe a competent small motorcycle and nothing more, and reading them honestly means resisting the badge. A single torque peak at 7,500 rpm from a small single cylinder leaves the six-speed gearbox to do the work for most requests: pulling away, overtaking, climbing a flyover in the wrong gear. The 143 km/h ceiling is the manufacturer’s own statement of where the machine’s ambition ends on a highway. The torque explainer works through why a peak that late in the rev range costs more in a small single than in a twin.
What the sheet carries that its capacity does not imply is the chassis and the electrical list. A solid upside-down front fork, an aluminium swingarm with a directly mounted spring strut, a single front disc with a radially mounted caliper under two-channel BMW Motorrad ABS, a tubular steel frame in grid structure with a bolt-on rear section — and, on the standard equipment list, an LED headlight, an LED tail light, daytime running lights, a ride-by-wire throttle, a slipper clutch with self-reinforcement, adjustable clutch and brake levers, and a multi-function instrument cluster.
What the verification removed
The honest part of this exercise is the deletion list, and three items are worth naming because each one supported an argument the page was making.
The first was the equipment complaint. The earlier version asserted that this motorcycle ships without rider modes, without a TFT display and with an analogue tacho plus a digital inset, and built a premium-brand-versus-specification argument on it. The manufacturer’s standard list says none of those things; it names a multi-function instrument cluster and ride-by-wire, and the argument that depended on BMW saving money on electronics has been dropped rather than softened. What remains defensible is the positive claim: the specification is concentrated in the chassis and the lighting rather than in engine capacity.
The second was the mileage. The sample record claimed 35 kmpl, which suited the running-cost paragraph. The October 2020 India sheet publishes no fuel-consumption figure, so the spec table has no mileage row at all, and the ownership section of this page no longer makes a fuel argument it cannot source. The third was the front brake. The page previously described a 300 mm disc with a four-piston radial caliper; the India document states a single disc with a radial caliper and no sizes, and the 300/240 mm pair belongs to BMW’s 2015 global data for a different model year and market. It is a small substitution and precisely the kind that turns a verified page into a plausible-looking one.
Price, availability and what that means for a buyer
The documented price is INR 2,45,000 ex-showroom — inclusive of GST and compensation cess, excluding road tax, RTO fees, local cess and insurance — in BMW Motorrad India’s announcement of 8 October 2020, with the Style Sport paint ₹10,000 above it. That is a launch price with a date on it, and this page does not offer a current one: no manufacturer document stating a present-day India price was reachable from this build, and MotoSutra would rather leave the field short than quote an aggregator.
Availability is the other open question, and it is answered by reporting rather than by documentation. Two April 2025 accounts state that the G 310 R and G 310 GS were dropped from the Indian market from January 2025 without an OBD-2B update, leaving the G 310 RR as the brand’s only small motorcycle here. Those are press sources, not a manufacturer statement, and MotoSutra treats them as reporting rather than documentation — which is why the listing is marked discontinued while the announcement figures stay dated to 2020. For a shopper that combination is the real finding: the specification is documented, the price is six years old, and the supply position rests on reporting.
Where it sits in the catalogue
The record lives at the G 310 R listing, on the BMW brand page — which lists cars and bikes separately because the catalogue now holds one of each — and on the 200-400cc shelf, where its most honest comparisons live. The Duke 250 against Gixxer 250 piece covers the class immediately beneath it, and the KTM Duke 250 review works through a similar capacity from the other side. What MotoSutra does not hold is a second 310-313cc record or a like-for-like premium rival, so a head-to-head for this motorcycle cannot be built from this catalogue, and no verification pass can fix that.
Pros and cons
What we like
- A solid upside-down front fork and a radially mounted front caliper are chassis decisions this capacity band does not usually get, and both are on the manufacturer’s standard list
- A 785 mm seat and 158.5 kg fully fuelled are low, light numbers on the manufacturer’s own basis, which is what a first big motorcycle is actually judged at by
- LED headlight and tail light, daytime running lights, ride-by-wire and a slipper clutch are all listed as standard equipment rather than as options
What we would change
- The October 2020 India sheet publishes no fuel-consumption figure, so a running-cost comparison has to be built from outside this catalogue
- 28 Nm peaking at 7,500 rpm from a single cylinder means the six-speed gearbox is the interface for almost everything a rider asks of the motorcycle
- A stated maximum of 143 km/h marks the limit of the machine’s ambition on an Indian highway, whatever the badge on the tank implies
Frequently asked questions
Is the G 310 R listed as a car or a bike on MotoSutra?
A bike. The record lives at /bikes/bmw/g-310-r/, and because the catalogue holds both a BMW car and a BMW motorcycle, the brand page lists the two segments separately rather than under one heading.
Where do the specification figures come from, and what changed?
From the G 310 R technical data sheet attached to BMW Motorrad India’s relaunch announcement of 8 October 2020. Verifying the page against that document replaced the previous sample figures — 33.5 bhp at 9,250 rpm became 25 kW (34 PS) at 9,500 rpm, 159 kg became 158.5 kg on a fully fuelled basis, a 41 mm telescopic fork became an upside-down fork, a halogen headlamp became full LED lighting, and the claimed 35 kmpl was deleted because the manufacturer publishes no consumption figure at all.
What is a verified price for this motorcycle in India?
The documented price is INR 2,45,000 ex-showroom, inclusive of GST and compensation cess and excluding road tax, RTO fees, local cess and insurance, from the October 2020 announcement; the Style Sport colour was listed ₹10,000 above it. No later India price is published here, because MotoSutra could not reach a manufacturer document stating one. The launch figure is labelled with its date rather than presented as a quotation.
Is the motorcycle still on sale in India?
MotoSutra marks the record discontinued on the strength of two April 2025 reports that BMW Motorrad India stopped the G 310 R and G 310 GS from January 2025 without updating them to OBD-2B emission norms. No manufacturer document for that decision was reachable from this build, so the catalogue state is reported rather than verified.
Why are there no brake disc diameters on the listing?
The India sheet states a single front disc with a radially mounted caliper and two-channel ABS without giving sizes, so none are published. Diameters circulating for the older global motorcycle come from a 2015 manufacturer document — a different model year and market — and using them here would be exactly the substitution this page exists to avoid.